MIAMI — Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company and Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit working to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges, today announced a partnership to encourage ocean-friendly travel to South Florida Airbnb hosts and their thousands of guests traveling to the area for the Big Game.

While travelers head to South Florida to support their favorite team, Airbnb and Ocean Conservancy want to make sure they also join #TeamOcean, a campaign launched by Ocean Conservancy in September 2019 to connect sports fans everywhere with the magic of the ocean. With this in mind, Ocean Conservancy has developed ocean-friendly tips for the South Florida Airbnb host community, and separately for all guests traveling to the area for the Big Game. Airbnb will be sharing the tips with both groups ahead of the game.

Ocean-friendly tips for Airbnb hosts include:

• If offering toiletries, consider installing refillable dispensers for soap, shampoo, conditioner and other products rather than providing travel-size containers.
• Offer outdoor-friendly reusable dishes, cutlery, and drinkware for guests who plan to eat on-the-go or enjoy a meal on the beach. Offer reusable containers for your guests to reduce waste when they eat out.
• Provide a stash of reusable straws for your guests (but remind them that, if they can, they should #SkiptheStraw).
• Encourage guests to choose tap water by providing a water filter as well as reusable water bottles.
• Share a list of local restaurant recommendations that include sustainable and ocean-friendly options.

Ocean-friendly tips for guests include:

• Consider ocean-friendly transportation options: walking, biking, ridesharing, and using public transportation.
• Skip the travel-size toiletries: Buy refillable travel-size bottles for your carry–on.
• Bring your own take-out container when eating out.
• Pack your reusable water bottle and choose tap water.

Airbnb and Ocean Conservancy will also be encouraging both hosts and guests to participate in a cleanup on January 28th at Virginia Key Beach Park. Participants can track their trash collection on Ocean Conservancy’s award-nominated Clean Swell app, to continue building the world’s largest marine debris database.

Airbnb and Ocean Conservancy first teamed up in September 2019 to launch the Antarctic Sabbatical, which was an unprecedented opportunity for five passionate individuals to travel to Earth’s most remote continent on a first-of-its-kind scientific research mission.

”Every year, volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup remove millions of items – mostly single-use plastics – from shorelines and waterways around the world,” said Allison Schutes, Director of Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. “We need a suite of solutions to address the ocean plastics crisis, but these numbers show that individual actions make a difference. We are thrilled to welcome Airbnb’s hosts and guests to join Team Ocean to help secure a victory for our beaches and waterways as they travel for the Big Game.”

“Since its inception, Airbnb has been a champion of sustainable travel,” said Tom Martinelli, Airbnb’s Florida Policy Director. “We recognize the many environmental threats facing South Florida and are committed to making sure we – our hosts and guests included – do our part to help mitigate these challenges and make sure travelers can visit the area for many years to come.”

Ocean Conservancy has led the fight for a clean, trash-free ocean for more than 30 years, mobilizing 15 million volunteers to remove more than 300 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways worldwide through its International Coastal Cleanup. With an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic entering the ocean annually, more needs to be done, and Ocean Conservancy continues to work with governments, companies, academics, and the public to pursue science-based solutions to the ocean plastics crisis.

In 2018, Airbnb launched its Office of Healthy Tourism, an initiative to drive local, authentic and sustainable tourism in countries and cities across the globe. Last Earth Day, the Office released internal data finding that 88 percent of Airbnb hosts around the world stated that they now incorporate green practices into hosting and 66 percent of Airbnb guests surveyed said the environmental benefits of home sharing were important in their choice to stay on Airbnb.

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About Airbnb

Founded in 2008, Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where people can belong through healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable. Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces, passions and talents to become hospitality entrepreneurs. Airbnb’s accommodation marketplace provides access to 5+ million unique places to stay in more than 81,000 cities and 191 countries. With Experiences, Airbnb offers unprecedented access to local communities and interests through 15,000 unique, handcrafted activities run by hosts across 1,000+ cities around the world. Airbnb’s people-to-people platform benefits all its stakeholders, including hosts, guests, employees and the communities in which it operates.

About Ocean Conservancy

Ocean Conservancy is working to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together with our partners, we create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. For more information, please visit www.oceanconservancy.org.