How Airbnb rentals are affecting Isle of Skye
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2018
- Its rugged landscapes have provided the backdrop to many a Hollywood blockbuster, but as the worldwide fame of the Hebridean island of Skye continues to rise, it risks joining the likes of Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam as a tourist hotspot in danger of being overrun.
Now new figures show the scale of private houses and rooms being rented out to visitors through apps and websites such as Airbnb, but the limited number of homes on this most idyllic of holiday destinations means islanders are at risk of being squeezed out.
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I’m Scottish and I moved to Skye 15 yrs ago , I own my wee house and work hard , have absolutely nothing to do with tourism . When I came the holiday season was May to September and we got the island back to ourselves for the winter , now it’s 12 months a year , even January when there’s only 6 hrs daylight and the weathers horrendous! A huge majority of the holiday let’s are owned by absentee landlords , long term rent for locals is impossible . The place is totally ruined and it’s like living in a Theme Park
It isn't an exclusively Skye problem, or a Scottish one. Most property in the national parks and AONBs in Britain are owned by the wealthy and or retirees. The islands are smaller so the effect is more concentrated, but trying to find affordable homes for locals anywhere attractive is virtually impossible.
skye used to be a great place every local shared the land and built their own houses worked off the land and even spoke their own language of gaidhlig but ever since these big companies started investing in skye the only way of making money nowadays is in the tourist industry and then the whole way of life of the gaels blew away as well their language and nowadays its very hard to find a local with gaidhlig
Having visited this stunning unspoilt(at the time) island over 40 years ago, it is just horrible to watch it being 'picked over' by the selfie hordes. All instagrammable beauty spots in the world now ruined by people checking off their must see lists. In both Paris and Venice this year the same sad story. The only answer is to visit less wwll known/less dramatic places before they too are discovered and ruined. Truly horrible.
Hi folks I was raised in Isle of Skye for way over 20 years with my parents brother and sister was amazing to get brought up there I would never change it for the world. But we moved to Glasgow and me and my brother to New York.
Anyways about Skye the problem 1 was building the bridge where it let to any ***hole heading over that wasn’t bad at first but as some one mentioned the the incomes started seeing the place a profit to them self so would buy 2 houses to sit empty for most the year to have there share in what doesn’t belong to them and take the money away from Skye. And the ones that are in charge of Skye yous should be ashamed of yourself as yous are the reason for what has happened on Skye so your hotels houses get the money and all the farmers that sold land to the incomes for a small dime take a long look at yourselfs yous are the ones who have ruined the island throwing locals out there places to stay yous are ******* sick hang your heads in shame . Skye will never be the way it ever was until you get the incomers and the greedy ******** away. After having such a good life getting brought up there it so had to see what Skye has become. Maybe as soon as the greed has gone, Skye can be its self again.
As a Skye resident I can confirm that there are virtually 0 homes available let alone affordable ones
Well blame your local owners for renting them out, not the tourists.
Bring back the bridge tolls!! With the money raised spent on local projects.
There are roughly 10,000 people on the Isle of Skye . I was told that 6,000 are involved in tourism in some capacity . While there is fishing , aqua culture , farming , forestry and sheep farming I get the impression that they are marginal industries . In a sense they exist to provide a backdrop to the tourist industry . They provide "colour" for the tourists . If the tourists weren`t coming some of these other industries would disappear or at least be diminished .
the locals on skye and prettymuch everywhere else in the highlands have been pushed out at a slower pace over decades by a big influx of primarily english incomers, often retired people and more generally people who've profited from selling their expensive houses in england to buy relatively cheaper (but rapidly climbing) property up here. anyone who's familiar with the highlands could tell you at the drop of a hat that most of the tourist industry here is run by english people too. even in this vid, most of the "locals" arent from skye or even the highlands.
in a place like skye and many other parts of the highlands there is very little for the locals, unless you're ok to be complicit in seeing your home trampled by hordes of tourists and sell your soul for tourism money (the crofter, you could see he was a bit ashamed... "supply and demand") there is little work. things that arent tourist related get no investment, the land itself is bare and supports little to no primary sector economic activity, because it's all owned by estates who keep such high amounts of deer and grouse that trees cant grow, it's a victorian situation. half of the real locals moved to the central belt because they feel alienated in their own areas because most of the local institutions are run by people with little knowledge of their culture, that and they cant afford the inflated house prices on 10 hour per week jobs as B&B cleaners.
