Airbnb says that blame on hotels in “turmoil” in Europe

In recent years, the platforms that allow the short -term allowing such as Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com He suffers from fire Issues of making housing cannot be affected by the local residents to the water supply that is exhausted.

While the majority of visitors overnight in Europe choose to stay in-63 percent in 2024, according to European Union statistics-the short-term rapid growth allows the population to appear to be more worried.

Last year, travelers remained briefly allowing night 715 million nights, an increase of 57 million compared to 2023, with the same number of hotels up to 73 million to 1.9 billion, according to European Union data.

Local protests in Barcelona, ​​Amsterdam and the Greek island of Santorini erupted due to complaints about the low real estate supplies and high rents.

The authorities responded. Lisbon has suspended the issuance of new short -term rental licenses. In January this year, Greece presented a year -long ban on new lease records in Athens.

Barcelona took the most severe measures, as the Spanish government requested Airbnb last month to remove nearly 66,000 lists of its platform.

“I think the Barcelona mayor needs to consider the building of hotels, and it needs to look at hotels in general … and they need to build more housing,” said Yedinsky.

He said: “They shout on Airbnb. They attack a small part of the problem and then ask why they are not improved,” adding that hotels lead many residencies overnight from platforms.

Since the end of Lockdowns, tourism has flourished on European sites such as Barcelona and Athens, with this year another record. From June to the end of August, more than 115 million nights on the continent were seized, an increase of 13.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the data of the independent data analysis company.

Yedinsky said, government repression on short -term rents is “frustrating”, because “politicians did not use data” to consider “problems that have caused in the case of two melodies”, and also argues the short -term rents to relieve overcrowding by directing tourism to the lesser travel destinations.

However, Ilaria Papalepore, associate professor of tourism at Westminster University, said that hotels tend to be present in tourist areas, while Airbnb rents are widespread across cities – which leads to an increase in loud nightlife, high home prices and crowded public transportation in residential areas.

Papalepore said that the problems they cause in the short term are “a long -term breeding, but now it exploded.”

One of the senior executives on a rival travel platform said that the Airbnb pressure approach had risked inflation with the organizers and local communities. The person said, “They were very dirty in their fight.”

“Playing with the same bases” as the hotel sector, adding that the industry is working within strict planning, licensing and tax frameworks that are in line with the city’s strategies and local tourism.

She said: “The issue is not a tourist in itself, it is an unbalanced tourism. (Airbnb) operates without adequate supervision.”

When asked whether Airbnb is concerned that government repression will significantly affect profits, Yedinsky said it “has worked with organizers all over the world over the past ten years. We have succeeded in doing this … this company will remain successful.”

Imagine data by Clara Murray