Anna, a single woman in London who sublets her flat on Airbnb, arrived home to find a man sneaking out of her bedroom. She had rented her room from a woman on the vacation rental site, but there was no mention that a man would be staying with her. “I went into my living room and just as I was taking my jacket off I saw a guy crawling out of the room and then down the stairs and out the door very quietly,” she said. She shared her story with researchers George Maier and Kate R Gilchrist from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), who studied the intersection between Airbnb and rentier capitalism – or, essentially, what happens when the main types of capitalist assets are owned by a privileged few. In her statement, she says she felt uncomfortable and as if her privacy had been invaded.
Anna is one of the small number of female landlords in the capital who are now surviving via Airbnb – even subletting their own bedrooms while they sleep in the living room – in order to make ends meet. In London’s shattered housing market, which has now been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, women will take drastic measures to keep a roof over their heads and pay their bills.
When Airbnb first launched in 2008, it was marketed to travelers and has seen over a billion guest arrivals to date. However, it is now pivoted to include short and long term rentals. According to Airbnb, more than a third of hosts across the UK say they do so to cope with rising costs of living, and nearly a third say the extra income helps them make ends meet. Women now represent up to 56% of all Airbnb hosts worldwide. The UK, 61% of all Airbnb hosts are women. Meanwhile, 21% more women than men joined the site as hosts in 2021. For some, that meant stepping onto the ownership ladder.
Maier says he came across the tendency of women to sublet their rooms when researching the platform economy, which includes Amazon, Uber and Airbnb. “With Uber, I observed that the vast majority of drivers in London were male, whereas Airbnb was actually biased the other way and I found that really interesting,” he explains. “More women were hosting Airbnb than men. That’s when I reached out to Kate and told her there was this gender phenomenon going against the trend.
Among those hosting on Airbnb are a number of women with disabilities, who face higher levels of unemployment, and who, according to the study, have “relyed on additional income from Airbnb to avoid destitution. “. Nikki, a Camden-based homeowner, worked 80 hours a week as a film and TV production scout before she burned out, developed myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and was unable to work. Since 2012, she rents out her sofa bed in the living room. Airbnb has been a lifesaver. “I have a chronic disability that prevents me from generating enough money,” she says. “Women in this country have notoriously struggled to secure long-term pensions, [or] a long-term income for themselves. Airbnb is a way to thwart this struggle.
Research found that some women host male guests despite worrying about the potential threat of harassment or sexual assault. In the study, one woman said she was forced to host a male guest who made sexualized comments to her daughter. An Airbnb spokesperson would not comment on this specific incident, but said the platform has a 24-hour security line available in the app for hosts and guests, and a feature built into the local 24/7 emergency services app.
According to a University of Colorado study published last year, 2% of Airbnb hosts experienced racial, gender, LGBT+ and disability discrimination in 2021. Meanwhile, just under that figure (1.9 %) reported that customers had damaged property. London ranked 18th for guest complaints, with an average of 30.9 complaints per 1,000 Airbnbs.
In the LSE study, Maier acknowledged the privilege these women had of owning their own homes and being able to rent rooms in the first place. He noted that middle-class women found renting their room gave them “greater independence”, while those on lower incomes saw it only as a means of “surviving in an expensive housing market”. However, he added that without the supplement provided by renting out their rooms, both groups could face “economic deprivation”.
“[Women] use [Airbnb] because they have no other way to survive – it’s the only way they can afford to live in a city like London with this growing housing cost crisis,” Maier says. “If you go out as a woman to earn an income in London, that income will not allow you to be housed in London most of the time. Women must therefore turn to Airbnb to supplement their income. »
The women in our study have often been victims of the housing crisis
George Maier, researcher at the LSE
Vanessa, 34, says she turned to Airbnb after being hit with a £4,500 service charge on her one-bedroom apartment. “I didn’t realize I would have to pay,” she says. “They weren’t clear.” Thanks to Airbnb, she now earns around £2,500 a year, which is paid into a separate bank account to cover unexpected expenses.
“London is experiencing a housing affordability crisis – the women we spoke to were struggling in a market where owning property is becoming increasingly difficult,” Maier said. “In addition, renting in London has also seen steep price increases in recent years, making it harder for people to get by on a month-to-month basis.”
Maier concluded the study by writing that while Airbnb has provided “significant opportunities for those who cannot engage in traditional employment”, this “often comes at the cost of dispossession of their living space. “. Intimate spaces, he adds, become “necessary income,” and that’s not a good thing.
As the cost of living crisis worsens, this will mean that more women will continue to put themselves in vulnerable positions just to make ends meet. “The women in our study were often victims of the housing crisis,” added Maier. “Renting their own bed while sleeping on the sofa, accepting personal risk – because they felt they had no other choice.”
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