There is no competitor, it's an initiative from the state cuba. It's also not like it is heavily advertised. It just was basically the only option until now. I frequently use airbnb, so i know that it's great. Just saying that Cuba the state already had that kind of offering for years, as a fact.
casa particulars are more of a concept than a business entity. It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" (without the breakfast). The government involvement is licensing & taxation, although there's a thriving black market as well. If anything, this will help AirBnB adoption since the concept of renting out a spare room is already widely known.
> It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast"
No, it means something like "independent household". But functionally, yes, they are "bread & (maybe) breakfast".
Yeah, this is why I've been leaning towards regular hotels more and more. You can see dates of availability, and confirmation is instant. With Expedia, I always have that stress factor of "are they going to say yes or no?" and often times I end up placing several inquiries just to cover my bases.
I agree - though there are a lot of airbnb hosts these days who do automatic confirmation. Like hotels, if you booked it, you got it, basically.
Funny thing is that Cuba already has its own "airbnb" called "casa particulares", it's definitely a great way to travel! :)
Exactly. In every village there are tons of casas available, which can easily be found because there is a logo on the door. You just knock on the door and ask foor a room. I did not book any hotels during my visit in Cuba this year. The problem I see in the short term: mobile internet for travellers in Cuba is rare / nonexistent and internet access for locals seems not ubiquitous. Probably both will change soon now t…
@rdeboo The Helms Burton Act is still in place. The embargo has not been lifted.
After watching Conan's visit to Cuba, it looks like an awesome destination. http://teamcoco.com/cuba
Conan almost looks like Caesar Flickerman on the streets of Havana. My wife is Cuban, I grew up in Miami. Cuba is a beautiful country with an interesting culture and a extremely corrupt oppressive government. The government of Cuba lies somewhere between Russia and North Korea for political oppression it is the type of place where expressing discontent the government in your own home can get you thrown in jail for ye…
Cuban here, I also lived in Russia several months and my wife is Russian. Cuba is well below Russia (and of course North Corea) in terms of oppression. Marco Rubio never lived in Cuba and only reflects the feelings of the previous generation of Cuban that emigrated to Miami when Castro took the power. This is understandable as Castro took many of their properties but has nothing to do with how cubans from 2015 feel. This can be easily seen when you note that he spoke against the Cuba-US relationship improvement recently introduced by Obama which is clearly something most of cuban supported.
Funny thing is that Cuba already has its own "airbnb" called "casa particulares", it's definitely a great way to travel! :)
Also paladares, where people run restaurants out of their homes in a similar fashion. Very neat way to experience the culture!
Interestingly in Cuba it is illegal to provide free sleeping accommodations. CouchSurfing and the like are wholly illegal there so casa particulares are the only option for homestay.
Conan almost looks like Caesar Flickerman on the streets of Havana. My wife is Cuban, I grew up in Miami. Cuba is a beautiful country with an interesting culture and a extremely corrupt oppressive government. The government of Cuba lies somewhere between Russia and North Korea for political oppression it is the type of place where expressing discontent the government in your own home can get you thrown in jail for ye…
Cuban here, I also lived in Russia several months and my wife is Russian. Cuba is well below Russia (and of course North Corea) in terms of oppression. Marco Rubio never lived in Cuba and only reflects the feelings of the previous generation of Cuban that emigrated to Miami when Castro took the power. This is understandable as Castro took many of their properties but has nothing to do with how cubans from 2015 feel.…
My wife lived in Cuba from when she was born up until 2005 when her grandmother was finally able to get a family reclamation to go through. She knows many who were thrown in jail just for being associated with people who the government was "unhappy with". I would agree it's not as bad as North Korea, maybe my opinion of Russia is too high.
There is no competitor, it's an initiative from the state cuba. It's also not like it is heavily advertised. It just was basically the only option until now. I frequently use airbnb, so i know that it's great. Just saying that Cuba the state already had that kind of offering for years, as a fact.
casa particulars are more of a concept than a business entity. It pretty much means "Bed&Breakfast" (without the breakfast). The government involvement is licensing & taxation, although there's a thriving black market as well. If anything, this will help AirBnB adoption since the concept of renting out a spare room is already widely known.
Cuba is not known for the exquisite culinary culture but I remind really nice meals in the casas particulares.
It comes to my mind the bread with homemade guayaba jam. And a fish we ate one night. It was so massive that they had to cook it in the oven of the local bakery.
I really hope this change Cuba is experimenting now will be for the better.
AirBnb doesn't have to do anything to move into a new country. Just accept listings.
The article clearly states that they had to jump through hoops to pay hosts, since they all want cash. They did that, as well as a few other things (looks like they had to talk with the US government about it as well first).
Cuban here, I also lived in Russia several months and my wife is Russian. Cuba is well below Russia (and of course North Corea) in terms of oppression. Marco Rubio never lived in Cuba and only reflects the feelings of the previous generation of Cuban that emigrated to Miami when Castro took the power. This is understandable as Castro took many of their properties but has nothing to do with how cubans from 2015 feel.…
My wife lived in Cuba from when she was born up until 2005 when her grandmother was finally able to get a family reclamation to go through. She knows many who were thrown in jail just for being associated with people who the government was "unhappy with". I would agree it's not as bad as North Korea, maybe my opinion of Russia is too high.
I never knew anybody who went to jail for speaking against the government neither directly heard such a story but I can believe that happens(journalist Yoanis Sanchez is an example). This is the way I see it, the government normally don't care much about this people or what they think/say, except when they try to do something that could affect their public image, for example if the Pope comes to visit and they want to organize a public protest. In this circunstances they are preventively sent to jail, and afterwards released when the visitor is gone. It is often the case that real criminals present themselves as "politic prisoners", that adds much noise to the whole situation and usually gets exaggerated by the media in Miami. While this is not ok, in Russia people actually get killed in similar circumstances, while the main opposition leaders in Cuba are all alive.