By PAOLO SANTALUCIA, Associated Press

ROME – The ancient Roman Colosseum will host gladiator fights – albeit staged – for the primary time in two millennia as a part of a $1.5 million sponsorship take care of Airbnb geared toward promoting “more conscious tourism.”

But some visitors to the monument Thursday, in addition to housing activists, expressed skepticism concerning the value of the agreement, citing ongoing controversy in lots of cities over the role of short-term rental platforms in promoting overtourism and restricting reasonably priced housing for residents and students.

RELATED: The 25 Worst Behaved Tourists of 2023

Under the agreement announced Wednesday by Airbnb and the Colosseum, the short-term rental giant's sponsorship includes renewing an academic program in the traditional Roman amphitheater that explores the structure's history and gladiators.

Eight users of the platform and their relatives will have the option to participate in fake gladiator fights on May seventh and eighth after the closure of the Colosseum on May seventh and eighth, using the identical underground path that gladiators used to get to the world in ancient Rome. You can apply for the experience freed from charge on November twenty seventh and the “Gladiators” will probably be chosen by lottery.

Colosseum Archaeological Park director Alfonsina Russo told The Associated Press that the deal was related to the discharge of Ridley Scott's latest film “Gladiators II” which opened in Italy on Thursday.

Russo described the sponsorship agreement as certainly one of many such offers to assist fund projects within the park.

The Italian fashion brand Tod's, for instance, has financed a multi-million dollar renovation of the Roman monument, including cleansing, replacing the arches' locking system with latest gates and renewing the underground areas.

Alberto Campailla, the coordinator of the nonprofit Nonna Roma, which focuses on housing and food for the poor, called the Airbnb campaign “a disgrace” and a type of “touristification.”

Airbnb and other platforms that provide short-term rentals are “literally driving people out not only of the city center but also of the outskirts and suburban neighborhoods,” Campailla said.

Tourists from other European cities combating overtourism also expressed criticism of the deal.

“It seems to me that the purpose of the Colosseum today is to be a tourist attraction, but not to create an amusement park,” said Jaime Montero, a tourist from Madrid. “In the end, tourism eats away at the essence of the cities, here in Rome, as in other capitals.”

Salvatore Di Matteo, visiting from Naples, viewed the deal as “another takeover of the territory” by big corporations.

“When they start touching sacred monuments like the Colosseum here in Rome, that is of course something that should make us think and is definitely a little worrying,” he said.

The Colosseum is crucial and largest amphitheater built by the traditional Romans. Built within the 1st century, it was the middle of popular entertainment until the sixth century, hosting hunts and gladiatorial games.

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Originally published: November 14, 2024 at 11:32 am PST

Airbnb Inc. has launched a brand new section of its app and website where homeowners can hire other hosts to administer their properties. This underlines the broader initiative to extend the variety of listings and attract more people to the platform.

The idea is that hosts who may not have the time or inclination to get hands-on will pay pre-approved “co-hosts” on the platform to assist them arrange or furnish their properties or manage their bookings and guests . Airbnb has already received applications from potential co-hosts, which the corporate reviews based on criteria that indicate a robust track record, reminiscent of the variety of stays they host, guest reviews and low cancellation rates.

A co-host can offer as much as 10 several types of services with different compensation options, reminiscent of charging a one-time fee to establish a list page or a percentage of a booking for every day support. The recent “co-host network” is launching in ten countries, including the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain and Brazil, the corporate announced on Wednesday. There are already 10,000 co-hosts joining, with a median rating of 4.86 out of 5.

Investors are looking forward to details on recent platform features that Airbnb says will open up recent opportunities for revenue growth that has slowed after an initial post-pandemic travel boom. According to estimates compiled by Bloomberg, analysts expect moderate, single-digit growth on this figure for the third quarter.

Airbnb doesn’t receive any commission for locating hosts, the corporate said.

“It's this nice positive flywheel that benefits Airbnb overall, so there's no need to take an additional cut,” Chief Business Officer Dave Stephenson said in an interview ahead of the discharge. “We will benefit from more people staying on Airbnb because they will all have better stays.”

