Europe: A public consultation period on short-term rental accommodation services [the “short-term rental initiative”] launched by the European Commission is due to close at midnight tonight Brussels time [13 December].
The consultation period, which has been open since 27 September, invited citizens and organisations [stakeholders] from across European member states to contribute their thoughts on the current landscape and the potential impacts of possible measures affecting short-term rental services, including factual information, data and knowledge relevant to the initiative.
Stakeholders at national, regional and local levels include regulatory authorities, relevant tourism authorities, cities and their representatives; citizens and businesses, or their representatives, who offer short-term rentals type of accommodation; citizens and businesses providing services in the short-term rental sector [e.g. property management, cleaning, maintenance]; online platforms intermediating short-term accommodation rental services; hotels, their associations and other similar tourist enterprises other than short-term rentals type of accommodation; consumers and their representatives; local communities; NGOs and cross-EU networks.
First announced in its SME Strategy in March 2020, the European Commission created a Staff Working Document to provide a transition pathway for tourism and build “a more resilient, innovative and sustainable ecosystem”, including a legislative proposal for improving the framework for short-term rental services.
This included Airbnb signing a landmark data-sharing partnership with Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission, which gave permission for public authorities in Europe to access independently published data on short-term rentals on Airbnb and other platforms.
Meanwhile, in October, it was reported that the European Union was consulting on regulating the short-term rental market across the bloc, with the option of a single set of pan-European rules being considered.
At the time of writing, more than 5200 valid feedback instances had been submitted, with respondents from France, Italy and Germany leading the way.
Questionnaires are available in some or all official EU languages and responses can be submitted in any official EU language.
For reasons of transparency, organisations and businesses taking part in public consultations are also asked to register in the EU’s Transparency Register.
Fill out the online questionnaire at this link by tonight’s deadline.
