Airbnb is courting controversy through a deal announced earlier this week which will allow up to 16 lucky customers to travel to the Roman Colosseum and play gladiator. The property rental site is hoping to encourage “a more conscious tourism” through the $1.5 million deal which will see the first gladiatorial fights staged at the Colosseum in nearly 2,000 years, The Associated Press reported.
The announcement has already generated a vast amount of controversy, with Italian housing activists voicing concerns over situations in other major cities where short-term rentals have led to a surge in tourism, limiting affordable housing options for local residents.
Alberto Campailla, the coordinator of Nonna Roma, a nonprofit organization which works to provide food and housing for low income people, said that Airbnb and other short-term rental sites such as Vrbo “are literally driving people out of not only the city center, but also the outskirts and suburban neighborhoods.”
“It seems to me that the purpose of the Colosseum today is to be a tourist attraction, but not to create an amusement park within it,” Jaime Montero, a tourist from Madrid, told the outlet. “In the end, tourism eats the essence of the cities, here in Rome, as in other capitals.”
The controversial deal will allow eight Airbnb guests and their plus-ones to engage in staged (meaning fake and non-fatal) gladiatorial combat after the Colosseum closes on May 7 and 8, 2025. Guests will use the same underground routes reserved for ancient Roman gladiators to reach the arena. Applications for the experience open on Nov. 27, and winners will be through a lottery.
Alfonsina Russo, superintendent of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, argued that the Airbnb sponsorship is just one of many similar projects to finance renovation projects at the ancient site. But tourists have an altogether different opinion of the tie-in, which is being done in part to promote Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II.
“If they start to touch sacred monuments such as the Colosseum here in Rome, it is obviously something that should make us think and is, in any case, a bit worrying,” remarked Salvatore Di Matteo, a Naples resident visiting Rome. He called the promotion “yet another takeover of the territory” by major corporations.
The Roman Colosseum was built in the first century A.D. and hosted gladiatorial games, combat, and hunts up until the sixth century. The last official gladiator battle held at the Colosseum was in 435 A.D., which was 1,589 years ago.
