Rental platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com must share more data with local drivers in Europe. The European Parliament voted Thursday with a law that requires the rental sector to be more transparent.
The companies must report monthly how long a property has been rented and how many guests the owner has received. To date, rental platforms have been reluctant to share such data. The Netherlands and all other Member States must now provide a digital counter where landlords provide data on a monthly basis. EU member states have two years to implement the rules at national level, after which the European rules will come into force.
The rules must counterbalance the excesses of mass tourism, pressure on the housing market and illegal rental. Better access to landlord data should allow municipalities to develop “appropriate policies” for better enforcement against illegal rentals, according to the European Parliament. This makes it easier to identify which landlords or rental platforms do not adhere to the rules, and they can be obliged to remove advertisements.