Airbnb feud: Bathford locals outraged as tourists keep snapping up all the fancy bread
There’s no shortage of towns and villages that are upset with the rise of Airbnb – pushing up rents and increasing tourist traffic.
But for one West Country community, the popularity of the short let service is having an unwanted effect on their breakfast tables.
Residents of Bathford – near Bath – are furious with Airbnb owners buying up all the loaves of their favourite bread to offer to their guests – most notably, the Sherston load made by bakery Hobbs House.
They claim hosts buy “up to ten loaves at a time” leaving locals without toast for their marmalade or bacon butty.
Hobbs House, which is based in Chipping Sodbury, delivers the £3.50 ($7) loaves to suppliers across the southwest.
The company’s Wild White sourdough, at £4.50, is another hit and made using local grain from nearby Castle Combe
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One volunteer at the Bathford Village Shop said she had “half a mind” to ration the bread.
“I feel for the locals that can’t get their Sherston,” she said.
“Good bread is practically a human right. There’s a lot of Airbnbs in Bathford and the hosts come in and buy it all up before 10.30am sometimes. Then the Airbnb tourists come in and buy it to take home.
“Everyone knows it’s the best bread around.”
A disgruntled mother at the shop said the situation was “ridiculous”.
“My daughter’s coming home from London this weekend and I can’t get nice bread to make her a bacon sandwich,” she said.
“I haven’t seen her in four months.”
Anthony Blackburn, 74, another local, said Sherston was ‘gold dust’ and that he had “bought a chest freezer” to store multiple loaves.
Cal White, 60, said it was a bad start to any Saturday finding the “interlopers” had taken all the bread.
Bathford has become increasingly overwhelmed with Airbnb properties because some residents are taking advantage of tourists’ inability to afford high hotel prices in Bath.
Hobbs House sympathised with the plight of locals.
It said it had been delivering bread to Bathford for 20 years but it was the first time tourists ‘have disrupted local consumption’.
Airbnb said its guest stays help support local and small businesses.
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