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Now it is the opportunity for an Airbnb competitor to appear. I can only hope that.

• isostatic 9y ago
  Holiday cottages have been rentable for decades - my family used to get brochures for them in the 80s, we stayed in Cornish villages for 2 weeks a year when we had the dogs. These still continue - I used cottages.com to rent a cottage in Wales last week. That tourism is what drives the local economy. Sites like that (others are available) have city locations too, I've used similar sites to book in Rome and Berlin Air bnb's key feature, like uber, is its global reach. I've used uber on 6 continents because it's always the same. I don't use it in some locations due to safety considerations, but in most cities it's far easier and nicer (compare an uber with a manhattan cab where you are force fed adverts and have to "tip" a driver who probably won't even take a credit card. I've never risked airbnb stay though - came close when I spent a month in singapore, but too many horror stories, and I had my family with me. Didn't want to have the police evicting us in the middle of the night 2 weeks in, found a proper managed appartment. Singapore really doesn't like airbnb as most housing is government owned (to keep prices affordable), and you have to be a citizen to live there. Prevents the country turning into something horrible like Dubai.