The French hotel industry furious at the Olympic Committee’s partnership with Airbnb — MercoPress

The French hotel industry furious at the Olympic Committee’s partnership with Airbnb

French hotels have long accused home-rental platform Airbnb of taking advantage of minimal oversight to undermine their business

French hotel owners on Wednesday slammed Airbnb over its new partnership with the International Olympic Committee, warning they would stop work on planning the Paris 2024 Summer Games in protest at what they call an unfair competitor.

French hotels have long accused home-rental platform Airbnb of taking advantage of minimal oversight to undermine their business and are lobbying authorities for a crackdown on short-term tourist rentals.

“Airbnb is not following the rules and should be disqualified,” the GNI association of independent hotels said in a statement at an industry gathering in the Atlantic coast resort town of Biarritz.

The GNI said it would file a complaint with the IOC Ethics Commission, as well as the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

“The hotels will suspend their participation in the organization of the 2024 Games,” said Laurent Duc, boss of the main hotel group UMIH, organizer of the Biarritz conference.

“Already the platform (Airbnb) opposes the passing on of the tourist tax with clearly identified addresses and owners, as required by law”.

In a statement, the UMIH and the GCN alliance of hotel chains called the Olympic partnership “inappropriate”.

“It is outrageous to make this company, which promotes deregulation in countries around the world, a global partner of the IOC,” he said.

The mayor of Paris quickly expressed its support for the hotel sector on Wednesday, calling it their “cry of alarm… normal” in view of the general “destabilize” of the hotel sector caused by the platform.

UMIH sued Airbnb in June 2018 for “knowingly violating” rules imposed as part of a crackdown in one of the US giant’s biggest markets.

Paris alone has 65,000 listings on Airbnb, and there are thousands more in nearby suburbs that will host many venues for the 2024 Olympics.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has also pledged to step up oversight of Airbnb rentals after warning IOC President Thomas Bach of the “risks” of the partnership.

Hidalgo, who is up for re-election next May, has promised to hold a vote on how home-sharing platforms should be regulated, at a time when many locals blame Airbnb for driving up rents.

Asked about the hotels’ opposition, Airbnb said in a statement on Wednesday that “this historic agreement aims to allow host cities to host the Games in a more local, authentic and sustainable way”.

He noted that Airbnb had previously been a national partner for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and that “its values ​​are in line with those of the Olympic movement.”