Submitted by Angela Kockler, Host2Host member and host in SE Portland

On an absolutely beautiful, blue-sky 68° day on Saturday, March 16th, local short-term rental hosts from the Portland metro area teamed up to remove litter from an Inner-Eastside neighborhood of Portland, OR. In 2 short hours, 10 volunteers picked up an estimated 84 pounds of trash!

The weather and the company couldn't have been more perfect for accomplishing our mission, which included several things: generating Neighbor and City goodwill, socializing with other short-term rental hosts, and beautifying our city to help inspire tourism. All of this helps to strengthen our short term rental businesses and collective success. 

As we gathered to start the day, we introduced ourselves, the locations of our rentals, and one operational improvement we are hoping to make this year. Then folks paired off with some new acquaintances, and I overheard more than one promise to follow up and continue the conversations they were having when the event concluded. 

This is an example of a win – win – win type of event. One where we are helping ourselves, helping each other, and helping our broader community. We hope this can become a periodic event for Host2Host, and that we can also use this as an example to demonstrate the value of short-term rental businesses when we advocate with the city of Portland at large.

It also just feels really good to be picking up trash off of our streets so that it's more pleasant on our eyes. I'm grateful to all of the volunteers who showed up. We hope this event will continue to grow over time. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future litter cleanups feel free to contact Angela Kockler.