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Airbnb struggles amid travel downturn

We hear how much of a challenge coronavirus has posed to accommodation platform Airbnb.

We hear how much of a challenge coronavirus has posed to accommodation platform Airbnb. Damon Lawrence is the co-founder of Homage Hospitality in New Orleans, and tells us he sold the property he let on Airbnb when rentals dried up at the start of the coronavirus crisis. Josh Bivens is author of a report by the Economic Policy Institute, which explores the upward pressure on local rental costs a surge in Airbnb properties can cause. And Lewis Ross from Edinburgh in Scotland explains the pressure he had to deal with after building up a portfolio of eleven properties, three with mortgages, that he used to let on Airbnb. Also in the programme, cafes and restaurants have been allowed to reopen across most of France today. Rob Lawrence runs Musette Bicycles and Cafe in Bordeaux in south-western France, and tells us how it feels to be up and running again. And we consider the longer term economic impact of recent closures on cafes and restaurants with Victor Mallet, Paris bureau chief of the Financial Times. Plus we hear from director Tomas Lutuli Brickhill how Netflix's first Zimbabwean film, Cook Off, which cost just $8,000 to make, might impact the world's view of the southern African nation.

(Picture: An Airbnb logo. Picture credit: AFP.)

Available now

27 minutes

Broadcast

  • Tue 2 Jun 2020 14:32GMT