13 ms·

AirBnB is now available in Cuba

138 points by profquail 12y ago

yogurt 12y ago
This looks like a nice Cuban Airbnb place to lounge: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5717762?s=Yoe5 https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5717762?s=Yoe5
negrit 12y ago
Interesting too, lately I've seen a growth of cuban users on my job-board in order to move to the US.
nodesocket 12y ago
After watching Conan's visit to Cuba, it looks like an awesome destination. http://teamcoco.com/cuba http://teamcoco.com/cuba
- matt4077 12y ago
  It's a fantastic place to visit. Until know, the embargo was an added benefit. Not just because the country was preserved as a sort of open-air 60ies museum – it was also an great place to meet Americans: because of legal restrictions, all Americans on Cuba were self-selected awesome people.
- kenrikm 12y ago
  Conan almost looks like Caesar Flickerman on the streets of Havana. My wife is Cuban, I grew up in Miami. Cuba is a beautiful country with an interesting culture and a extremely corrupt oppressive government. The government of Cuba lies somewhere between Russia and North Korea for political oppression it is the type of place where expressing discontent the government in your own home can get you thrown in jail for years without judicial process. I do not have the words to describe the soul sucking disparity that exists in that country if you're not coming in with first world money. Marco Rubio only scratched the surface of the reality in this speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wKhXurFyI&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wKhXurFyI&feature=youtu.be My brother in Law was thrown in jail for a year just for trying to leave the country. He went into jail 200lbs and exited just over 110bs. Please understand with some intellectual honesty that people will not risk their lives [1] and face jail time in the equivalent of a Russian gulag if things are peachy dory. [1] http://bestcubaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/balseros-cubanos.jpg http://bestcubaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/balseros...
  - throwy 12y ago
    Cuban here, I also lived in Russia several months and my wife is Russian. Cuba is well below Russia (and of course North Corea) in terms of oppression. Marco Rubio never lived in Cuba and only reflects the feelings of the previous generation of Cuban that emigrated to Miami when Castro took the power. This is understandable as Castro took many of their properties but has nothing to do with how cubans from 2015 feel. This can be easily seen when you note that he spoke against the Cuba-US relationship improvement recently introduced by Obama which is clearly something most of cuban supported.
    - kenrikm 12y ago
      My wife lived in Cuba from when she was born up until 2005 when her grandmother was finally able to get a family reclamation to go through. She knows many who were thrown in jail just for being associated with people who the government was "unhappy with". I would agree it's not as bad as North Korea, maybe my opinion of Russia is too high.
      - throwy 12y ago
        I never knew anybody who went to jail for speaking against the government neither directly heard such a story but I can believe that happens(journalist Yoanis Sanchez is an example). This is the way I see it, the government normally don't care much about this people or what they think/say, except when they try to do something that could affect their public image, for example if the Pope comes to visit and they want to organize a public protest. In this circunstances they are preventively sent to jail, and afterwards released when the visitor is gone. It is often the case that real criminals present themselves as "politic prisoners", that adds much noise to the whole situation and usually gets exaggerated by the media in Miami. While this is not ok, in Russia people actually get killed in similar circumstances, while the main opposition leaders in Cuba are all alive.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
buster 12y ago
Funny thing is that Cuba already has its own "airbnb" called "casa particulares", it's definitely a great way to travel! :)
- fennecfoxen 12y ago
  you know, there are a couple of nice things about AirBnB that $COMPETITOR from Cuba can't easily match. For instance, first-world travelers are already quite willing to trust it with their credit cards. For another, it has global renown and doesn't need to advertise heavily to be found.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - buster 12y ago
    There is no competitor, it's an initiative from the state cuba. It's also not like it is heavily advertised. It just was basically the only option until now. I frequently use airbnb, so i know that it's great. Just saying that Cuba the state already had that kind of offering for years, as a fact.
