Two foreign guests pose for a photograph outside Arti Xia's Airbnb-listed courtyard home in Xicheng district. (Photo: Courtesy of Arti Xia)
Arti Xia, a 40-year-old Beijinger who lives just five minutes walk from Tiananmen Square, has been hosting guests in his courtyard home through Airbnb since May last year.
"We decided to rent out our rooms for three reasons: to make money, to make friends and to provide a window for foreigners into the lives of local Chinese people," said Xia, who works as a freelance photographer.
Since launching in 2007, Airbnb, an online platform that allows people to find and rent out lodgings, has become a popular alternative to traditional accommodations like hostels and hotels.
Airbnb has close to 1 million rental listings on its website, with accommodation options in almost every major city in the world.
According to a New York Times article in February, the website booked stays for 20 million people in the past year alone.
In China however, uptake has been slow.
While the company was unwilling to disclose the number of rental properties in the country, a PR employee told Metropolitan that their immediate focus was to promote Airbnb as an accommodation option for Chinese tourists going abroad.
Xia is among the small but enthusiastic community of Beijing's Airbnb hosts.
"The courtyard where I live has housed three generations of my family since the 1910s," said Xia.
For 420 yuan ($68) per night, guests can stay in a 40-square-meter room in the courtyard lodging, which is equipped with a standalone toilet, a TV, disposable slippers and toothbrushes.
"We're also very passionate about hanging out with our guests on terrace," said Xia.
Besides Xia's refurbished courtyard residence, a quick look at other Airbnb options in the city include bungalows and lofts in hutong neighborhoods and tastefully decorated apartments in CBD areas with Scandanavian-style furniture.
Slow embrace
Kathy Lee, a researcher for Airbnb focused on user experience, told the New York Times that "Airbnb doesn't do as well in collectivist countries," citing Japan as an example.
In Tokyo, there are about 2,500 listings, "less than half of what can be found in Madrid, less than one-fifth of what can be found in Paris," the report says.
Lee's description of Japan as a collectivist country that is culturally avoidant of uncertainty might also be applied to China, where users of popular question-and-answer website Zhihu have expressed skepticism about the chances of Airbnb's model taking off in the country.
Many users noted that most Chinese people would be uncomfortable with the idea of renting their homes to strangers on a short term basis.
"Airbnb's model relies on mutual trust between host and guest," wrote a user with the nickname Pan Pan.
"But China still lacks credible social networking website."
"How can a host ensure the security of his or her assets? For example, if I give the key to a visitor, I would be worried about the visitor replicating the key," said another user under the name of Yang Huzhi.
Undeterred, Airbnb are expanding their operations in China. In 2013 and 2014, Airbnb staff started coming to China to meet and interact with local hosts, according to a report on IT news portal donews.com in 2014.
The company recently set up its first Beijing office, and are actively recruiting staff on LinkedIn. Its number of followers on Sina Weibo has also grown to more than 830,000.
Xia said that his own experience of being an Airbnb host in Beijing was positive.
In September 2014, he started subletting a second room in a courtyard in Xicheng district. His wife even quit her job to manage the rental of the two properties, under the name Vivi's Family.
