Airbnb: turning the collaborative economy into a collaborative society

New decentralised collaborative platforms are said to be challenging and redesigning traditional business models and reinventing how the tourism business works. Collectively termed the ‘collaborative economy’, these platforms are increasingly intersecting with the established tourism industry and how a tourist interacts with host communities, destinations and other tourists. By utilising the concept of cultural capitalism to explore the global “disruptive” brand Airbnb, we find that the collaborative economy is not about collaboration at all, and argue that the Airbnb platform is merely reinforcing the values of consumer capitalist society by providing a more efficient means to satisfy tourist wants and desires. While we conclude that collaborative economy in its manifest forms will continue, we believe the tourism industry is well placed to address its impacts, and recommend that authorities should recognise parts of the collaborative economy as predatory laissez-faire platform capitalism in need of regulation.