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Airbnb has blamed “overtourism” in Europe on the resort business, because the US short-term dwelling leases group hits again towards criticism from regulators and residents that its service is resulting in overcrowding in vacation hotspots.
Theo Yedinsky, vice-president for public coverage at Airbnb, advised the Monetary Occasions that the corporate is the sufferer of “scapegoating” by native authorities, similar to in Barcelona, the place there have been protests towards the post-pandemic increase in abroad journey.
“We find yourself getting numerous the blame, particularly in metropolis centres [but] the truth is overtourism is basically pushed by the accommodations,” he mentioned. “It’s completely unfair.”
Lately, platforms that permit for short-term lettings similar to Airbnb, Vrbo and Reserving.com have come beneath fireplace for points from making housing unaffordable for locals to water provides being depleted.
Whereas nearly all of in a single day guests in Europe decide to remain in accommodations — 63 per cent in 2024 in keeping with EU statistics — it’s the fast progress in short-term lets that seems to fret residents most.
Final yr travellers stayed briefly lets for 715mn nights, a rise of 57mn in contrast with 2023, with the comparable determine for accommodations up 73mn to 1.9bn, in keeping with EU knowledge.
Native protests have damaged out in Barcelona, Amsterdam and the Greek island of Santorini over complaints of decreased property provides and hovering rents.
Authorities have responded. Lisbon suspended the issuance of latest short-term rental licences. In January this yr, Greece launched a one-year ban on new short-term rental registrations in Athens.
Barcelona has taken essentially the most drastic motion, with the Spanish authorities final month ordering Airbnb to take away almost 66,000 listings from its platform.
“I feel the Mayor of Barcelona wants to take a look at the development of accommodations, he wants to take a look at accommodations basically . . . and they should construct extra housing,” Yedinsky mentioned.
“They’re scapegoating Airbnb. They’re attacking a fraction of the issue after which questioning why it’s not getting higher,” he mentioned, including that accommodations are driving many extra in a single day stays than letting platforms.
Since lockdowns ended, tourism to European places similar to Barcelona and Athens has boomed, with this yr set for one more report. From June to the tip of August, greater than 115mn nights have been booked on the continent, up 13.5 per cent in contrast with the identical interval final yr, in keeping with knowledge from unbiased knowledge analytics firm AirDNA.
Authorities crackdowns on short-term leases are “irritating” mentioned Yedinsky, as “politicians haven’t been utilizing knowledge” to take a look at the “issues which are inflicting overtourism”, arguing short-term leases assist alleviate overcrowding by directing tourism to much less travelled locations.
Nonetheless, Ilaria Pappalepore, an affiliate professor in tourism on the College of Westminster, mentioned accommodations are typically positioned in vacationer areas, whereas Airbnb leases are scattered throughout cities — resulting in a rise in noisy nightlife, rising home costs and crowded public transport in residential areas.
The problems attributable to short-term lets has been “brewing for a very long time however now it has exploded,” Pappalepore mentioned.
One senior govt at a rival journey platform mentioned that Airbnb’s lobbying method risked inflaming tensions with regulators and native communities. “They’ve been . . . fairly soiled of their combating,” the individual mentioned.
A spokesperson for HOTREC, the European resort business’s foyer group, mentioned it’s time for Airbnb to “play by the identical guidelines” because the resort sector, including that the business operates inside strict planning, licensing, and tax frameworks which are aligned with metropolis methods and native tourism capability.
“The difficulty is just not tourism per se, it’s unbalanced tourism. [Airbnb] operates with out ample oversight,” it mentioned.
Requested if Airbnb is fearful that the governmental crackdowns will considerably affect income, Yedinsky mentioned it “has labored with regulators everywhere in the world for the previous 10 years. We’ve been profitable in doing that . . . this firm will proceed to achieve success”.
Knowledge visualisation by Clara Murray
