The European Commission has just now published the summary of the targeted consultation addressed to the services providers of collaborative economy in the tourism accommodation sector.

 The objective of the consultation was to better understand the development of the collaborative economy and its main features in the sector of short-term accommodation rental services.

 The online consultation took place during the period of 24 January to 14 March 2017. The online questionnaire was prepared by the European Commission and EHHA. The online consultation was promoted by the EHHA members.

 Main outcomes of the consultation:

  • The majority (56.3%) of service providers stated that they use the properties they rent out either as primary residence where they live on a permanent basis or as secondary residence where they reside temporarily (e.g. for spending their holiday). The majority of service providers (61.4%) offer short-term accommodation services in one property only. An overwhelming majority of 77.3% rents out their entire property, whereas 25.8% rent one room or multiple rooms, but not the entire property. The remaining 7.2% of respondents offer either the entire property or one or more rooms in their property for short-term rent.
  • For more than two-third of service providers (66.2%), the income generated by their accommodation rental activities amounts to less than half of their yearly revenues. Concerning the exact amounts of income generated the vast majority (57.5%) of respondents stated that their rental income amounts to less than 10.000 EUR per year.
  • Just over half of respondents (51.4%) reported that they never experienced any problems in the course of their rental activities. According to the explanatory remarks added in a number of responses, even among those who experienced some problems, the majority did not face major issues during service provision; in most cases only minor problems emerged and they could be solved in an amicable manner (mentioned in 30.7% of replies).
  • As for the ease of understanding and the simplicity of the applicable rules, service providers’ views varied: 50.9% of the active respondents considered the rules simple and easy to understand, whereas 47.3% gave an opposite feedback. Among those countries which generated the most responses, providers from Italy (75%), Germany (68%), Spain (59.1%) and France (50%), claimed the rules to be rather complicated and difficult to understand, whereas providers in the UK (85.5%), Portugal (87.1%), Austria (62.5%) and Ireland (60%) replied that the rules were clear and easy to implement. According to the additional remarks made by respondents who were critical about the current legal environment, the most important difficulty is that rules are highly complicated, unclear, disproportionate and ambiguous. Consequently, compliance with applicable legislation becomes very difficult; this applies particularly to tax rules.
  • Furthermore, many of these respondents complained that local authorities and governments take a rather hostile attitude towards short-term rental services (unjust restrictions, punitive fines).
  • When asked about the reasons for which respondents would stop providing the service, most of the service providers mentioned the complex and bureaucratic administrative procedures (34.3%) and the continuously changing rules with the subsequent uncertainty in ensuring legal compliance (29.9%) as the greatest obstacles in exercising the activity.
  • Nevertheless, based on the main findings of the survey and especially on the explanatory remarks added by respondents, it can be observed that service providers are overall satisfied with their rental activities and do not intend to end their service provision.
  • Last but not least, the large majority of the respondents (70.3%) reported that they use exclusively online platforms to reach out to customers.