Airbnb can be positive for the community | Letters

Readers respond to an article by Arwa Mahdawi on some self-catering hosts calling for a strike in response to new guidelines

Regarding Arwa Mahdawi’s article (Airbnb feels like a soulless rip-off – and its hosts are revolting, 28 October), I’m really sick of being scapegoated. I’m aware that Airbnb has negatively impacted some urban communities, but without the income from the two self-catering cottages on my family croft, I couldn’t afford to live in Wester Ross, raise my kids here, spend my money in the village stores and volunteer as a community councillor for the last 25 years.

There may be tyrannical hosts with 90 pages of house rules, but the new guidelines are nonsensical. If self-catering guests are now not expected to wash up, am I supposed to provide them with enough crockery and cutlery for each day of their stay? They’ll then have to live with a growing pile of dirty dishes.