Airbnb hosts in Paris who violate housing regulations will receive letters warning them to follow the city’s roommate rules. The move was announcement in collaboration with the Mairie de Paris, and follows growing pressure on Airbnb to deal with the growing number of illegal listings on the site.
With listings rising from 40,000 to 60,000 in the past 12 months, Paris is Airbnb’s most popular city. However, the number of long-term rentals and businesses using the site to rent multiple properties – considered by many residents and local officials to be detrimental to the availability of residential housing – has also increased.
Beginning in April, Airbnb will send communications to hosts who may be renting their primary residence for more than four months or accommodation that is not their primary residence. In Paris, anyone who wants to rent their house for longer – or rent accommodation they don’t live in – must apply for a change of use permit and register it as commercial property. Breaking the rules can result in a fine of up to €25,000.
Airbnb’s new measures will be tested for four months, after which the town hall will assess the impact.
A recent Guardian survey of Airbnb found that up to 41% of full property listings in Paris were either rented more than 120 days a year or rented by a host with more than one listing on the site.
“Flatsharing is a great opportunity to showcase the best of Paris and boost economic opportunities for Parisians, but this cannot come at the expense of affordable housing,” said Jean-François Martins, deputy mayor in charge of tourism and sports. “This represents a step towards more responsible short-term rentals”
However, while the letters mark a positive step by Airbnb – which launched similar measures in San Francisco in January — it’s unclear how far the company will go to help officials take action against hosts who ignore the warning and continue to break the rules.
Over the past nine months, Paris officials have carried out raids on apartments in some of the city’s most popular tourist areas – the 1st and 6th arrondissements and the Marais district – in hopes of catching up with unregistered commercial landlords.
Last year, Airbnb agreed to collect tourist taxes on behalf of Paris, as it has done in other cities including Amsterdam, Washington DC and Chicago. But while it has tightened up its tax operations, it has so far been reluctant to crack down on illegal rentals on its site.
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