People think traveling for work is fun. You get to explore a new city, see all the exotic sites, and eat the best local cuisine. I mean, sure, it can be. But quite often, it’s the opposite. You’re working. Working stupid-long hours, and when you’re not working, you’re living in a one-room hotel and grabbing a burger from whatever fast-food spot is still open and gets you back to your bed the fastest.
Sometimes for weeks.
I spent five weeks in a suburb of south Atlanta recently and had the joy of regularly sampling the best Taco Bell had to offer all while working long hours and staying next to a wonderful and scenic paint factory.
High-class living, let me tell you.
But you know what makes it better?
When my family can travel with me. And that’s what Airbnb does.
Put simply, Airbnb is de facto pro-family, and opposition to Airbnb is opposition to the family. If we want to be pro-family, we must be pro-Airbnb. Let’s explain.
Long-Term Travel
Whether you’re project-based, working gigs, a digital nomad, or just the everyday millennial trying to scrape by, there are lots of jobs that either allow or require travel. In fact, Forbes estimates that, by 2025, 32.6 million Americans will work remotely and millions more will be required to travel at least part-time for work. I’ve enjoyed a career that has taken me on long stints to all three American coasts and four continents. I don’t just get to travel. I’m required to travel. The year I met my wife, we counted it all up, and I was on the road more days than I was home. It was fun. Kathryn came along often, and we had some incredible experiences.
But now we have a family. And that family needs more than a hotel.
Airbnbs allow for all the amenities of home, amenities that are closer to necessities when you start to have kids. I’ve been stuck in hotel rooms with my two kids. It’s fun the first night. It’s manageable the second night. By the third night, they are rabid, caged hyenas who have overdosed on espresso beans. And they have every right to be. Kids weren’t meant to be cooped up in a hotel. Imagine, if you will, kids living in a hotel for weeks — weeks — on end. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. We did it with our oldest, Charlotte, but now that there are two, that’s just a recipe for insanity.
Airbnb allows me and the millions of workers like me to bring our families along while traveling. Kids have their parents, parents have their kids, and for that innovation alone, society should be lining up and thanking Airbnb for making the world a better place.
The digital nomad culture and jobs requiring travel are not going away. If anything, that sector is growing. Either we support this emerging culture being family-friendly, or we accept the noxious notion that family life just isn’t for certain jobs.
Short-Term Stays and Vacations
Of course, let’s not forget that the same benefits apply to short-term vacations as well. Maybe you’re on a tight budget and want to see all the sights, but can’t afford to eat out every night? Airbnb has a kitchen! Food allergies? Guess what?… Airbnb has a kitchen! The average hotel does not.
Sure, there are some places where it is at least a venial sin not to sample the local cuisine. (New Orleans, I’m looking at you.) But no matter the number of Michelin stars, I guarantee you my toddler wants chicken nuggets. We can be at the Consulate in Atlanta (among Zagat’s “Top 10 Sexiest New Restaurants and Bars in Atlanta”) or Manhatta in New York City (Check out the view!), and my toddler is going to want chicken nuggets.
You know a place that has chicken nuggets? The kitchen at my Airbnb.
And this problem is going to get worse. Not just because my wife and I plan on having more kids, thus guaranteeing ourselves an avalanche of chicken nuggets. But because as kids get older, they want and need a certain amount of privacy and autonomy for their own development.
As much as I love a good Hilton, they don’t guarantee my family both privacy and chicken nuggets. You know who does? Airbnb.
We could go into the families that are permanently relocating and need time to look for their “forever home.” Or the military families who know they may only be somewhere for a few months of training. We could go into the trips that include grandparents, cousins, or any other permutation of the modern American family, but that’s just icing on the cake. Suffice it to say that when it comes to family travel, Airbnb is just more convenient. And for the long-term, it actually makes family travel possible.
Yeah… So What?
It’s bad enough that the NIMBY crowd ruined electricity (we should all be nuclear by now) and ruined flight (the Concord could get us there way faster), but now they have to make it that much harder for families to be together in the modern economy.
And don’t think that’s not part of the plan. The same busybodies who want to ban Airbnb have been pretty public that children are the root of the world’s problems.
For instance, Stephanie Feldstein, the “population and sustainability director” at the Center for Biological Diversity wrote in an op-ed for the Scientific American, “[With] slow decline and all that comes with it — we can ultimately scale back our pressure on the environment, adapt to climate change, and protect enough places for imperiled wildlife to find refuge and potentially recover.”
She’s not the only one. There’s a cornucopia of literature advocating for population reduction to inhibit climate change, and a significant movement afoot that believes humanity is a plague upon the earth. They’re notorious buzzkills who suck the joy out of whatever room they’re in.
And now they’re targeting our travel.
The Slope Slips
It’s not in the headlines anymore, but cities throughout America continue to debate bans or significant restrictions on short-term rentals. And we must fight back. Give an inch on this one, and I guarantee you the nanny state will take a mile.
Airbnb is a property rights issue. It’s the owner’s house, dammit.
Airbnb is fun. Even this Idaho Potato–themed space is more interesting than a Best Western.
Airbnb is a chance for the American dream of a small business to thrive. It’s quite literally the hotel industry funding opposition to Airbnb.
Just remember that, if you’re opposing Airbnb, you’re backing big business against the little guy.
If society allows regulations on Airbnb, then it’s not just a slippery slope — it is also making the case that fundamental property rights don’t matter; that innovation and fun are dangerous; and that big business deserves to dominate industries. This is not a slippery slope. Rather, it is the words coming out of the opponents’ mouths.
What is even worse is that the affordable housing arguments made by Airbnb’s opponents are completely false. When New York City banned short-term rentals, there was no measurable impact on housing prices. (See reports from Vital City, Harvard Business Review, PhocusWire, and even Vox.) Banning Airbnb didn’t make New York City more affordable, it just made it suck more to travel there with kids.
If we allow the anti-science, anti-evidence opponents of short-term rentals to win, we give in to the idea that facts and results don’t matter, only intentions. That’s not how problems actually get solved.
If this last section sounds like the rant of toddler, well … I’m currently under the influence of entirely too many chicken nuggets. But I’m thankful that my short-term rental has provided chicken nuggets to me and my demanding, food-allergy toddler who is now demanding a popsicle.
Maybe there are advantages to the solitude of a hotel.