EU Publishes Proposed New Rulebook for Short-Term Rental Sector

The European Commission adopted a proposal Monday (Nov. 7) to enhance information sharing between online accommodation rental platforms and public authorities

If implemented, the new rules will affect Airbnb and its peers in the short-term home rental space. The rules are intended to harmonize registration and reporting requirements for hosts across the European Union. Currently, a patchwork of national and municipal laws has led to a fragmented regulatory environment.

Airbnb has previously struck an agreement with the EU statistics office Eurostat that allows public authorities to access quarterly published data on the number of people using the platform and the number of nights they booked. However, pointing to the “limits and ineffectiveness of the soft tools such as voluntary agreements,” the commission made the case that a legal mandate creates a better instrument for data sharing that is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

See also: Airbnb Faces New EU Data-Sharing Regulation

The proposal suggested different authorities should require similar information from hosts and called for “a harmonized approach to registration schemes for hosts, with an obligation for public authorities to maintain appropriately designed registration schemes if they want to obtain data for policymaking and enforcement purposes.” The commission stated that registration schemes should be simple and easily accessible online.

It also proposed obligations for online platforms to display hosts registration numbers and to share specific data about hosts’ activities with public authorities.

Authorities will also be able to suspend registration numbers and ask platforms to delist non-compliant hosts under the scheme.

To streamline data sharing between online platforms and authorities, the commission proposed automating the process of platforms reporting data about the number of rented nights and number of guests once a month.

The proposal included the caveat that “lighter reporting possibilities are foreseen for small and micro platforms.”

Should the EU adopt the proposal, member states will have a two-year period to establish the necessary data exchange mechanisms and enforce the new rules.

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