As a part of its product launch on Wednesday, Airbnb also unveiled listing highlights that change depending on what a traveler is in search of. The company also introduced recent personalized search filters for guests inspired by their past stays to make it easier to search out properties with their favorite amenities. It also simplified the guest checkout page and added more local payment methods in numerous countries, with the goal of doubling the variety of options to just about 40 by spring 2025. The advantages of those smaller changes can be “additive and compounding over time,” Stephenson said.

Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky previously told investors that the corporate will restart its Experiences business next yr with tours, courses and workshops with higher marketing and cheaper prices. The company has also invested more in less mature markets abroad, including by introducing limited editions inspired by local cultural icons. In addition, Stephenson has announced recent guest-related services for next yr, including personal chefs, midweek cleansing and in-home massages.

However, it can take time for Airbnb to see a return on these investments. The company expects marketing spending to grow faster than revenue within the third quarter as the corporate expands into recent regions and adds services beyond its core home rental offering, all of which is able to likely weigh on margins within the near term.

These recent initiatives “may not be the answer to revitalizing core revenue” as novel features “will take time to gain traction,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh wrote in an Aug. 9 note.

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©2024 Bloomberg LP Visit Bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Originally published: October 17, 2024 at 1:20 p.m

A handful of guests at an Airbnb in Littleton, Massachusetts, have the chance to experience a weekend stay in a life-sized model of the classic Nineteen Nineties Polly Pocket toy.

The 42-foot-tall, two-story compact takes a toy a baby might carry of their pocket and takes its cue from the “Slumber Party Fun” version of the toy. Guests who’ve booked a stay will sleep within the Action Park tent at the top of a pink brick walkway leading away from the foremost constructing.

The structure stands in an open field surrounded by trees, from which it stands out in stark contrast with the identical shiny pastel colours present in the pocket version. Guests will find life-sized versions of the accessories present in the true toy, including Polly Pocket clothing they’ll actually try on.

“This stay is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for three groups of four guests to immerse themselves in the life of an oversized doll as Polly Pocket's friends in her vintage-inspired compact and have the house all to themselves,” an Airbnb spokesperson said via email. “Because the compact was never open to the public, the host was only able to offer a limited number of stays.”

The location of the enlarged toy is intentional. In the Polly Pocket universe, the character lives within the fictional and aptly named town of Littleton, making her an ideal fit for the marginally larger town of the identical name in Massachusetts.

Although only a number of groups were capable of register for considered one of the three-night stays from September 12-14 at a value of $89 per person, registrations were also offered for 21 groups of as much as 12 guests each who desired to rent the compact vehicle for a day between September 16 and October 6. The registration deadline for each experiences ended Wednesday evening.

The Polly Pocket toy was first produced by Bluebird Toys in 1989. This is the thirty fifth yr of the franchise, which has been owned by Mattel since 1998. The Littleton property is being offered on Airbnb as a part of the short-term rental company's offerings in partnership with Mattel. Icon Series with exclusive stays at locations starting from a model of the floating house from Up in Abiquiu, New Mexico, to a reproduction of the X-Mansion from Marvel's X-Men in Westchester, New York.

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A 4.5 star rating isn’t enough

“Looked good on paper”

Amy Froelich and her wife, Marla, have been hosting on Airbnb, Inc. since 2015. They began in Iowa City, Iowa, and moved on to Madison, Wisconsin, where they own a four-bedroom home in a leafy neighborhood inside walking distance to mountaineering trails and shops. During the weeks their home isn't rented, they provide it at no cost home swaps through HomeExchange—a web-based travel hack they found three years ago that enables them to trade their home at no cost accommodations elsewhere.

“We were just doing a home exchange outside of Glasgow, Scotland. This wonderful couple, Claire and Michael, greeted us at the door with homemade bread that she had just taken out of the oven,” Amy Froelich tells Bloomberg from the UK, a day after their stay ended. The hosts were unable to maneuver out on the agreed dates, but offered the couple a loft with a master suite and personal bathroom. In return, they will live within the Froelichs' house at a later date of their selecting. “This is much more than just monetary value,” says Froelich. “We parted as lifelong friends.”

