Airbnb urges Amsterdam landlords to protest about registration plan

This map shows some of the Airbnb locations in central Amsterdam

Airbnb is urging its landlords in Amsterdam to protest against the city’s impending registration system, saying it is creating unnecessary red tape.

Amsterdam is planning to require everyone renting their home out through any holiday rental platform to register with the city authorities from October 1. The aim is to make sure people are keeping to the maximum 60-day a year rule worked out between the city and Airbnb itself.

‘Various landlords have told us that they consider the registration requirement to be an unnecessary burden and a breach of their privacy,’ Airbnb said. ‘A complicated registration requirement will make it more difficult for landlords to stick to the rules, not more difficult.’

Airbnb has set up an automatic protest system for landlords to fill in and ‘share their positive experiences’ with the council.

The organised protest is noteworthy because the company has an agreement with the city on limits to how often locals can rent out their homes.

Home owners and private sector tenants with landlord approval can rent their property via Airbnb for a maximum of 60 days and to no more than four people and Airbnb has agreed to remove homes once they reach the 60 day limit.

Daft

Housing alderman Laurens Ivens said on Twitter that the Airbnb campaign against the registration system is ‘daft’. ‘It’s good if everyone sticks to the rules,’ he said.

Ivens later told the NRC that the aim of the registration requirement is to ‘stop landlords placing their housing on other sides and competing with Airbnb.’

Airbnb’s call to arms has not put pressure on the relationship between the company and council, he said. ‘We have a business agreement, not a love relationship,’ he said. ‘The deal we struck remains in place. It is in their interest to have as few rules as possible but in the city’s interest to regulate properly.’

The council would not be challenging Airbnb about the campaign, he said.

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