The European Holiday Home Association (EHHA) and the EU Travel Tech – which together represent the entire short-term rental sector – welcomes a landmark agreement between short-term rental platforms and the EU statistical office, EUROSTAT. This action follows the commitment made by the sector earlier to provide (in line with GDPR rules) statistics relating to short-term rental accommodation.
Today, the European Commission announced that it has reached the landmark agreement with Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor which will for the first-time permit access to reliable data about short-term rental accommodation offered via these collaborative economy platforms. The data will be shared on a continuous basis and will include the number of nights booked and the number of guests staying at short-term rental accommodation.
Earlier the short-term rental sector welcomed and supported a series of workshops in 2017 and 2018 as organised by the Commission to identify policy principles and good practices specifically on collaborative short-term accommodation services. The STR sector is convinced that sustainable growth is possible by ensuring a higher degree of regulatory consistency across the EU in compliance with the existing applicable EU regulatory framework. The sector pro-actively committed to a Roadmap of actions to help create a sustainable future for short-term rentals. The agreement with EUROSTAT follows the commitment made by the sector.
The short-term rental sector hopes that data sharing will contribute to more complete statistics on tourist accommodation around Europe, allow public authorities to better understand the development of the collaborative economy and support evidence-based policies. The sector calls for decision-makers across the EU to better-understand the sector’s specificities and impact, and to actively cooperate to ensure a balanced development of STR services to the benefit of all stakeholders, i.e. hosts, travellers, industry and society at large.
What is European Holiday Home Association (EHHA)?
The European Holiday Home Association was founded in 2013 to give a voice to the short-term rental industry. The EHHA’s members range from associations representing private house owners to managers’ associations and digital platforms. Its members operate across the European countries. The core task of the association’s members is the distribution of short-term rentals in private houses and apartments.
What is EU Travel Tech?
eu travel tech represents the interests of travel technology companies. eu travel tech uses its position at the centre of the travel and tourism sector to promote a consumer-driven, innovative and competitive industry that is transparent and sustainable. The membership spans Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), Online Travel Agencies (OTA), Travel Management Companies in business travel (TMCs) and metasearch sites.