Yesterday, the European Commission published a proposal for regulation on data collection and sharing relating to short-term rental (STR) services. The European Holiday Home Association (EHHA), the united voice for short-term rental accommodation in Europe, welcomes this first major effort which emphasizes the need for proportionate registration at local, regional or national level as a prerequisite for scalable platform data-sharing at EU level. Too often local rules are fragmented, complex and place excessive burden on STR accommodation providers. We hope that this proposal can clarify the role of all stakeholders, including local authorities, in ensuring fairer and responsible STR services across the region.

Short-term accommodation rentals (STRs) are an increasingly important part of the tourism sector. They represent nearly one quarter of the total EU supply of tourist accommodation[1], are very popular among travellers[2] and create opportunities for businesses, in particular SMEs, and citizens who use earnings from hosting to cover increasing cost of living. However, STRs are hindered by a variety of regulatory and often burdensome and outdated patchwork of requirements imposed on STR accommodation providers. These often create barriers to access the EU’s Single Market. The EHHA is convinced that a hyper-fragmented regulatory landscape and low awareness of the STR ecosystem[3] exacerbates legal uncertainty and poses challenges for effective enforcement.

The Non-Executive Chairman of the EHHA, Mr Eduardo Miranda, said:

“Short-term rentals are an essential part of the fast-growing EU tourism economy which creates jobs and opportunities for EU citizens as well as micro, small and medium sized enterprises. 

 The EHHA members has throughout the years supported STR data sharing with authorities[4], in order to facilitate evidence-based policymaking. We believe that a harmonised framework for data collection and reporting, based on fair and proportionate underlying local rules, will help address the current challenges the STRs are facing such as a fragmented regulatory landscape, lack of legal certainty and ineffective enforcement.

We fully support the Commission’s efforts to create a framework for data collection and sharing which, in turn, would allow policy makers to design informed and proportionate local STR rules – rules which comply with the Services Directive.”

The EHHA looks forward to continuing to actively cooperate with policy makers on this proposal. The proposal provides a great opportunity to increase the transparency, improve the understanding of the STR ecosystem, and support fair, proportionate and evidence-based policies at all levels to the benefit of all stakeholders, i.e. hosts, travellers, industry and society at large.

 

What is the European Holiday Home Association (EHHA)?

The European Holiday Home Association (www.ehha.eu) was founded in 2013 to give a voice to the short-term rental industry. The EHHA’s members are national associations representing private house owners and property managers, online short-term rental platforms, and companies providing ancillary services to the short-term rental accommodation providers. Its members operate across the European Union countries.

For further information: Interim Secretary General of EHHA, Viktorija Molnar; tel. +32 470 805982; email: info@ehha.eu

 

[1] The number of STR bookings during the summers of 2020 and 2021 was greater than in the summer of 2018; see Eurostat data

[2] Eurobarometer on STRs: “89% or respondents considered booking STR as a positive experience which they would recommend to others”, website: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2279

[3] STR Ecosystem, EHHA website: https://ehha.eu/str.png

[4] Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor to share data with Eurostat, website: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/CN-20200305-1