Finding an ethical and sustainable travel booking company. Ratings for 29 travel companies, with recommendations, best buys, and what to avoid.
The reduction in flying during the global pandemic led to a rise in interest in 'slow holidays' and more local vacations. This guide gives you all the options for sustainable holidays.
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Airbnb’s business model has caused widespread controversy. The company markets itself as the app that allows you to find unusual and cheap accommodation. But the platform has also made it easy for landlords and investors to make huge profits from rentals in the most touristy places.
In recent years, the company has also been plagued by accusations of complicity in Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.
In this article, we explore the problems with Airbnb and list our favourite alternatives for finding more ethical holiday accommodation.
Should I boycott Airbnb?
Airbnb has faced multiple boycott calls in recent years. Here are a few reasons holiday-goers may wish to boycott the company.
Airbnb’s links to Israeli genocide
Multiple properties listed for rental on Airbnb are in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
Since the 1960s, Israeli settlers have forcibly displaced Palestinian people from their homes and land, to establish their own villages and towns, often with violence – an act described by the UN as war crime. These settlements have been widely supported by the Israeli state, as a way to tighten its control over Palestinian land.
In 2025, The Guardian published an investigation which found 321 houses, apartments or rooms listed on Airbnb that were in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The investigation focused on Tekoa – a settlement in the West Bank with multiple Airbnb listings advertising the “quiet, respectful, diverse” community. Yet, “in a four-mile radius around Tekoa at least 100 Palestinians have been forced out since 2023,” the Guardian found. “The rate of violence and land grabs in the area has escalated dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza.”
Airbnb usually makes 20% profit on its rentals, but since 2019, it has donated profits from the West Bank to an Australian non-profit. However, the company refused to tell the Guardian how much it had donated, but it stated “we will continue this approach as part of our global framework on disputed territories.”
Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, told the Guardian “Any company doing business in Israel’s illegal settlements is enabling a war crime and helping to prop up Israel’s system of apartheid.”
The Palestinian led campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions has called for a boycott of the platform.
Airbnb increases property prices
Airbnb is also facing massive pushback in cities around the world for its role in increasing house prices and fuelling gentrification.
In 2024, for example, Barcelona’s mayor announced that the city would not be renewing rental licenses for any apartments in residential blocks let for less than 31 days at a time, after 2028. The decision followed major rises in rental prices in the city, fuelling protests against overtourism.
Concerns appear to be well-founded.
In 2024, a study found that each commercial Airbnb listed increased per meter rent in Berlin by between 1.3 to 2.7%. A 2021 study found that in Portugal the average increase was 3.7%, and that in touristy areas like the historic centres of Lisbon or Porto, it could be as much as 30%.
