Before the internet, we booked gites and holiday accommodation from small ads in the papers. We arrived in Normandy to find that the British owners of the gite we had booked had never spoken to their neighbours, nor been to the Café Tabac in the village – the locals we met there were helpful when the sewage system failed. In Ireland, as a child, I was surprised to find a friendly elderly couple residing in a caravan in the garden. Years later, I realised that they were the owners, and they had let their cottage for income.
The Normandy example was highly extractive, the economic value stripped out to UK bank accounts. The Ireland example was quite the opposite, a form of community-based tourism with the economic value captured locally. In neither case did this form of tourism accommodation have a big impact on property prices and rental values. This all changed with the internet.
Airbnb is not the only short-term rental facilitator, but it is the biggest, and it has driven change. It’s called Airbnb because the company’s founders started renting out air mattresses in their living room in San Francisco in 2007, creating an “Airbedandbreakfast.” In a B&B, the guest shares the owner’s accommodation and is served breakfast by the host. The economic benefit stays local.
As AIRDNA reports, “Airbnb works by empowering anyone (well, so long as they adhere to local regulations) to rent out a room or an entire property. … the platform has captured the attention of real estate investors who have made Airbnb-ing their full-time job.”
The conjunction of the emergence of internet facilitators like Airbnb, increasing demand and changes in a now largely unregulated housing market has led to rapid growth in short-term rentals. Airbnb alone reached one million booked nights in 2011.
Jaume Collbon, Barcelona’s mayor in November 2024, identified housing as the city’s number one problem, reporting that in the past 10 years, rental prices in the city had soared by 68% while the cost of buying a house had climbed 38%. The 10,101 short-term rental licences became the target with announcements that the licences would not be renewed from 2018. It is a problem in Cape Town, too, with over 23,000 properties currently available according to Inside Airbnb. In Belgium, research by ING found that in 2024, around 1.23 million stays were booked via short-term rental platforms in Belgium, accounting for 12.3 million overnight stays.
Short-term rental platforms create value, but it is most often captured outside of the local economy by second and multiple homeowners, creating employment only for cleaners and maintenance workers. The local community are priced out of housing, suffers inflation in bars, cafes and restaurants, overcrowding, noise and partying. Local authorities are increasingly being pressured by the electors to act.
The European Parliament, back in 2024, adopted plans (2024/1028) to increase transparency in the short-term rentals sector. The new regulations are designed to support better policymaking, improve transparency in the sector and encourage the sustainable development of tourism. According to Eurostat, guests spent 951.6 million nights in short-term rental accommodation booked through online platforms in 2025.
- When Member States opt for the new rules, registration procedures introduced by national authorities must be fully online and user-friendly. Hosts will receive a unique registration number for their property.
- Online platforms will be required to display and verify registration numbers and carry out random checks to help identify illegal listings. Public authorities will also be able to request the removal of non-compliant listings.
- Platforms will share monthly data on guest stays and nights booked with public authorities through a Single Digital Entry Point established by each Member State. Simpler reporting obligations will apply to small and micro platforms.
- Aggregated data collected under the Regulation will contribute to tourism statistics produced by Eurostat and support the development of innovative tourism-related services, while ensuring the protection of personal data.
Unfortunately, “The Regulation has been adopted in an “opt-in/opt-out” mode, meaning that Member States are not obliged to apply it.”
