Not in my backyard? Is the anti-Airbnb discourse truly warranted?

The sharing economy, and Airbnb in particular, has emerged as one of the most contentious issues of recent times. The company has experienced rapid growth in its decade of operation, supported by strong consumer demand that is increasingly substituting that for the conventional hotel product (Guttentag & Smith, 2017; Hajibaba & Dolnicar, 2017), and supply side drivers such as hosts’ desire to make extra money, meet new people, and share under-utilized resources (Karlsson & Dolnicar, 2016). Consequently, Airbnb has become a major disruptor to a global hospitality and tourism industry that remained relatively static for decades, and has elicited sharp criticism, particularly in the United States.