Short term rentals have become the major feature of the tourism sector and impact on the local communities in a myriad of ways. Some of them positive – increased tourism flows, new business opportunities, additional revenue sources; other less so – noise, pollution, antisocial behaviour, lower availability of long-term rentals. The LRAs are unevenly affected by this phenomenon and have to date adopted different attitudes and policy measures to monitor and respond to the expansion of STRs.
The aim of this opinion is to:
discuss how the balance between the needs of single market and of local and regional authorities should be stroken
ensure that the future Regulation guarantees that local and regional authorities have access to data quality and usable that can help them inform policy-making, support planning and enable inspection
call for enhanced "compliance by design", meaning that illegal listings can be barred at entry points and that the platforms actively strive to detect and remove them as soon as possible
emphasise that tourism realities vary across the Union and that the STRs may have a very different market share and reputation in European destinations
convey to co-legislators the message that the local and regional authorities need to be involved in the implementation and evaluation of the Regulation
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
Calls for a periodic evaluation of the Regulation, including any effects on providers of online short-term rental platforms and any effects of the increased availability, usability and quality of data. In order to obtain a broad view of developments in the sector, the evaluation should take into account the experiences of Member States competent authorities and relevant stakeholders;
Requires that the Member States ensure that where an authorisation scheme applies, the issued registration number must not be used to offer a unit on an online rental platform until the authorisation procedure is finished;
Requires that the online short-term rental platforms design, organise and constantly update their online interface in a way that entering a registration number is obligatory in cases where the address of a specific unit is located in an area where the registration procedure has been established or applies; the platform shall make reasonable efforts to randomly check at least 20% of the listing concerning the existence or not of a registration procedure and perform additional ad-hoc check at the request of competent authorities;
Requests the data from online short-term rental platforms to be made available to local and regional authorities to inform policy-making and support planning, implementation and enforcement of local rules;
Requests that the implementation report, 5 years after the date of application of the Regulation, is made to the European Committee of the Regions alongside the Parliament and Council and that it included an assessment of the impact on local and regional authorities and their ability to devise policies based on the data shared by the platforms with the competent authorities.