Excerpt from BuzzFeed
On Monday, the first international meeting of hotel representatives and city officials will be held in New York to discuss ways to regulate Airbnb and other platforms.
Airbnb and its peers have left a deep enough scar on hotels around the world and created enough of a headache for officials in areas with housing crunches that also draw large volumes of tourists that representatives for cities and hotels around the world are joining forces to combat the short-term rental company.
On Monday, a group of hotel industry representatives from the US, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Australia will attend a conference with presentations by several city officials, hotel groups, and academics to discuss strategies for regulating Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms, which have become home to a growing number of commercial agents who manage large volumes of listings.
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told BuzzFeed News, "Twenty-first-century problems require complex solutions, and global issues require global dialogue. Lots of cities around the world are trying to figure out how to deal with short-term rentals, and I think it's important to have an international exchange of ideas as we try to deal with this issue thoughtfully."
In response to the meeting, Airbnb is planning a protest of hosts outside of the conference. It also posted an online video criticizing Big Hotel's efforts to crack down on short-term rentals, with hosts holding signs that read, "The system is rigged."
Regulatory uncertainty has complicated any potential plans Airbnb may have to have its IPO in the near future. American cities including New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, have rolled out restrictions on short-term rentals and increased their enforcement. London limits hosts to 90 days of home sharing per year. Berlin put strict rules and a massive fine on home sharing in 2016 with some success, although it has softened those restrictions. Barcelona commissioned a large team of inspectors to sniff out illegal rentals.
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