Italy: Rent-free home in scenic Sambuca

Rome: Airbnb is looking for a candidate to move into a restored heritage home in Italy for a year. The candidate chosen for the opportunity has to host a guest in a spare room in the house for at least nine months.

Living in a heritage home in a picturesque Italian locale is a prospect most travellers will be excited about. They might want to avail an opportunity from vacation rental company Airbnb to live rent-free in a restored home in the country.

The home is situated in Sambuca, a small village in Sicily’s Agrigento province. Many Italian villages, becoming abandoned because young people are moving to urban areas, have been selling empty homes for a symbolic price of 1 euro in an effort to attract new residents. The buyers have to restore the homes.

Airbnb is looking for someone to move into one of these restored homes for a year. Candidates can apply for the opportunity online.

The successful applicant will have to host a guest in a spare room for at least nine months. They will retain the earnings from hosting.

“Candidates must be over 18, available to move to Sambuca for at least 3 consecutive months starting from June 30th, 2022, and be able to speak conversational English (Italian a plus!),” Airbnb said.

Remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has given people the opportunity to travel to different places as they go about their jobs.

The CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, had said in a series of tweets earlier this week, that the biggest travel trend in 2022 would be people spreading out to thousands of cities and staying there for months or whole seasons.

Chesky said it was likely that many people would become “digital nomads” by relinquishing their leases for fixed rented accommodations.

Chesky had announced that he would himself start living on properties listed by his company, adding that it will help Airbnb improve the experience for its customers.