‘We’re not going to back down’: tiny Dorset B&B stands up to Airbnb’s legal bid to ‘monopolise’ letters ‘bnb’

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‘We do things differently here in Portland’: Rocca Holly-Nambi, director of b-side, and Cat Wightman, manager of the bnb-side guesthouse. Photograph: Pete Millson View image in fullscreen ‘We do things differently here in Portland’: Rocca Holly-Nambi, director of b-side, and Cat Wightman, manager of the bnb-side guesthouse. Photograph: Pete Millson Airbnb ‘We’re not going to back down’: tiny Dorset B&B stands up to Airbnb’s legal bid to ‘monopolise’ letters ‘bnb’ Three little letters - bnb-side’s name is a play on the local b-side arts festival, but Silicon Valley colossus sees threat to global brand

Amelia Hill Mon 14 Sep 2026 09.27 BST First published on Mon 14 Sep 2026 06.00 BST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I n one corner is bnb-side, a six-room bed and breakfast on the Isle of Portland – a tiny wedge of limestone tied by a narrow ribbon of shingle to the Dorset coast – that was created to help secure the future of the rock’s much-loved arts festival, b-side.

On the other is Airbnb , the San Francisco-based booking colossus. The battle between them is over the three little letters they share.

View image in fullscreen bnb-side, a six-room B&B on the Isle of Portland, has received legal letters from booking titan Airbnb. Photograph: Pete Millson b-side says the “bnb” in bnb-side means what it has always meant: bed and breakfast. But lawyers for the Silicon Valley titan say the name of the guesthouse, perched on an outcrop just 4 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, threatens the global brand of the $100bn heavyweight.

“We thought the name was both really obvious and really cool,” said Rocca Holly-Nambi, director of b-side. “b-side was founded almost 20 years ago, so when we set up our BnB in 2024 to raise money for the festival, we just popped the ‘bn’ in front because it’s a universally recognised description of what we’re offering.”