Supporting measures that work in the Netherlands

Today, Airbnb is sharing its support for a registration scheme for home sharers in big cities in the Netherlands, as part of its vision to work on pragmatic measures and be good partners to governments.

We believe a simple and online system will make it easier for hosts to follow the rules and will allow cities to get more insights on their home sharing communities and help with enforcement while respecting national and European privacy rules.

Over the past few months, Airbnb, other platforms and the Ministry of Interior Affairs have had productive discussions which indicate good progress on a new online portal where home sharers would register and immediately receive a registration number which they could display in their listing description.

Pieter Guldemond, Public Policy Manager at Airbnb in the Netherlands, said:

“The proposed registration scheme for home sharers is good news for hosts and cities across the Netherlands. This proposed system is user-friendly, allows cities to get the data they need and effectively discourages bad actors. Host across the Netherlands want to benefit from clear, simple and pragmatic rules that work and we look forward to working with the government as it continues to look at innovative measures to supports regular people who share their home.”

Here are more details why we believe this is good news:

• Support for cities – Cities who have legitimised home sharing would get more details on their respective home sharing communities and it will facilitate common-sense controls;
• Support for hosts – Registration schemes that are simple, user-friendly and online will make it easy for hosts to follow the rules. We know complex and burdensome rules favour commercial operators, slow innovation and hit regular people who provide authentic experiences for guests;
• Support for measures that work – A new registration scheme will allow cities to get the information they need to effectively enforce the rules – instead of tightening them and thereby punishing thousands of responsible home sharers. It will also effectively discourage bad actors to be present on home-sharing platforms;
• Industry-wide approach – All relevant home sharing platforms have indicated strong support for such registration scheme. While Airbnb has always led the industry in responsible home sharing practices, it is important that all players are on board to ensure the same rules apply to all hosts, no matter which platform they use.

We thank the national government for their support for home sharers and their progressive approach and look forward to continue our discussions towards practical and proportionate measures over the following months.