AIRBNB: IS THERE COLLABORATIVE LODGING IN THIS GENTRIFIED SETTING?

Abstract

This article analyzes the digital platform Airbnb to determine if it represents a collaborative lodging alternative in Avándaro, Valle de Bravo, a town that has grown significantly in the last 10 years due to the settlement of residential tourism, which has conquered most of the central territory and is determining notable social, economic, and territorial changes. Semistructured interviews were applied to residents, merchants and real estate agents, and non-participant observation was conducted in the field. The research method employed was narratives, which helped to obtain qualitative data that provided a broad contextual framework of the problem. The review of the platform allowed the analysis of the insertion of this type of lodgings in this scenario, resulting in Airbnb being integrated as an element that supports the main process of tourism gentrification, which far from representing a collaborative alternative of lodging, intensifies social and tourist inequalities.