Transcript

Airbnb just published a report that reframes the entire European STR debate. · STR Unpacked

Ben: Morning and welcome to your short-term rental bulletin. Airbnb just published a report that directly challenges the European regulatory crackdown and the numbers are hard to ignore. With the EU's new data sharing deadline just 37 days away, Airbnb is going on the offence. Their argument? Europe has a housing blind spot. The system is built for tourist or permanent residents. Everybody in between, students, workers relocating. people needing medical care is being forgotten and the short term rentals are filling that gap. They polled Europeans across the EU more than eight in 10 said they have a need for flexible housing at some point, not for a holiday, but for life. And this on the housing crisis framing that regulators keep on using Airbnb's data says entire home listings occupied regularly just account for 0.1. of all the EU's housing units. Meanwhile, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and Spain combined have over 14 million vacant homes. That's 169 times more than Airbnb's active inventory. The platform also says short-term rentals generated 53 billion euros to EU GDP last year and support nearly a million jobs. This is Airbnb playing politics ahead of a critical deadline and they're making a more nuanced case than regulators are giving them credit for. The real question is whether anyone in Brussels is actually paying attention. This has been your bulletin. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for watching.