Rental sites will soon have to report bookings to municipalities

GroenLinks MEP Kim van Sparrentak was a co-author and lead negotiator of the proposal. “Cities are struggling with a proliferation of illegal holiday rentals. This is putting pressure on the liveability and affordability of cities throughout Europe.

With this law, landlords will be required to share data with local authorities. This gives them the ability to better enforce holiday rental rules there, so that homes remain available for residents,” she said.

Under the new law, platforms will be obliged to share data every month on how many nights a house or apartment has been rented and to how many people. This will allow local tourist taxes to be more effectively imposed and collected in the future. Until now, rental platforms refused to share data, making it difficult to enforce local rules.

Furthermore, the MEPs agreed with Van Sparrentak’s proposals to tackle illegal holiday rentals. This will allow cities to more quickly suspend landlords and instruct platforms to remove advertisements when rules are violated or in cases of fraud. More responsibility will also be placed on platforms themselves to combat illegal holiday rentals.

Now that the European Parliament has voted on the proposal, negotiations with the EU member states will follow in the coming months. It is expected that the negotiations can be concluded within this year.