    - matt4077 12y ago
      casa particulars are more of a concept than a business entity. It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" (without the breakfast). The government involvement is licensing & taxation, although there's a thriving black market as well. If anything, this will help AirBnB adoption since the concept of renting out a spare room is already widely known.
      - servilio 12y ago
        > It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" No, it means something like "independent household". But functionally, yes, they are "bread & (maybe) breakfast".
      - 6t6t6 12y ago
edvinasbartkus 12y ago
There was Brian's (CEO) tweet in December reacting to White House news. It took three months and they made it happen. https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/545597231164706816 https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/545597231164706816
ianpurton 12y ago
I have mixed success with AirBnB as a traveller. I would say 80% of my requests to stay in a place are either ignored or rejected. I'm mainly talking about hosts from the UK. In the end I just stay in Hotels, it's less hassle, often cheaper. As for Cuba, very surprised if they have 1000 properties available. Getting internet access in Cuba is pretty much impossible.
- simonswords82 12y ago
  Yeah AirBnB hasn't really taken off here in the UK as it has elsewhere. Not sure if that's a cultural thing (letting your home out to strangers) or something else. Like you said, much better to stay at a hotel or B & B if travelling to the UK
  - andreasen 12y ago
    Thats interesting. I always thought bed & breakfast was a British "invention". The b&b's (in Scotland) I've stayed at have always been a pleasure, complete with toast and jam. Edit: sorry - didn't read your last paragraph about about b&b. But I would've thought b&b would be in the same market as airbnb?
    - Ntrails 12y ago
      But almost no actual "B&B"s are using airbnb, in my experience at least. The vast majority are spare rooms being let (or in some cases converted living rooms etc just to try and cope with london rents). I spent about 4 months "between homes" and Airbnb got me through most of it. It's a hugely mixed experience, but in many ways I'm glad I did it.
  - rdeboo 12y ago
    It does seem to depend on the country. I've had great success/response so far in Western Europe (France, Belgium) but my attempts to book something in Greece were met mostly with rejections. It seemed to me that they don't bother to update their calender, rather they use the Airbnb platform in a limited way: to put out an advertisement. This makes it impossible to search for vacancies quickly, you still need to contact every single host to ask if you can stay. On the plus side, my best Airbnb experiences were in Greece, there were some fantastic hosts (and houses).
ape4 12y ago
AirBnb doesn't have to do anything to move into a new country. Just accept listings.
- rdeboo 12y ago
  The article states that they were previously forced to block Cuban ip addresses and that AirBnb actively lobbied to be allowed to do business there. Also they had to find a way to forward payments to Cubans as most of the banks will not do this.
- hobarrera 12y ago
  The article clearly states that they had to jump through hoops to pay hosts, since they all want cash. They did that, as well as a few other things (looks like they had to talk with the US government about it as well first).
KFW504 12y ago
When you think about it, this is fascinating from a geopolitical perspective more than anything...wish this had been discussed more in the article http://www.newsweek.com/normalizing-relations-cuba-unfinished-agenda-303232 http://www.newsweek.com/normalizing-relations-cuba-unfinishe...
Splendor 12y ago
This title seems to be missing the '(YC 2009)' indicator.
- Splendor 12y ago
  To those downvoting: a short comment explaining why you disagree would be helpful. If I've made a mistake I'd like to know so I don't repeat it. Thanks.
CountHackulus 12y ago
The article claims that this is only open to US customers? Those of us in other countries, like say Canada, have been going to Cuba for years, and having AirBnB would be great. Was this just a mis-type?
clamprecht 12y ago
Does AirBnb really only charge 3% as the article says? I thought it was closer to 10%.
- egze 12y ago
  It's a bit of a marketing trick. 3% from the guest, 7% from the host, or vice versa. (Not sure or course if it's exactly 3 and 7%, just the general idea)
- tim333 12y ago
  They charge a 3% 'host service fee' plus a 6-12% 'guest service fee' plus VAT on the above sometimes. So yeah, closer to 10%.

