France: Paris City Council will make it mandatory from December for short-term rental property owners to register their property with the town hall.
With 350,000 listings, France is Airbnb‘s second-largest market after the United States, and Paris, the most visited city in the world, is its biggest single market, with 65,000 homes.
On Tuesday Paris City Council voted to make it mandatory from Dec. 1 to obtain a registration number from the town hall before posting an advertisement for a short-term rental on a website. The ruling makes it harder for those renting out property to exceed the 120 days a year legal rental limit for a main residence, and makes it easier for authorities to track which properties are rented out, and also to collect local taxes.
The move was welcomed by the French hospitality sector. “This is a strong signal sent out to other municipalities. Local collectivities now have a tool to monitor the tourist offers and control the collection of tourist taxes,” said Roland Heguy, the head of French hotel federation UMIH
An Airbnb spokesman said the rental website would comply with the new rules and ensure its clients knew about it.
Paris is cracking down on illegal tourist rentals and trying to regulate and limit the legal element of the vacation rental market. Due to pressure from hoteliers and officials Airbnb has agreed to charge visitors the traditional French tourist tax. It began collecting the tax from guests in Paris in 2015 and now collects it in 50 French cities. It paid back to French authorities 7.3 million euros ($8.3 million) in tourist taxes in 2016.
Airbnb’s general manager for Northern Europe James McClure will be speaking on a panel about business travel and relocation at next week’s Serviced Apartment Summit Europe 2017.</p
