Airbnb Is Expanding to Cuba, Where Only 4 Percent of Homes Have Internet Access

Airbnb has officially expanded to Cuba, where more than 1,000 private residences will open their doors to licensed American travelers. America's sharing economy is coming to Cuba, but there's no indication the company is bringing an important part of that equation—the internet—with it.

In January, the United States opened up diplomatic ties with Cuba for the first time since the 1960s. By February, Airbnb was already sending employees to the island in order to scout out potential hosts for the service. But it quickly ran into a problem: Just four percent of Cuban homes have internet access, which isn't ideal when you run an online house booking service. The company also pays hosts online, but there still isn't a reliable, legal way to send money online to Cuba from the US, and, again, few of the hosts have internet access, anyway.

Airbnb has gotten around this problem by having hosts there work with "hosting partners to help them manage their online requests and bookings." When I asked the company what a "hosting partner" is, it told me that they are "friends, partners, other hosts who have access and can help facilitate. It is a broad term." According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Airbnb is using Florida-based VaCuba, which sends cash to Cuban families, to pay the hosts.

It is possible—probable, even—that some Airbnb hosts in Cuba will make enough money from renting their homes out to eventually buy internet connections of their own. Airbnb's business model rests entirely on connecting the people of the world to each other. But it says it has no short-term plans to directly help any of its hosts purchase or get connected to the internet.

"Airbnb has great expectations for growth in the country but nothing official to announce at this juncture" regarding internet connectivity issues, the company told me.

Such a move would mirror, in a sense, what Uber does around the world—the company rents smartphones to drivers who don't have them, so that they are able to use the app. Airbnb has no public plan to follow suit.

It has been difficult for those traveling to Cuba from the US on a legal visa to find any sort of lodging ahead of time—a couple Cuban hotels do have websites, but services such as Expedia and Kayak can't legally allow you to search for or book hotels through them. For the time being, Airbnb says it will serve only those American travelers who have a legal visa to visit the country (strict tourism visits are still not allowed by the State Department).

So, Airbnb is definitely useful for Americans going to the country. And the hosts there are going to make money. But when, exactly, are they going to get the internet?

Cuba says it's working on it. The country made a vow earlier this week to connect half of its residents by 2020, and there are rumors that it's working with Chinese company Huawei Technologies to bring the first fiber optic connections to the country.

American telecom companies are expected to join, sometime. But, so far, the only one to actually connect with Cuba is the New Jersey-based IDT Corp., which has opened up a direct, long-distance phone connection between the US and Cuba. So far, it has no public plans to offer internet there.

So Cuba is welcome to the sharing economy, but only if its residents share their internet connections. Meanwhile, most of the island is stuck offline.