Offering your own home in exchange for a stay at another person's is much from a brand new concept, but this often-forgotten a part of the travel industry is booming amid high inflation, the normalization of distant work, and skyrocketing hotel prices. Also contributing to the trend are growing frustration with short-term rentals and increasing regulation of rental housing in major cities.

In conversations with 4 home exchange firms, all reported double or triple-digit growth in 2023 in comparison with last 12 months, based on the variety of members or home exchanges conducted on their platforms.

Kindred, an invitation-only membership platform founded in 2022 with access to 30,000 homes in 100 cities, saw home swaps increase 800% year-over-year in 2023. The San Francisco-based startup has raised $26 million; early investors include Andreessen Horowitz, the identical firm that contributed $112 million to Airbnb's Series B funding round in 2011. (Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz.)

Kindred's model is analogous to that of pioneers equivalent to HomeExchange and Third Home. Users earn “credits” after they host other members. These credits can then be redeemed for stays elsewhere. Kindred's unique feature is that it doesn’t charge an annual membership fee. The company makes its money primarily through service fees.

Founded in 1992, HomeExchange saw a 53% increase in exchanges in 2023. The company has greater than 170,000 members in 140 countries. In 2022, a premium tier was added to the usual $220-per-year membership. For $1,000, the HomeExchange Collection opens the door to five,000 luxury properties with a mean value of $2.5 million. Think urban penthouses, castles, and wilderness retreats.

The move challenges ThirdHome's competitive advantage as a platform aimed exclusively at luxury property owners. Its 17,500 vacation homes in 100 countries are price a minimum of $500,000 and a maximum of greater than $50 million, including yachts. Membership costs $295, with service fees for every exchange starting from $495 to $1,395 per week. ThirdHome has also grown: The variety of members increased by 41 percent in 2013 in comparison with 2022, and the variety of exchanges increased by 16 percent.

“We're growing, we're hiring people, and we've been making a profit for five years,” says Wade Shealy, who founded ThirdHome in 2010 with a portfolio consisting of the homes of some friends.

The fame of home exchange is an issue. Many consider it an unglamorous option for budget travelers, with the chance of property damage. But insiders have realized – and this has driven the expansion of the sector – that the alternative could be true if the exchange partners are well-vetted.

A human connection

Rachel Lipson says her family of 4 has saved tens of hundreds of dollars since she began swapping her home in Brooklyn, New York, in 2022. She uses the Barcelona-based, invitation-only home exchange platform Behomm, which charges an annual membership fee of €380 ($407) and focuses on the homes of creative people and design lovers.

“I found it a little overwhelming at first,” Lipson says. “How could I allow anyone to stay in my house? I had a hard time trusting that everything would be OK.”

When she received an initial exchange request from a Behomm member in Marrakesh, Morocco, the day before her family was as a consequence of visit Los Angeles, Lipson decided to hearken to it. “We FaceTimed to talk – and we felt really good about it, so we said yes,” she says. The family stayed at her home while she was in a hotel in LA. During spring break the next 12 months, Lipson's family stayed at that member's home in Marrakesh.

So far, Lipson's family has home swapped with members in 16 destinations, including Paris, Montreal, Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Cancun (Mexico) and Reykjavik (Iceland). When the dates she wants aren't available, Lipson looks at hotels and Airbnb. “Some of these homes you wouldn't find for rent,” she says. “And it's like staying with a friend while they're out of town. You really get to know the people, and that's an experience I've never had with Airbnb or hotels. It's really its own.”

An evolving accommodation scene

When the economy slumps, inventory at ThirdHome increases, Shealy says. “About half of our members have their vacation homes on short-term rental platforms, and if they don't rent them out as often, they have more availability to put into the system.”

To raise awareness, ThirdHome now offers a free one-year membership to individuals who buy recent vacation homes at Rosewood or St. Regis resorts, for instance. Developers report that this profit helps them close additional transactions. “We're currently getting about 500 new members a month just through our (commercial real estate) partnerships,” Shealy adds.

