Ebba Busch – Photo © European Union 2023
(BRUSSELS) – EU competitiveness ministers agreed Thursday a negotiating mandate for a regulation on data collection and sharing for short-term accommodation rental services.
The regulation forms part of ongoing efforts to promote a balanced tourism ecosystem within the EU.
“This regulation will benefit players of the short-term accommodation rental segment alike,” said Sweden’s deputy prime minister Ebba Busch, for the EU presidency: “hosts will have an easy registration procedure, platforms will have a single set of rules for the information they have to provide, travellers will be better protected against fraud and authorities will be able to regulate based on accurate and reliable data.”
Data from online platforms that operate in the short-term accommodation rental market are not currently standardised, and the Council supports the creation of a data collection and sharing framework at EU level while also including provisions to better take into account the registration systems that are already in place in the member states.
Under the new rules, member states that require data from platforms will have to set up a national “single digital entry point” for the transmission of data between online short-term rental platforms and the public authorities.
Every house, apartment or room offered for rent for a limited number of days per year will have a registration number, so that the competent authorities can know the identity of the “host”, i.e. the person that wants to rent the dwelling. The online platforms will have to make reasonable efforts to undertake regular random checks to verify that there are no incorrect declarations of hosts or invalid registration numbers. The treatment of all the information will have to be compliant with European data protection rules.
This will reduce red tape and costs for hosts and platforms while giving authorities the data they need to regulate the activity. This will also create a level playing field with other actors of the tourism sector (such as hotels, hostels or aparthotels) and help combat fraud.
Member states will have to provide the necessary information to allow public authorities, online platforms, hosts and citizens to understand the laws and requirements relating to the provision of short-term accommodation rental services within their territory. Those include registration procedures and requirements concerning access to, and provision of, these services.
The general approach now provides the Council presidency with a mandate for starting negotiations with the European Parliament once the latter has established its position.
