This morning (20/11/2018) I woke up to BBC Radio 2 at 6am to get ready for work, which mentioned a story about AirBNB deciding to unlist properties in disputed parts of Israel, this is sad. I’ve booked all my travels in hostels in Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Europe and China using hostelworld.com mostly when I travel and see things for myself and not told what to think.   Hostelworld act as a middleman for booking hostels by paying for a deposit in advance and knowing the place isn’t fully booked when you get there (can happen)

AirBNB would be the better choice for a couple, family or a group.   Now being a Christian Zionist, avid traveller and curious about places, this is yet another one of those depressing stories how countries, authorities and businesses ignore the plights of Christians persecuted who live in Muslim majority countries (Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan, etc) and decide to pick on Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

In some weird way this might be a good thing seeing as Israel based companies often succeed better in the holy land than multinational organisations, ie if you look at Eldan car rental is more popular than Hertz Avis Budget etc and Aroma coffee shops out did Starbucks.

This is Hebron by the Tomb of the Patriarchs.   This is considered disputed territory but contains crucial bits of history of Jewish people, and its a place where Jews and Palestinians live.  I’ve not been here and I want to go and see it.   This is a more unstable place to visit.   I think its ok to visit but to go with a tour guide.

AirBNB is one of these internet companies that ‘disrupt’ traditional businesses doing hotels and holiday villas using the power of the internet, and are probably the “go to” brand for many holidaymakers looking to rent a place as part of a trip.

I see this as an opportunity for Israeli businesses to be shrewd and take away some of their business.   Let’s hope Israeli travel companies make a new portal to book places for foreigners that can see the many exciting parts of the country