Swiss say no to Airbnb

BERN, Switzerland – The Swiss do not want to share their living spaces with strangers. This was the result of a study organized by Homegate.ch. The survey especially focused on the use of community marketplace Airbnb for booking and renting accommodations.

61.5 percent of Swiss people are generally satisfied with their housing situation, with 19 percent even stating that they are living in their absolute dream estate. However, according to the survey they do not want to share their living spaces.

In regards to use of Airbnb, the real estate platform revealed that more than 60 percent are clearly against renting out their housing to tourists.

One of the major reasons for this refusal is the indignation with letting strangers into their own homes (first place – 66.6 percent for German-speaking Switzerland / 46.2 percent for Romandie). The second most common reason was the lack of space (30.7 percent / 32.8 percent). The decrease in apartment cost by renting out to another party seemed to be not a good motivator, since 74 percent of participants also claimed to think that their current rent is justified.

Even when it comes to using Airbnb to book holiday accommodations, Swiss people are extremely reserved, despite the good brand awareness among 52 percent of all participants.

What is striking is that Airbnb is scarcely known in the canton Ticino: Only 14.5 percent of all participants from Ticino claim to have heard about this platform. Combined to match all of Switzerland, only 5 percent of participants have booked an accommodation via Airbnb and had a good experience.

Those who did, especially appreciated the cost-benefit-ratio for attractive rentals from nice people. The cities that proved to be the most popular here were New York, Paris and Berlin.

“Contrary to the worldwide ‘Sharing Economy’ trend, Switzerland seems to hold a unique mentality when it comes to privacy,” said Daniel Bruckhoff, PR spokesperson of Homegate.ch.

The Swiss real estate portal’s analysis was based on an online survey carried out from April to May by Switzerland’s link institute governed Tamedia panel (including German-speaking Switzerland, Romandie and Ticino). Its data consisted of random samples of 950 people with ages between 15 and 74, who use the Internet at least once a week.