Rental sites for homes, holiday homes and B&Bs, such as Airbnb and Bookin.com, will soon have to submit their bookings to municipalities on a monthly basis. A large majority of the European Parliament believes that such rental platforms should be kept under better control.
GroenLinks MEP Kim van Sparrentak was co-author and chief negotiator of the proposal. “Cities are struggling with a proliferation of illegal holiday rentals. This puts pressure on the quality of life and affordability of cities throughout Europe.
This law requires landlords to share data with local authorities. This gives them the opportunity to better enforce rules for holiday rentals there, so that homes remain available for residents," she said.
The new law requires platforms to share iedere monthly data on how many nights a house or apartment has been rented out and to how many people. This will make it easier to impose and collect any local tourist taxes. The rental platforms have so far refused to share data, making local rules difficult to enforce.
Furthermore, the MEPs agreed with Van Sparrentaks' proposals to tackle illegal holiday rentals. This allows cities to more quickly suspend landlords and order platforms to remove advertisements if rules are violated or in cases of fraud. More responsibility will also lie with the platforms to combat illegal holiday rentals themselves.
Now that the European Parliament has voted on the proposal, negotiations with the EU countries will follow in the coming months. The negotiations are expected to be completed this year.