German City Wants Names And Addresses Of Airbnb Hosts; Chinese Province Demands Full Details Of Every Guest Too

from the sharing,-but-not-like-that dept

Online services like Airbnb and Uber like to style themselves as part of the "sharing economy". In truth, they are just new twists on the rental sector, taking advantage of the Internet's widespread availability to broaden participation and ease negotiation. This has led to a tension between the online services and traditional local regulators, something Techdirt noted in the US, back in 2016. Similar battles are still being fought around the world. Here's what is happening in Germany, as reported by Out-Law.com:

The City of Munich asked Airbnb to provide it with all advertisements for rooms in the city which exceeded the permissible maximum lease period [of eight weeks in a calendar year]. Specifically, for the period from January 2017 to July 2018, it wanted Airbnb to disclose the addresses of the apartments offered as well as the names and addresses of the hosts.

Airbnb challenged the request before the administrative court in Munich, which has just ruled that the US company must comply with German laws, even though its European office is based in Ireland. It said that the request was lawful, and did not conflict with the EU's privacy regulations. Finally, it ruled that the City of Munich's threat to impose a €300,000 fine on Airbnb if it did not comply with its information request was also perfectly OK. Presumably Airbnb will appeal against the decision, but if it is confirmed it could encourage other cities in Germany to make similar requests. At least things there aren't as bad as in China. According to a post from TechNode:

The eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang will require online home-sharing platforms, including Airbnb, to report owner and guest information to the province's Public Security Department. The platforms will need to check, register, and report the identity of both parties, including the time the guest plans to arrive and leave the property.

That information provides a very handy way of keeping tabs on people travelling around the province who stay in Airbnb properties and the like. It's yet another example of how the Chinese authorities are forcing digital services to help keep an eye on every aspect of citizens' lives.

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Filed Under: china, germany, home rentals, home sharing, privacy, rentals
Companies: airbnb

Calm Down, People: Data Shows Airbnb Isn't Really Driving Up Rent

from the not-that-bad dept

Last year, we did an episode of the Techdirt podcast discussing whether or not Airbnb was good or bad for cities, and afterwards I heard from a few people insisting that we were too quick to dismiss the concerns of the anti-Airbnb crowd. It seemed to us that the problem, if there was one, was in the overall housing stock of cities, rather than Airbnb having a legitimate impact. Yes, certainly there are some people who just use some homes/apartments/condos for doing short-term rentals, but it was difficult to see how (even at Airbnb's scale) it was enough to significantly impact housing prices.

And now there's some data to back that up. FiveThirtyEight did an analysis going through the data from a consulting firm, Airdna, that obviously collects a ton of Airbnb data, and it found little evidence that it's impacting housing prices in any significant way. The analysis does note that while such "commercial" listings (i.e., places that are only used to rent out on Airbnb, rather than for someone's actual residence) make up only about 10% of the site's total listings, they do make up about 1/3 of its revenue. That also shouldn't be that surprising. Of course places that rent out continuously are going to make more revenue. But, either way, there really just aren't that many such listings:

The revenue numbers alone don’t necessarily mean Airbnb is having much effect on rents in the cities where it operates. That is because the raw number of commercial units in most cities remains low, under 1,000 in all but the biggest cities. Even in New York, Airbnb’s biggest U.S. market, the service had only about 2,500 commercial listings, a sliver of the city’s roughly 2.2 million total rental apartments.

The 538 report keeps hedging this conclusion by saying "but, well, the rate of commercial listings is growing..." but it's still not clear that it's having a major impact on housing prices. And, again, if it is then that seems to be a sign that the focus should be on increasing overall housing stock, as things like Airbnb can provide plenty of other benefits for residents as well -- from alternative revenue sources for homeowners to more tourist dollars coming in to cities. But, overall, it seems like the rush to blame Airbnb for rising rental prices and costs for housing is overblown.

Filed Under: home sharing, rent, short term rentals
Companies: airbnb