The second MeetUp of the Airbnb Host of the Etruscan Coast has just ended and there have been so many emotions around it. The very idea of creating a community of passionate hosts, attentive to the territory and respect for the guest is already synonymous with continuous improvement. This time the location that hosted us is the beautiful Tenuta la Valle owned by Valeria Masoni, another Community Leader of this fantastic developing community, together with me.
The theme addressed during this meeting was extremely interesting. We had the pleasure of hosting Claudia Pattarini, Community Leader of Lake Como and member of the Council of Hosts, as well as creator together with other hosts of the Love Sustainability project. A set of attentions, precautions and rules which, if used on a large scale, could really make a difference in terms of respect for the environment and beyond.
I was therefore be able to interview Claudia directly, who tells us what sustainable hospitality means in times of energy crisis and what Love-Sustainability good practices consist of.
Interwiev to
Claudia Pattarini
How was this project born and with what basic idea?
The embryo of this project dates back to a few years ago, when some hosts from Lecco and I understood the great potential and impact in environmental and social terms that many hosts and many guests, if properly sensitized and educated, could generate from daily management more sustainable than houses.
At the time, the Legambiente Lecco club had helped us
The project was then developed in the way we know it today by a group of Community Leaders from the north to the south of Italy, with the aim of enhancing the sustainable work of many hosts and helping hosts and guests to respect and take care of a house and a territory.
What does sustainability mean to you?
For me, the concept of sustainability is very close to the work of the good father and mother of a family a few decades ago.
When we lived, especially in rural areas (it’s easy for me to give this example thinking of your areas) of a subsistence economy that didn’t waste anything, where every resource was used for multiple purposes and when it was no longer needed, it was transferred, transformed or reused in another way.
To update the concept today, sustainability for me means aiming to reduce waste as much as possible and optimize the resources present, respecting and caring for people and territories.
What is the link between Airbnb and sustainability?
I would like to answer you with enthusiasm but at the moment there is still no precise vision of sustainability in Airbnb and no clear line of action. We certainly know that they are working on it and that our project is contributing in some way to creating it.
So full speed ahead with the leaves!!!
The more we are Host Love Sustainability, the more the platform will feel motivated to develop a proposal in this regard.
Are you only targeting holiday home owners?
We address the entire non-hotel sector, sometimes defined in a slightly different way in the various regions. But I confess that we have received great appreciation for this project from some schools that would gladly adopt it for teachers and students and from some museums.
What are your next goals as a Love Sustainability group?
A first objective is to expand the project and also include a part linked to the more specific dimension of the house. I am referring to a whole series of adaptations, tricks, equipment that a host can have to make the home more sustainable.
The second obviously is to spread the project as much as possible to increase its real positive impact and demonstrate to Airbnb that Host and Guest are ready to take on this challenge!
Any advice for everyone now?
But of course… unload the leaves, paper the house and communicate to the world that we are HOST LOVE SUSTAINABILITY!
To start being a more responsible host right away, just download the free kit that you can find by clicking on the leaflet.
