PURPOSE: to harmonise and streamline the framework for generation and data sharing in short-term accommodation rental services across the EU.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: 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, and this has been boosted by the emergence of online platforms.
While short-term accommodation rental services create many opportunities for guests, hosts and the entire tourism ecosystem, their rapid growth has also triggered concerns and challenges. One of the main challenges is the lack of reliable information about short-term accommodation rental services, such as the identity of the host, the location where those services are being offered, and their duration.
In order to obtain information from hosts and online short-term rental platforms, public authorities at national, regional and local level are increasingly taking steps to impose registration systems and other transparency requirements, including on such platforms. However, the legal obligations regarding data production and sharing differ considerably within and between Member States.
The disparity in transparency requirements hinders the realisation of the full potential of short-term accommodation rental services and is detrimental to the proper functioning of the internal market. Harmonised rules for the production and sharing of data on short-term rental accommodation services are therefore necessary to ensure that public authorities have easy access to good quality data on short-term rental accommodation services, so that they can develop and implement appropriate policies in an efficient and proportionate way.
CONTENT: the proposal aims to establish harmonised rules for data collection and data sharing with competent authorities relating to the provision of short-term accommodation rental services offered by hosts through online platforms. More specifically, the proposal offers:
- a harmonised approach to registration schemes for hosts, with an obligation for public authorities to maintain appropriately designed registration schemes if they want to obtain data for policymaking and enforcement purposes;
- obligations for online platforms to enable hosts to display registration numbers (which will ensure hosts’ compliance with registration requirements) and to share specific data about hosts’ activities and their listings with public authorities;
- specific tools and procedures to ensure that data sharing is safe, compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation, and cost-effective for all parties involved.
In concrete terms, the proposal would require public authorities wanting to obtain data from online platforms for policymaking and enforcement purposes to maintain, as a first step, a registration scheme for hosts and their units, which would need to comply with certain requirements.
Online platforms would be obliged to require hosts to provide this registration number and to periodically share a pre-defined set of data with public authorities (e.g. the number of expected and actual bookings, and the number of guests that stayed in a unit per booking).
Member States would have to establish a Single Digital Entry Point to permit the transfer of data, and would have to clearly state which obligations apply to hosts and online platforms on their territory.