Inspired by the presentation of Katharine Gibson on Wednesday September 4 and her latest book book ‘Take Back the Economy: an ethical guide for transforming our communities’ (http://takebackeconomy.net/) Michelle Steggerda started her weblog on which she will post her reading of the book and her effort to take back the economy.
Have you heard of Airbnb already? Which started as a small initiative in San Francisco in 2008 developed into one of the biggest shared economy platforms, now compromising 800,000 listings in 34,000 cities. Airbnb is a worldwide network in which people (hosts) rent out (part of) their house to tourists on an irregular basis. Tourist pay less than for the average hotel in the same city and can enjoy a much more personal environment. Hosts who rent out part of their house earn money in return. Trust is gained through a reviewing and verification system. The organization Airbnb gets a commission on every transaction and it so able to get a business model out of it. Everybody is happy, except for the hotel industry. Hotels increasingly experience the Airbnb business as unfair competition as hosts don’t pay taxes and don’t have to comply with the strict legislations. By now the…
View original post 640 more words