NO SHAME: Airbnb tries to blame Spain's overtourism crisis on...get this...hotels!
Sorry Silicon Valley, but it's not gonna fly
Come on, Airbnb, give us a break.
According to Sky News, the widely reviled Airbnb has hit back at "overtourism" protesters in Spain, saying it is "totally unfair" to pin the blame on the short-term rental firm, because of course, all those protesters, the people who live in Barcelona etc, are all wrong.
Sorry Theo Yedinsky, the vice-president for public policy at Airbnb, who accused local authorities of "scapegoating" the app in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday, as Sky first reported — the Spaniards are right.
If you can forget for just one moment Airbnb’s ruinous impact on communities across America and beyond our borders, while billionaire bozo Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky sits around talking about nothing on podcasts along with another serial phony, Michelle Obama (look it up), consider the smugness baked into that job title “VP fpor public policy”. Really? If a corporation has gotten so ruinously large that it needs a point person on public policy, it means it’s too big — and time for it to be broken up.
With his false statement that “the reality is overtourism is really driven by the hotels,” Mr. Yedinsky throws the gauntlet. So we’re throwing it back.
We are lobbying California members of Congress Robert Garcia and Raul Ruiz to investigate Airbnb’s questionable business practices in Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Ojai, Long Beach, San Diego, Encinitas, and other Calfornia resort communities.
What the Europeans do to fight Airbnb’s malign intrusions is up to them.
But in California, we are can smell corporate B.S. from miles away. We ARE FREAKING FED UP. We’ve had it with the disruptions and the deceit, the hapless tourists from halfway around the world dragging their trolley suitcases down our streets at 4AM because they’re too cheap to spring for a room at the Westin.
ENOUGH.
We support the Spanish protesters and wish them luck, because they’ll need it — Airbnb’s tech-mafia tentacles are long and ugly — like much that emanates from Silicon Valley these days.
It doesn’t mean you have to accept it, however. Reject it — and restore peace and honor to travel, regardless of the time zone.