Airbnb olive branch is Italian idyll for free
Online lodgings firm seeks to appease critics with scheme to revive bygone villages steeped in decline
ACCUSED of squeezing the life out of picturesque towns and cities by encouraging a flood of tourists, Airbnb is seeking to make amends with a project in the sultry south of Italy.
The accommodation firm wants to recruit four volunteers to move to the village of Grottole, in the region of Basilicata, for a three-month “Italian sabbatical”.
They will be expected to become part of the fabric of the community and to help revive the village’s ailing fortunes.
Like many places in Italy, particularly in the south, Grottole suffers from chronic depopulation. So many locals have left that the population is down to 300. There are around 600 empty homes in the town.
The chosen candidates will enjoy an all-expenses-paid stay in the village, where they will be responsible for helping a local group, Wonder Grottole, to revitalise the community. They will help renovate buildings, maintain the vegetable garden and host Airbnb Experiences, which incorporate tours and classes for visitors.
In exchange, the candidates will be offered free accommodation, up to £800 in expenses monthly and have the opportunity to enrol in language courses and cookery classes. The deadline for applications is Feb 17.
“Our dream is to repopulate the historic centre of Grottole,” said Silvio Donadio, a founder of Wonder Grottole.
“Within 10 years, we’d like to see the village full of people from different cultures, perfectly integrated with the local community.”
Rocco Filomeno, a beekeeper, said: “People who arrive here from big cities will find an ancient village surrounded by woods and meadows. We’ll encourage them to leave behind their old lives and connect with our way of life.”
Francesco De Giacomo, the mayor, hopes the project will “revitalise the social fabric” of Grottole, which is virtually untouched by tourism.
The village lies west of Matera, which is poised to welcome tens of thousands of visitors as European capital of culture for 2019, with the inauguration to take place on Saturday. The town is known for its centuries-old cave-dwellings known as sassi.
Announcing the Grottole initiative, Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder and chief product officer, said: “Italy is an extraordinary country with a strong and vibrant rural community, countless hilltop villages and a passionate and welcoming culture. We want to help preserve these communities so they continue for generations to come.”
Dying towns and villages across Italy have come up with a variety of solutions to evade their decline. Some have offered empty houses for sale for just one euro, including the hilltop town of Gangi in Sicily, on condition that newcomers spend substantial sums restoring the properties.
Others, including Riace and Acquaformosa in Calabria, have welcomed migrants and refugees in a bid to reverse population decline.
There are also ghost villages that have experimented with alberghi diffuse – literally “spread-out hotels” – in which the whole place is turned into accommodation for tourists.
The best-known example is Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a stone village in the mountains of Abruzzo, in central Italy, which was turned into a spreadout hotel by Daniele Kihlgren, a Swedish-italian businessman.