EU Regulation 2024/1028: New obligations for public administrations in the area of short-term rentals

The property market is highly contested, in particular in major cities. According to a forecast by the German Property Federation (ZIA), there will be a shortage of up to 600,000 apartments in Germany in 2024 and even up to 830,000 by 2027. The regulation on the collection and exchange of data in connection with short-term rental services is intended to enable authorities to better regulate the housing market and take action against illegal rentals in the future. Authorities in particular face challenges in these data-intensive processes. Solutions for processing and evaluating data and for creating and sharing reports support the public sector in overcoming data-intensive challenges and taking data-based measures. In this article, we look at the key aspects of the Short-Term Rental Regulation (STR) and explain how public authorities can prepare to collect the required data and comply with this new directive.

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Why was the Short-Term Rental Regulation established?

The European Commission's proposed Regulation (EC) No 2022/0358 (COD) on the collection and exchange of data related to short-term rental (STR) services represents a significant step forward in the efforts to establish clear, simple and harmonized rules for data collection and data exchange for short-term rentals (STR) across the European Union.

The regulation is part of the European Union's broader efforts to strengthen the single market and ensure that all players in the short-term rental sector act fairly and transparently. The harmonization of requirements aims to collect and report data on short-term rentals in a consistent and comparable way. The harmonization of requirements would reduce the administrative burden for member states, reduce the overall cost of the system, ensure consistent reporting mechanisms for data exchange and meet the European Commission's policy objective of optimizing data exchange.

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What is the Short-Term Rental Regulation?

The regulation for harmonized requirements for the collection and transfer of data on short-term rentals aims to create uniform rules for the collection and exchange of data on short-term rentals within the EU. The regulation includes, for example, rules for standardized registration processes for hosts. At the same time, the regulation provides the member states with the necessary information for more effective monitoring and regulation of short-term rentals in the respective regions.

Once EU member states have set up one or more registration procedures, they must provide a central digital access point to receive monthly data on the activities of hosts from short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb. This must be interoperable with all major short-term rental platforms and all registers of the competent public authorities in the jurisdiction. The data collected from hosts should in future be stored and managed in a central register for short-term rentals. The central register for short-term rentals will be managed by the respective authorities and is intended to facilitate access to the data. This is important because an essential part of the regulation is the market monitoring of short-term rentals through improved data collection. The STR makes it possible to identify rental hotspots and price increases. This will enable authorities to better regulate the housing market in the future. The regulation will also enable the authorities to take stronger action against illegal rentals and fraudulent short-term rental offers in future and protect consumers from them.

Who is affected by the Short-Term Rental Regulation?

The regulation affects all EU member states. They are responsible for implementing and enforcing the regulation's provisions. This includes the establishment of a central digital access point, which serves as a gateway for the electronic exchange of data between the short-term rental platforms and the competent authorities. In addition, the member states are responsible for sanctions in the case of violations of the regulations. Each member state nominates a national coordinator to coordinate the access point. This coordinator acts as the point of contact for the respective administration in all matters relating to the single digital access point. The respective authorities are responsible for the administration and enforcement of the registration process or the collection of data on short-term accommodation rentals. They develop and maintain the central registers for collecting and storing data from hosts and provide them with a registration number.

All short-term rental platforms that enable guests to conclude a distance contract with hosts for the provision of short-term accommodation are covered by the regulation. They must transmit the registration numbers of the hosts and their activity data, such as the number of overnight stays or the number of guests, to the central digital access point of the EU member states on a monthly basis. In addition, the regulation affects anyone offering a unit via a short-term rental platform. They must apply for a registration number for the property from the competent authority and pass it on to the short-term rental platforms. The regulation is not intended to apply to hotels or other similar tourist accommodation such as vacation resorts or guest apartments.

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‍Current status and timeline of the Short-Term Rental Regulation

The Regulation on harmonized requirements for the collection and dissemination of data on short-term rentals was already submitted and discussed by the European Parliament in November 2022. The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council was adopted in April 2024 and enters into effect on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. After entry into effect, EU member states have 24 months to implement the necessary mechanisms for data exchange. 23 member states have already established a reporting procedure, although these differ greatly from one another. Implementation into national law is still pending in Germany.

The STR Regulation must be transferred into national law by May 20, 2026 at the latest. By May 2031, the Commission will carry out an evaluation of this regulation and submit a report on the main findings to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

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How can the public sector prepare for the Short-Term Rental Regulation?

Authorities will have to provide identification of accommodation and hosts through a pre-defined registration process, which is limited to basic information. In addition, activity data about the hosts must be collected from the online platforms. The register then collects all relevant information and assigns it to a registration number. The challenges of the STR Regulation therefore lie primarily in data collection and processing by the responsible public authorities. Due to the harmonized requirements, a consistent and comparable way of data must be ensured in order to ultimately enable an analysis of the current housing market or to prevent illegal fraud.

In order to prepare for the implementation of the regulation for harmonized requirements for the collection and sharing of data on short-term rentals, the required data sources must be identified and the technical implementation of data processing must be planned. A data platform such as Polyteia's provides support for data collection with no media discontinuity, inter-organizational collaboration, the creation and sharing of reports and the evaluation of measures. With Polyteia's data platform, you can connect any number of data sources via connectors and collect data using data entry masks where no data sources are available. With an intuitive user interface, you can collaboratively create reports and share them with selected organizations or individuals.

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Summary of the Short-Term Rental Regulation

The regulation for harmonized requirements for the collection and disclosure of data on short-term rentals enables better regulation of the housing market and protects consumers in particular from fraudulent offers. In order to meet the requirements, the European member states should be aware of the additional workload for the authorities at an early stage. It is therefore essential that they understand the guidelines of the STR Regulation and prepare a seamless and secure data collection for the registration process.

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