Kindred, alternatively, focuses more on big cities, with the corporate seeing its strongest growth in Los Angeles, New York and London. “I can't say that it's necessarily because Airbnb is being displaced,” says Justine Palefsky, who co-founded the corporate to enable a multi-city lifestyle that doesn't require taking out multiple mortgages.

Even though short-term rentals remain legal in a few of these markets, Palefsky observes that many members are switching to Kindred because they’re fed up with Airbnb and its competitors. High prices and a desire to get something out of their homes “without feeding the vacation rental monster” are forcing consumers to search for alternatives, she says.

Airbnb Inc. denies that its appeal has waned. “With over 7.7 million listings and over 1.5 billion guest arrivals in nearly every country in the world, we believe we give travelers the opportunity to get to know local communities in many more places than any other travel site, while providing them with important safeguards to protect their trip,” a spokesperson said.

Weighing up the risks

Like Kindred, ThirdHome and HomeExchange, Behomm's founder insists that careful attention is paid to vetting each member, from verifying ID documents to reviewing home photos and other security measures.

Still, home exchange could be stressful. Finding a house exchange site in your required location could be time-consuming and availability is much from guaranteed.

“I probably spent three hours just sending out inquiries,” says Marla Froelich about her seek for accommodation in Scotland.

Those who swap frequently say that accidents can occur – spilling wine on a designer sofa or putting a kettle on the stove – but these are often quickly resolved. The greater risk with swaps is serious property damage or personal injury while a guest is caring for the home.

Many home-swapping platforms offer host protection, which covers as much as $100,000 in damages with Kindred and as much as $5 million in damages with ThirdHome. And some homeowners and rental policies also cover third-party damages.

If you concentrate to those subtleties, home exchange opens the door to almost free stays in among the world's most sought-after travel destinations.

In September, for instance, the Froelichs will travel to Bali, Indonesia. An Australian family who spent every week at their home a 12 months ago through HomeExchange offered to swap at their family's vacation home in Indonesia. “We told them we wouldn't be able to make it (to Bali) for at least another year, and they said, 'We don't care when you come, just tell us. Our driver will take you wherever you want to go, we'll organize everything for you.'” That's greater than even most luxury hotels offer.

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©2024 Bloomberg LP Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

There's loads to take into consideration when planning a vacation: plane tickets, rental cars, meals, accommodations, and other expenses. The final thing you would like, nonetheless, are hidden fees and unexpected costs that usually include booking a spot through Airbnb. In cities like Atlanta, where fees can add a median of 48% to your Airbnb stay, exploring alternative options can prevent money and offer you unique experiences.

Whether you're searching for luxury, transparency, or adventure, there's an option to suit your needs and budget. Check out these alternatives to Airbnb to search out your next vacation rental.

Without

Sonder bridges the gap between hotels and personal homes by offering well-maintained rentals with hotel-like service. This short-term rental company offers mobile-first service for seamless check-ins, neighborhood guides, and in-app requests for towels or toiletries.

bnbfinder

For budget-conscious travelers who’re bored with service fees, bnbfinder offers a transparent booking platform that helps you to connect directly with hosts. Specializing in “professionally managed vacation rentals,” bnbfinder eliminates service fees, offers cheaper stays, and ensures hosts are fairly compensated.

Blue floor

Blueground is good for many who need longer-term rentals, because it offers fully furnished apartments with flexible rental options. It also offers monthly pricing and support throughout your stay, making it a convenient option should you're moving or spending an prolonged time period in a brand new city.

Hip Camp

If you ought to experience the outside, Hipcamp offers a spread of unique, private RV parks and campsites. It's ideal for many who don't mind a more rugged experience and are searching for something off the beaten track.

Plum Guide

Plum Guide stands out from the competition by putting each property through a rigorous process involving proprietary algorithms and hospitality experts. This ensures that every rental meets high standards of cleanliness, reliability and luxury. Although it's just a little costlier, the eye to detail – from WiFi speed to shower pressure – is definitely worth the spend for many who appreciate quality accommodation and unique design.

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©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Next time you're browsing Airbnb listings, you could find that there's more to contemplate than simply amenities and price.

