Airbnb makes exclusive Caribbean islands affordable with homestays

It's a sunny Monday morning and I'm on the school run. It's not my usual route - I'm in St Lucia. Diana is dropping off her 14-year-old daughter and I've come along for the ride. As Kaela trudges away to double maths, we head to the beach.

I have only been on the island a few hours but I seem to have stumbled into a Caribbean cliché. Bob Marley sings of redemption on the car radio; a giant television screen outside a bank shows live cricket and when I finish at the cash machine, I'm offered some "medicine" by a grinning Rasta who appears to vouch for his own merchandise.

We stop for a coffee at Reduit Beach; a sublime spot blessed with the traveller's holy trinity of frosty white sand, turquoise seas and cloudless skies. I could stay all day but Diana has places to be and I have sights to see.

Homestays are a relatively new lodging option in the Caribbean. Traditionally, visitors arrived aboard a yacht or a cruise ship, or on a costly package holiday. It has taken the internet to finally provide an alternative to the high-end hotels.

I've booked my accommodation through homestay website Airbnb. This causes uncertainty among immigration officials, who aren't sure how to proceed when they see the words "private home" on my arrival form. They eventually let me into the country when I assure them that I won't be sleeping on the beach.