Amsterdam AirBnB limits listings to 60 days per year

https://www.amsterdam.nl/bestuur-organisatie/college/individuele-paginas/lau-rens/persberichten/persberichten-2016/amsterdam-airbnb/

AirBnB is going to remove (whole house) listings that have been rented for more than 60 days er year!

Licenced businesses, can enter their licence number to be able to rent more than 60 days.

Finally they are getting AirBnB on a leash… :slight_smile:

The problem of the illegal hotels will remain. They will still be able to rent out multiple rooms in a single building.

Can the whole house listings easily apply to become a licensed business in your area?

Yes.

I think I mentioned it before.
In our area people have been doing this for several decades, before the AirBnB founders were even born.

There are strict, but very good regulations.

Overhere there is even the opposite problem: Rich foreigners buying properties, and not renting it out, but using it as a second home. So the properties are off the market for both short and long term rental, both hurt the local economy.
Even worse is when they start to do homeswapping (the real kind of sharing economy), this way they avoid paying income tax and tourist tax.

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These regulations are pretty huge and I think most big cities of the world will probably follow in short order.

So hosts create duplicate listings every 60 days.

That was my immediate thought. But I’m guessing if I’ve thought it, Airbnb has thought of it. (Rather like Netflix and their proxy banning software.)

Just like in New York, where hosts are spreading multiple properties across several Airbnb account to circumvent the “one host one home” policy? Considering income, some people will take the risk whatever the regulation and the fines.

For Amsterdam, this is hardly news. 60 days is actually the name of one of the largest “Airbnb concierge” service in Amsterdam.

People can also use other provider air bnb to spread the number of booking per channel plus the booking make directly…

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Yes they can and I expect a lot will try to circumvent this. But now no-one can say that Airbnb is looking the other way.

If hosts look to circumvent the system that’s in place by finding other ways to list, they can’t then argue when they’re caught ‘oh but I didn’t know!!’ Yes you did know, that’s why you created 10 different profiles and that’s why we’re slapping you with a huge fine.

I expect there will be many who find ways to get round it. The fact that you actively have to find a way to get round it is what leaves hosts in a vulnerable position if they are caught and fined. Before you could plead ignorance as Airbnb would just let the bookings come through…

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Actually for Amsterdam this is big news.

The 60 day rule has been there for a while, but Amsterdam had a very hard time enforcing it. They had a very hard time proving the place was rented out more than 60 days.
They did not get any info from AirBnB, and AirBnB would not put the 60 day limit on.

Now AirBnB is sharing information about it’s hosts (within the privacy laws), and is putting a 60 day limit on the listing.

Now Amsterdam has proof, and this will make it a lot harder for hosts.

And in dutch there is a saying: “If one sheep crosses the bridge, the rest will follow”.
Now AirBnB has introduced this, soon VRBO and other will follow their example.

I stand corrected and that is therefore indeed big news.

It doesn’t seem to me that it would be hard for Airbnb to crack down if they want to. The 60 days can be limited to an address, not a person, not a listing.

Yes, as in the whole of Central London (Not that many Londoners could afford Mayfair, South Kensington etc !)

Yes, “if they want to” is the key.

Up until now, they did not want to. I wonder if they now do it properly and do it by address.

But you will still be having the smart guys using a fake address, and then send the right address trough the instructions after booking. But this will be picked up very quickly if a guest complains.

But more important is that Amsterdam could now go to AirBnB and ask “please give me the total of days that the property on street A with house number B has been rented out this year.”

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Hi Chris,
According to the discussion on the Amsterdam forum looks like the agreement with Airbnb was they will put a counter on the listing that lets you know shortly before how many days left, and when the 60 days are full the listing is turned off for booking. Maybe still visible but not available for booking.

About multiple listing for one apartment - apparently the listings go by address, so even if you have somebody else continuing the same apartment after the 60 days on a different name it will still be linked to the address.

Well, if the city finds out that a host does that - rent out for 30 days (which it has been since the whole of last year and not 60 days) on each of the available sites, then that could get them in very hot water with a huge fine and having their business closed down.