No guilt trip: In space-starved cities, a ‘fairer’ type of home sharing emerges

Banners against touristic apartments hang from balconies as people walk past them at Barceloneta neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain, August 18, 2015. REUTERS/Albert Gea

BARCELONA: The residents of Eixample, an elegant, tree-lined district in central Barcelona, are getting used to a new sound: the rattle of suitcases being dragged along paving stones. 

Until a few years ago, this neighbourhood – named after the Catalan word for ‘extension’ because it was built in the 19th century as the Spanish city outgrew its medieval borders – was not a popular part of the city for tourists to stay in.