138 points by profquail 12y ago

This looks like a nice Cuban Airbnb place to lounge: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5717762?s=Yoe5 https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5717762?s=Yoe5

negrit 12y ago

Interesting too, lately I've seen a growth of cuban users on my job-board in order to move to the US.

nodesocket 12y ago

After watching Conan's visit to Cuba, it looks like an awesome destination. http://teamcoco.com/cuba http://teamcoco.com/cuba

matt4077 12y ago
It's a fantastic place to visit. Until know, the embargo was an added benefit. Not just because the country was preserved as a sort of open-air 60ies museum – it was also an great place to meet Americans: because of legal restrictions, all Americans on Cuba were self-selected awesome people.
kenrikm 12y ago
Conan almost looks like Caesar Flickerman on the streets of Havana. My wife is Cuban, I grew up in Miami. Cuba is a beautiful country with an interesting culture and a extremely corrupt oppressive government. The government of Cuba lies somewhere between Russia and North Korea for political oppression it is the type of place where expressing discontent the government in your own home can get you thrown in jail for years without judicial process. I do not have the words to describe the soul sucking disparity that exists in that country if you're not coming in with first world money. Marco Rubio only scratched the surface of the reality in this speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wKhXurFyI&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wKhXurFyI&feature=youtu.be My brother in Law was thrown in jail for a year just for trying to leave the country. He went into jail 200lbs and exited just over 110bs. Please understand with some intellectual honesty that people will not risk their lives [1] and face jail time in the equivalent of a Russian gulag if things are peachy dory. [1] http://bestcubaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/balseros-cubanos.jpg http://bestcubaguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/balseros...
- throwy 12y ago
  Cuban here, I also lived in Russia several months and my wife is Russian. Cuba is well below Russia (and of course North Corea) in terms of oppression. Marco Rubio never lived in Cuba and only reflects the feelings of the previous generation of Cuban that emigrated to Miami when Castro took the power. This is understandable as Castro took many of their properties but has nothing to do with how cubans from 2015 feel. This can be easily seen when you note that he spoke against the Cuba-US relationship improvement recently introduced by Obama which is clearly something most of cuban supported.
  - kenrikm 12y ago
    My wife lived in Cuba from when she was born up until 2005 when her grandmother was finally able to get a family reclamation to go through. She knows many who were thrown in jail just for being associated with people who the government was "unhappy with". I would agree it's not as bad as North Korea, maybe my opinion of Russia is too high.
    - throwy 12y ago
      I never knew anybody who went to jail for speaking against the government neither directly heard such a story but I can believe that happens(journalist Yoanis Sanchez is an example). This is the way I see it, the government normally don't care much about this people or what they think/say, except when they try to do something that could affect their public image, for example if the Pope comes to visit and they want to organize a public protest. In this circunstances they are preventively sent to jail, and afterwards released when the visitor is gone. It is often the case that real criminals present themselves as "politic prisoners", that adds much noise to the whole situation and usually gets exaggerated by the media in Miami. While this is not ok, in Russia people actually get killed in similar circumstances, while the main opposition leaders in Cuba are all alive.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

buster 12y ago

Funny thing is that Cuba already has its own "airbnb" called "casa particulares", it's definitely a great way to travel! :)

fennecfoxen 12y ago
you know, there are a couple of nice things about AirBnB that $COMPETITOR from Cuba can't easily match. For instance, first-world travelers are already quite willing to trust it with their credit cards. For another, it has global renown and doesn't need to advertise heavily to be found.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- buster 12y ago
  There is no competitor, it's an initiative from the state cuba. It's also not like it is heavily advertised. It just was basically the only option until now. I frequently use airbnb, so i know that it's great. Just saying that Cuba the state already had that kind of offering for years, as a fact.
  - matt4077 12y ago
    casa particulars are more of a concept than a business entity. It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" (without the breakfast). The government involvement is licensing & taxation, although there's a thriving black market as well. If anything, this will help AirBnB adoption since the concept of renting out a spare room is already widely known.
    - servilio 12y ago
      > It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" No, it means something like "independent household". But functionally, yes, they are "bread & (maybe) breakfast".
    - 6t6t6 12y ago

