"It used to be, if an American or a German or anybody wanted to come to Cuba they could come to a hotel and that was it" This isn't remotely close to the truth

"It used to be, if an American or a German or anybody wanted to come to Cuba they could come to a hotel and that was it" This isn't remotely close to the truth. When traveling to Cuba it has always been advisable to stay in a casa, which is basically a room that one of the locals is renting out to tourists. Some of these casas have their own website, some are just found by word of mouth or by networks of hosts built up across cities (you want to go to Havana next, there is a decent chance your host can "recommend" someone there to put you up and organise it for you. It's a mutual agreement between hosts to bring each other business). The idea that AirBnB has somehow created this market is not true, it was always there. Now it is just sanctioned by an American "social network" instead of the pre-existing Cuban actual social network.