This has now happened to Uist.
Speaking to a friend of mine on Skye, who sees a large influx of English residents/Londoners selling up with an idea of "im going to be rugged and leave the city" approach, Land rover purchase etc lol. He says "give them 6 months or a winter, and they soon sell up or Airbnb". Admittedly even he now ventures to the continent in the winter, and returns seasonally.
I can't imagine the AirBnb Tourist problem being that bad in winter. I wonder if it's seasonal that these poor people and families are without a home.
Its a tough one the world over. Does Skye have a tourist tax like Venice that can be put into small scale housing developments for year round and locals all together? but what's stopping those new houses being on Airbnb... Tourism is great, but also destructive to many things.
Thank goodness for the islands residents that see the bigger picture.
63 families waiting for home's.... Wtf is the council doing then? How is this the tourists fault? They support local businesses, granted the tourists are annoying but there'd be less money up there if it were not for tourism.
Fishermen Ryan That boat is now abandoned in the same spot pretty sad
I, a Scottish person, went to Skye a number of years ago and felt like a total outsider as English people owned the b&bs, hotels and pubs. They treated me like I had horns.
As a northern English person I've also been treated unpleasantly by southern English incomers in Skye and the Highlands. I think some of them become quite bitter - they move there to "escape to the country", the dream doesn't quite work out (they don't fit into the local culture, or have financial difficulties, or aren't well-adapted to a non-urban way of life and become bored and isolated), they end up feeling stuck there and resentful, and take it out on everyone else, including the locals and the customers they serve.
I was on skye 30 years ago stayed in the town(Kylakin ) right by the ferry stop .Had a real shitty experience.Went back 18 years later went to Jura locals were friendly as long as I wasn't going to buy any property. Relatives in Caithness Sutherland say too many southerners are buying the locals can't afford the new prices.It's a shitty state of affairs.
Only Scots should be allowed to live there!
Cycle Tourer mm.
Replace the words Sky and English in your sentence with Northampton and Polish, and you've perfectly described Northampton. You could do the same with Corby and Scottish, Banbury & Lithuanian, etc. etc. It's how the world works.
I was there in June of 2013 and there were relatively few tourists. I remember climbing a mountain with my girlfriend and we were all alone... We stayed in an Airbnb too, I think it had a Broadford address. The owner said he built the house himself. I have fond memories of Scotland. I hate to hear people being forced out of their apartments to make room for tourists though. I hope they build affordable new housing soon. There should be plenty of new tourist money to do it if it's shared. The same thing happened in Barcelona Spain, the city was overrun with an avalanche of tourists. A relative few get rich at the expense of many. Skye is still in the early stages I think so there's time to take corrective action. Encourage tourism but be more fair about the allocation of the new found money. Maybe small inconspicuous tourist taxes here and there...
Sadly this is the same everywhere, most of n wales tourist areas have there homes bought off rich pensioners from england, nowhere for locals to live and are forced to leave the area they grew up in, disgusting realy, gov should only allow a certain percent of holiday lets per area
Sorry, Skye natives, you'll just have to find a life elsewhere. A former Martha's Vineyard islander, myself, I know how this familiar script goes. Somebody gets the idea that tourist money is more important than family, the real estate wheeler/dealer vultures come swooping in, the locals begin to fight each other and - whoops - there goes the family home. End of family, end of story. Wish it had a cheerier ending. Sincerely.
Same on Sylt in northern Germany, unfortunately.
jabbermocky as the population gets bigger and bigger it'll only get worse for places like this wrongly or rightly. People need somewhere to go on holiday and there's always the local population which will get bigger.
Pip Yorkie there is plenty of space to build more housing.
Build more housing and then there will be no more space left for people to see and enjoy the beauty of the island, and then no more tourists only hundreds of unwanted B&Bs for the locals to stare at every day until death.
Michael Macluskie: Actually, by building more housing, tourists will still come to Skye ( the holiday "brand" by that name ) but the character of the island will become more like any other seasonal tourist destination favored by English and other holiday travelers. Think Brighton or Atlantic City. Natives and old time visitors will see the changes and probably not like them but the tourists will arrive in droves, nevertheless, dropping their cash and rubbish, then they'll retreat until the next tourist season crashes upon the shores. An unhappy picture but that's commercial success for ya.
