HAVANA, Cuba, April 02 2015 – Home holiday rental site Airbnb has added Cuba to its list of destinations.
More than 1,000 properties in the Caribbean nation are already listed, but can only be booked by users in the US.
The San Francisco-based site is restricted from showing the listings elsewhere because of a US trade embargo against the island.
Nevertheless, Airbnb said Cuba could eventually become one of its biggest markets in Latin America.
“We are actually plugging into an existing culture of micro-enterprise in Cuba,” said the firm’s regional director Kay Kuehne.
“The hosts in Cuba have been [renting out rooms to travellers] for decades.”
One expert, however, said the site faced major challenges.
“While Airbnb is a valuable alternative for millions of travellers, in the context of Cuba, because of the high margins it takes from every transaction, it won’t necessarily meet with great success,” said travel writer Simon Calder.
“All the Cuban bed-and-breakfast providers I know would like to keep all the money rather than handing 15 percent or more to an American corporation,” he added, referring to the total amount the firm deducts from both the host and the guest.
“The other thing is that anybody who has used the internet in Cuba will know that a prospective host is unlikely to be able to respond immediately given the shockingly slow internet there, which reminds me of what you used to find across the developing world in the early 1990s.”
Airbnb visitors outside the US can view the listings, but can only add them to their wish lists, rather than book them. An on-screen alert states that the site is not licensed to provide booking services to others.
