Watch out, Havana: The (North) Americans are coming. Starting Thursday, Airbnb will list 1,000 properties throughout Cuba, The Associated Press reports, with 40 percent of the rentals in Havana and the rest scattered throughout other tourist destinations on the island. Airbnb has spent three months lining up apartments and houses, but the idea is apparently nothing new in Cuba.
"We believe that Cuba could become one of Airbnb's biggest markets in Latin America," said Airbnb regional director Kay Kuehne. "We are actually plugging into an existing culture of micro-enterprise in Cuba. The hosts in Cuba have been doing for decades what we just started doing seven years ago." Some other U.S. businesses have entered the Cuban market since President Obama and Cuba's leaders started unfreezing relations in January, but this expansion will probably have the most impact on Cuba's citizens. For now, only U.S. Airbnb customers can book rooms in Cuba.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What is the future of the International Space Station?In the Spotlight A fiery retirement, launching the era of private space stations
-
What are the rules of a no-buy vs. low-buy year?The Explainer These two revised approaches to purchasing could help you save big
-
80 dead in Colombia amid uptick in guerrilla fightingSpeed Read This was the country's deadliest wave of violence since the peace accords set by President Gustavo Petro in 2016
-
US port strike averted with tentative labor dealSpeed Read The strike could have shut down major ports from Texas to Maine
-
Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US SteelSpeed Read The president is blocking the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns
-
Judges block $25B Kroger-Albertsons mergerSpeed Read The proposed merger between the supermarket giants was stalled when judges overseeing two separate cases blocked the deal
-
Rupert Murdoch loses 'Succession' court battleSpeed Read Murdoch wanted to give full control of his empire to son Lachlan, ensuring Fox News' right-wing editorial slant
-
Bitcoin surges above $100k in post-election rallySpeed Read Investors are betting that the incoming Trump administration will embrace crypto
-
Enron mystery: 'sick joke' or serious revival?Speed Read 23 years after its bankruptcy filing, the Texas energy firm has announced its resurrection
-
US charges Indian tycoon with bribery, fraudSpeed Read Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors for his role in a $265 million scheme to secure solar energy deals
-
Boeing machinists approve contract, end strikeSpeed Read The company's largest union approved the new contract offer, ending a seven-week strike