City of San Diego, California, has decided that residential zoning does not currently permit non-specified uses such as short-term vacation rentals. All uses must be specified. The City Council has not been able to come up with ordinances that will balance all the interests of the community and those who wish to make money by AirBNB, etc. Lot's of luck. Hermosa Beach outlawed short-term vacation rental out of single family residences. The Court of Appeal upheld the City ordinance. Carmel is fighting short-term rentals, too.
typical biased reporting. Pick a subject, pick a villain, make 'news'. Yes tourism is a problem for the Island, is it AirBNB that is the problem, I doubt it. 4% of tourists. Not even statiscally important. The problem is Skye cannot cope full stop.
Bob Tahoma You need to curb your self righteousness and listen to your own advice. It's easy to see how blame was being directed. If you'd read the title of this video and listened to what the reporter actually said in the video you'd see how AirB&B is indeed being labelled in this video. At 1:54 .. Approx 1 in 8 homes on the Island are listed on AirB&B. Click-baity perhaps? The reality tho is that it's a catch22: The homeless waitress in the video has a job because of tourists. The open question he should have concluded with is whether that catch22 will always exist no matter how many homes are built. The Island is a victim of it's own beauty & isolation.
If i go there.. I'll camp.
Robbie Frazer good luck with the midges
the midgies are only noticeable for around a quarter of the year, just go in late september or early october, the weather is usually still pretty decent, the sunsets and sunrises are nicer and at better hours, and there's much less tourists so driving and parking is quicker and easier.
Will there is a camp site near were I live
Interesting. Same thing is happening across the pond in Prince Edward Island Canada.
If people are letting out their spare rooms on AirBnB the money is directly going into the islanders pockets. Glad the council is building more homes. At 135 that’s a much higher proportion of the population than many other places. This clip doesn’t really spell out what the impact of AirBnb is. Apart from inferring that it stops some local people from finding somewhere to live. The solution is a restriction on the number of cottages that can be let out to tourists whether AirBnB or some other system. Landlords were doing this anyway, now they are just taking advantage of an easier system to book and advertise. I can’t see that a room In a household can be a problem. However this has always been an issue in summer in Devon and Cornwall where lets are winter only to make room for the more lucrative tourists long before AirBnB was invented.
Tricia Cassel-Gerard at the end of the day population is going to get bigger and bigger and people need somewhere to go on holiday, what would people prefer more cheap flights to Spain and the money been spent over there or more holiday spenders here
Bob Tahoma possibly comfort is not an appropriate word. I guess the fireman is pissed off but he would likely prefer crofters to get the money rather than Premier Inn. I have tremendous sympathy for locals. As I said we have a similar situation in Devon and Cornwall. The whole country is under housed.
Met a very rude english woman on the Isle of Skye. A local, it seemed assured. She was rambling on about her new car tyres as id tactfully tried to stop her from colliding with a road worker on a passing spot as he was on foot with a wheelbarrow and the squeeze was tight. I understand the right of way in the situation, but his safety felt threatened.
The owners of the accommodation were English as well. Mind you, there was a lack of warmth and hospitality from them also....
I'd dearly love to buy back my family home in Breakish. Sadly, I'll never be able to afford to. A notion kept soley in my dreams.
Don’t want to be that guy but it’s always the English. As a Sgiathanach
it was my last year for skye fairy pools ruined by erosion glenbrittle campsite peace shattered by the the constant flow of traffic coming to the shop for a coffee coral sands,the quaraig,neist point car parks capacicity full you wanted it to be popular careful what you wish for
GREAT respect for SCOTLAND!
Typical greed...
So come the day the local house owners and population have no petrol station,supermarket,doctor,school or pub,because no staff can afford or find a house to live in..theyll have no one to blame but there own self greedy arses.
The bubble WILL burst in day.
It is a hugely massive problem in the spring and summer but come autumn and winter it's not so bad. No one wants to be on Skye or in Highland that time of year as a tourist. It seems a lot of the locals and those who have bought only for letting are putting all their bets on 3-4 months of the year. It is true that there is a big housing problem and hopefully the council can put caps on who can and can't rent. How else can those restaurant and hotel workers afford to live there? The biggest problem I've seen (my parents live in Kyle) is the buses full of Chinese and Eastern European tourists who literally get dumped for 30 minutes at a time at different locations. They stampede out of those buses with no regard for anyone else because they want a photo. It makes it really unpleasant if you live there - my parents are older and my mum has been pushed into a few times as she's leaving her favorite coffee place - not nice. The buses are also not suitable for the roads - they need to use smaller buses not only for safety but to avoid roadside erosion.
