Airbnb hopes that the European Commission will use the short term rental (STR) initiative to help give more EU citizens the option to share their homes to boost their income. Currently, local rules sometimes mean that EU citizens are not able to share their homes. The holiday rental company argues that these rules are often designed with large-scale tourism operators in mind and it put forward its own vision on how to unlock the benefits of hosting. The company say this is more important than ever as homeowners struggle to cope with the cost of living crisis, as it gives people the option to make money through their homes.
Airbnb started in 2008 during the Great Recession to help people afford their homes. Now, as households across the EU battle a cost of living crisis, Airbnb has shared new data on the income that hosting is generating for new hosts across the EU.
The data shows EU hosts who welcomed their first guest in the first six months of 2022 have already earned more than €270 million. As guests seek affordable travel options across the EU, hosts have not had to wait long to generate an income from their home – half of new EU listings in Q2 2022 received a booking within just two days of being active on the platform, and three-quarters received a booking within eight days.
More than 40% of EU hosts say they share their homes to help afford rising living costs with the typical EU host earning just over €3,000 in 2021 – an increase of 18% compared to 2019 and equivalent to two months’ additional pay for the median EU household.
EU hosts have welcomed more guests on Airbnb than any other region in the world and have collectively earned more than €43 billion by renting their homes on Airbnb. The vast majority of EU hosts have just one listing and many are located outside of urban centres which helps spread tourism benefits to local families and communities.
Based on a survey of EU hosts, nearly one in five said they or someone in their household work in either education or healthcare. More than half who self-report their gender are women, over a half are in full or part-time employment and over a quarter are retirees.
Georgina Browes, Head of EU Policy at Airbnb, said: “Hosting is an economic lifeline for many everyday Europeans that helps them afford rising inflation and living costs – but burdensome local rules mean many others are shut out from the opportunity.
“We hope the EU will use the forthcoming short term rental (STR) initiative to help give more EU citizens the option to share their homes to boost their income, while giving governments the tools they need to clamp down on speculators and over tourism.”
Fragmented rules that are often designed with large-scale tourism operators in mind mean many EU citizens are not able to share their homes. The European Commission is working on new harmonised EU-wide rules, and Airbnb put forward its vision on how to unlock the benefits of hosting for millions of everyday Europeans called The EU Host Action Plan.
The EU short term rental initiative consultation received over 5,500 responses, 80% of which were from EU citizens, including short-term rental hosts struggling with disproportionate local rules.
Chris Lehane, Senior Vice President, Policy and Communications, Airbnb, said: “The majority of EU hosts on Airbnb rent one home to help make extra income. Airbnb proposals give governments the tools they need to crack down against property speculators while allowing everyday Europeans to share their homes to supplement their earnings.”
The EU Host Action Plan aims to safeguard the benefits generated by short-term rentals in the EU while giving governments the tools they need to regulate short-term rentals effectively and tackle potential negative impacts, based on five pillars:
- Establishing an EU host register: A new EU-wide host register would ensure that hosts have access to fair and proportionate rules and retain their right to provide services as a fundamental freedom of the EU. A common EU system that replaces local registration would streamline registration, especially for everyday hosts who are disproportionately affected by burdensome local rules. Airbnb would support this process by ensuring only those hosts with an EU registration number are allowed to publish listings on the platform.
- Clarifying local rules and introducing safeguards for everyday hosts: As Airbnb work to create more economic opportunities for everyday Europeans to participate in the travel economy, Airbnb must also have a way to address cases where an over-concentration of STR speculator activity can negatively impact residents. This includes an EU policy approach which allows local governments to take action to limit property speculators.
- Supporting enforcement: As well as removing listings that do not show the necessary EU registration numbers, Airbnb commits to expanding access to the City Portal to support enforcement actions for local authorities and to further support and empower everyday hosts. With more than 100 partners globally, the City Portal is Airbnb’s purpose-built tool to support public sector regulation by providing insights on Airbnb’s presence in neighbourhoods, tools to help enforce laws and better access to Airbnb when needed.
- Greater access to data: Airbnb commits to working with EU policymakers to share data on host activity at the EU-level, and to ensure that local and national authorities have the necessary data to manage effective enforcement.
- Supporting local communities: Airbnb will continue to work with governments and authorities across the EU to make Airbnb part of the solution to the challenges they face. This includes expanding its Neighbourhood Support Lines to tackle noise and nuisance, leveraging its flexible travel tools to help guide guest demand to where it is needed most – as both a tool to generate economic development and disperse the concentration of travellers – and working with more governments and tax authorities to simplify and automate the payment of tourist taxes.