EU Said to Propose Rules for Airbnb to Share Data With Authorities Next Week

The European Commission will suggest light-touch guidelines for Airbnb and different short-term house rental firms, individuals accustomed to the matter stated.

Under the draft guidelines, short-term house rental firms must present information on numbers utilizing their providers and what number of nights they keep to nationwide authorities, they stated.

The information will probably be saved at a single digital entry level accessible to all public authorities, one of many individuals stated.

The proposal, which the EU government will announce subsequent week, marks an effort to sort out the patchwork of various nationwide legal guidelines throughout the 27-country zone regulating Airbnb and its friends.

Airbnb didn’t instantly reply on Thursday to a request for touch upon the draft plans.

Authorities in Amsterdam, New York, Paris and different cities widespread with vacationers have blamed Airbnb for worsening housing shortages of their cities which have pushed out lower-income residents.

Smaller cities and people within the countryside nonetheless have been extra welcoming, hoping to draw extra vacationers. The proposed EU regulation goals to stability the pursuits of the 2 sides.

Airbnb has lately tried to deal with such considerations by capping the variety of days per 12 months that houses will be rented out in central Paris, London, and Amsterdam.

The proposed laws will must be thrashed out with EU member states and the European Parliament subsequent 12 months earlier than it may turn into regulation.

Back in August, the Associated Press reported that Airbnb would use new strategies to identify and block individuals who attempt to use the short-term rental service to throw a celebration.

The firm had stated it might introduce know-how that examines the would-be renter’s historical past on Airbnb, how far they reside from the house they wish to lease, whether or not they’re renting for a weekday or weekend, and different components.

At the time, the corporate stated that the screening system that rolled out for listings within the US and Canada was examined since October 2021 in components of Australia, the place it produced a 35 % drop in unauthorised events.