Peer-to-peer

International short-term rental platform Airbnb has called on the mayor of Barcelona to reconsider extending the measure to restrict short-term rentals, arguing that they benefit the hotel industry while failing to address over-tourism and the housing crisis.

In recent years, tax revenues from short-term rentals in Greece have surged dramatically. Tax earnings from Airbnb-style rentals have increased more than tenfold since 2017, according to Giorgos Pitilís, head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE).

A “property manager” was renting out 199 luxury villas in Mykonos on “Airbnb-style” short-term leases, but had not registered them in the Register of Short-Term Accommodation Properties.

“Across Greece, a typical Airbnb host rents out a home for just 24 nights a year, and more than one in two report that the additional income from this activity helps them maintain their homes,” said Valentina Reino, Head of Public Policy for Southern Europe at Airbnb, in response to the government’s announcement of new regulations on short-term rentals in Greece.

Airbnb Regulations:

The government has rejected suggestions from agencies for planners on leasing days per year and is turning to temporary – mild – measures for “saturated” urban centers.

With double-digit growth rates following the upward rhythms recorded in the rest of Europe, short-term rentals in our country are “running” this year, according to the most… official bull, that of the major market players, Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and TripAdvisor.

Andreas Chiou, the president of the association of property managers, recounted an incident with a Chinese customer who rented an apartment through Airbnb and incurred €3,500 in phone charges from calls made via the internet. Speaking to ERT, Chiou explained that the client was an employee of a construction company and likely needed the phone for meetings.

An unbelievable phone bill of…3,500 euros was left for a Airbnb property owner to pay by a Chinese man ho stayed there for a week.

The urgent need to address the acute problem of homelessness is driving the government’s decisions from September onwards. The primary goal is to free up homes from Airbnb and incentivize long-term rentals to help young couples struggling to find accommodation.