Stand out from the competitionSome Airbnb hosts tout their personal values—reminiscent of integrity, empathy, and conscientiousness—of their listings. This style of display is named “virtue signaling.” Although the term can sound derisive, we'll use it here as a neutral description of a business tactic: Virtue signaling occurs when an organization communicates to an audience that it has a purpose beyond providing a for-profit service.

Virtue signaling is just not a brand new phenomenon, nevertheless it's still a challenge for entrepreneurs to navigate. After all, there may be a skinny line between a meaningful dialogue about values ​​and telling the shopper what they need to hear. Previous research about business and virtuous signaling is basically mixedand scientists have mainly focused on this how investors – not consumers – respond.

As professors who study EntrepreneurshipWe wanted to higher understand how consumers reply to virtue language – specifically, whether it makes them willing to pay more within the sharing economy. That's why we examined the language utilized in greater than 80,000 Airbnb listings. We found that virtue signaling causes people to pay a premium—but only to a certain extent.

Virtue signaling within the sharing economy

Airbnb is the biggest accommodation provider within the sharing economy, with greater than 2 million lively listings within the US. Host – or Airbnb tourism entrepreneuras the corporate likes to explain them – list their private rooms, apartments or entire houses with descriptions of the property that guests can rent out.

Airbnb provides hosts with a sensible pricing tool that calculates a nightly rental price based on aspects reminiscent of a property's location and amenities. However, hosts can charge greater than the Airbnb pricing tool recommends. To persuade guests to pay extra for his or her rentalHosts often include additional, more personal information concerning the property of their pitch.

To discover whether this pays off, we analyzed 81,799 Airbnb listing descriptions in 12 cities across the United States. We calculated the proportion of virtue language using word lists that capture six dimensions of virtue: Conscientiousness, courage, empathy, integrity, warmth and zeal. For example, hosts can describe their property as “friendly” or “neighborly” to emphasise warmth, or comment on their “supportive” or “compassionate” nature to point out empathy to potential guests.

Our results, published in certainly one of the leading entrepreneurship journals, show that the worth hosts can charge for his or her Airbnb is influenced by the extent of virtue signaling of their listing.

We found that lower levels of virtue signaling in Airbnb listings help hosts secure more bookings at the next price, while an excessive amount of hurts business. Specifically, a bunch who uses a bit virtue language earns a mean of $1,098 more annually than the common host in our sample. At the identical time, excessive virtue language resulted in a lack of greater than $4,964.

Why are people less willing to pay a premium to the Airbnb hosts who most champion their virtues?

We consider that trust matters. Consumers view a bit virtue language as reasonable and trustworthy. However, higher levels of virtue signaling can appear dishonest. We found support for this concept in a follow-up survey experiment with almost 500 participants. In this experiment, we found that Airbnb listings with plenty of virtuous language usually tend to appear perceived as dishonest of study participants.

As entrepreneurs grapple with the best way to communicate their values ​​and beliefs to consumers, our research shows that communicating a modest dose of virtue can enhance performance with consumers.

What about Airbnb Superhosts?

Perhaps an important status symbol on Airbnb is the Superhost badge, which hosts earn over time based on their overall rating, response rate, and other quality metrics. The badge attests to a bunch's good fame and is prominently displayed in real estate advertisements.

Our results show that the effect of virtue signaling is stronger for Airbnb superhosts. In other words, a bit virtue signaling paid off more for superhosts, but excessive virtue signaling did them more harm.

These results show that customers respond significantly in another way to virtue signaling from Airbnb Superhosts and illustrate that these hosts needs to be particularly careful with such language of their listings.

Navigating the political minefield

Airbnb hosts, like other business owners, should consider the political context during which they operate. Do your research Political psychology showed that Conservatives and liberals are different in value-based decisions.

Our results show that hosts with accommodations in conservative counties respond more strongly to virtue signaling from consumers. We suspect it’s because conservatives consider it’s dishonest to overstate one's ethical nature, while liberals view it as a function of the business environment during which Airbnb hosts compete. These results illustrate that entrepreneurs in additional conservative countries needs to be particularly careful when using virtue language.

Particularly within the sharing economy, it is vital to know how consumers reply to expressions of values. Our research shows that on the subject of public displays of virtue, a bit can go a great distance.