edvinasbartkus 12y ago

There was Brian's (CEO) tweet in December reacting to White House news. It took three months and they made it happen. https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/545597231164706816 https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/545597231164706816

ianpurton 12y ago

I have mixed success with AirBnB as a traveller. I would say 80% of my requests to stay in a place are either ignored or rejected. I'm mainly talking about hosts from the UK. In the end I just stay in Hotels, it's less hassle, often cheaper. As for Cuba, very surprised if they have 1000 properties available. Getting internet access in Cuba is pretty much impossible.

simonswords82 12y ago
Yeah AirBnB hasn't really taken off here in the UK as it has elsewhere. Not sure if that's a cultural thing (letting your home out to strangers) or something else. Like you said, much better to stay at a hotel or B & B if travelling to the UK
- andreasen 12y ago
  Thats interesting. I always thought bed & breakfast was a British "invention". The b&b's (in Scotland) I've stayed at have always been a pleasure, complete with toast and jam. Edit: sorry - didn't read your last paragraph about about b&b. But I would've thought b&b would be in the same market as airbnb?
  - Ntrails 12y ago
    But almost no actual "B&B"s are using airbnb, in my experience at least. The vast majority are spare rooms being let (or in some cases converted living rooms etc just to try and cope with london rents). I spent about 4 months "between homes" and Airbnb got me through most of it. It's a hugely mixed experience, but in many ways I'm glad I did it.
- rdeboo 12y ago
  It does seem to depend on the country. I've had great success/response so far in Western Europe (France, Belgium) but my attempts to book something in Greece were met mostly with rejections. It seemed to me that they don't bother to update their calender, rather they use the Airbnb platform in a limited way: to put out an advertisement. This makes it impossible to search for vacancies quickly, you still need to contact every single host to ask if you can stay. On the plus side, my best Airbnb experiences were in Greece, there were some fantastic hosts (and houses).

ape4 12y ago

AirBnb doesn't have to do anything to move into a new country. Just accept listings.

rdeboo 12y ago
The article states that they were previously forced to block Cuban ip addresses and that AirBnb actively lobbied to be allowed to do business there. Also they had to find a way to forward payments to Cubans as most of the banks will not do this.
hobarrera 12y ago
The article clearly states that they had to jump through hoops to pay hosts, since they all want cash. They did that, as well as a few other things (looks like they had to talk with the US government about it as well first).

KFW504 12y ago

When you think about it, this is fascinating from a geopolitical perspective more than anything...wish this had been discussed more in the article http://www.newsweek.com/normalizing-relations-cuba-unfinished-agenda-303232 http://www.newsweek.com/normalizing-relations-cuba-unfinishe...

Splendor 12y ago

This title seems to be missing the '(YC 2009)' indicator.

Splendor 12y ago
To those downvoting: a short comment explaining why you disagree would be helpful. If I've made a mistake I'd like to know so I don't repeat it. Thanks.

CountHackulus 12y ago

The article claims that this is only open to US customers? Those of us in other countries, like say Canada, have been going to Cuba for years, and having AirBnB would be great. Was this just a mis-type?

clamprecht 12y ago

Does AirBnb really only charge 3% as the article says? I thought it was closer to 10%.

egze 12y ago
It's a bit of a marketing trick. 3% from the guest, 7% from the host, or vice versa. (Not sure or course if it's exactly 3 and 7%, just the general idea)
tim333 12y ago
They charge a 3% 'host service fee' plus a 6-12% 'guest service fee' plus VAT on the above sometimes. So yeah, closer to 10%.