Same problem in Pembrokeshire!
you know this is why back in the old days of renting rooms by going inside them is good. Maybe inconvenient at times but tough luck the people that live there are more importent
absolutely sustainable
Conditional legislation on homes / lets solves this issue of imbalance. Unfortunately the focus is never intensified toward MPs local council bodies, where many planners are not qualified or simply won't visit areas/sites long enough, and talk to a variety of people to understand. This is an issue in every tourist area - I'm an Architect and Planning Consultant and have dealt with this in many areas, literally all the main issues of balance can be solved by fair legislation in tune with multiple facets; ecology, population, location, supply/demand, heritage, economy and so on. Heading to Skye next month and will be camping as responsibly as we can, with the midgies!
I'm so glad I was able to visit this magnificent place before it gets ruined
Me too!
Build underground, with only doors and windows visible and it's more eco friendly.
Please go back in mid January.
Tiny house, anyone?
Ayy up! Here’s ma home town
They know best what to do with their homes.
At least this influx of money will make them less likely to abandon their island to the big cities in search of work.
Skye’s problem started when they built the bridge lol not air BnB
Locals will be priced out.. happening everywhere.. the venice effect
We are coming in December,,,,, low season! Hoe we don’t “put anyone out” ! 😢
That is not normal weather!
the sheeps sucking milk is so damn cute
4:28 to 4:33 comment if you see it.
Wonder how many “mainland Chinese”
No surprise to the Scottish people , This part of Scotland has not been manged correctly . Iv tired to visit Skye in the last two years and i cant find accommodation that suits my annual leave calendar , because i don't drive i have to find accommodation in local towns ect . Skye is obviously a popular destination over the last plus years, tourist visiting from all over the world, if this issues isn't dealt with i reckon Skye will eventually lose its popularity.
SKYEXIT is the answer
SKEXIT!
It should be a free world when a home owner wants to make extra money to help themselves out, within reason as long as they are not charging huge amounts of money letting out a room. There are now a few campsites for those wanting to spend less fee a night and are okay to rough it. Remember that tourists do bring money to the island.They buy food and shop in towns like Port tree. Who ever governs the island should invest in some development if there is a need for more permanent homes. Get the "tiny home" concept going with small footprint to fit the beauty of the island.Worried about tourists trashing the island then put into place rangers and employ people to be the tourist police. All other places eventually have to have ground rules on activity happening on trails and on beaches.
I wanna see Skye but without the tourists plz 😂
Do a half decent video about the place. 3 goes at it FFSaid
why is that the fault of airbnb?
That European funded monstrosity of a road shafted skye
WHY ARE YOU NOT REPORTING THE FREE TOMMY ROBINSON PROTESTS IN LONDON? ? ?
Lol. The land Lords destroy the working class
Build hotels and housing. Problem solved.
"hurr durr stop giving my neighbours money" - lazy locals who can't adapt to the market. Same in Barcelona or Venice. It's bizzaro world. People protesting growth of an industry and jobs that it gives. Can you imagine northerners protesting AGAINST OPENING a new mine back in the day?
yes, let's have heavy industry everywhere, what a lovely world it would be. the end result of your idea is WALL-E world.
How is tourism heavy industry?
Peasant of Pontus When they're regulation sized American tourists.
Why not save enough money before moving from Paisley to Skye? Then you wouldn't have to sleep on a boat.
I stay on skye tourists you are a nightmare parking where you shouldnt give people abuse when they tell you are parking on private property respect the locals
0:08 a Clinton voter.
Everywhere is changing, everybody wants their cake ......and then they want to eat it, so put up or shut up.
AirBnB is not the problem. The challenge are people and councils with dated mentalities like this channel...
I'm Scottish and have been to Skye. It's overrated big time. Orkney is way better
Get a life and travel abroad
greathey1234 pretty sure it is for people not from the UK... Idiot
Well lots of the people are coming from abroad.......... derp.
63 families waiting for home's.... Wtf is the council doing then? How is this the tourists fault? They support local businesses, granted the tourists are annoying but there'd be less money up there if it were not for tourism.
spf_fishing Does the council of a population of 10,000 have the resources to build even 20 homes?? And more houses built means potentially more tourists. As noted there was only one vacancy available.