A Level Playing Field in Hospitality and Tourism as a Foundation for Affordable Housing

HOTREC and EFFAT, the European social partners for the hotel, restaurant, bar and café sector, welcome the European Commission’s objective to complement the existing Regulation and propose a legislative Act to further address short-term accommodation rental services (STR) as part of the European Affordable Housing Plan, recognising that regulatory imbalances between STRs and traditional accommodation providers have become a key driver of housing market distortions in many cities.

Since 2014, EFFAT and HOTREC have regularly exchanged views on the impact of the so-called ‘sharing’ or ‘platform’ economy on the European hospitality sector within the framework of their sectoral social dialogue. This cooperation has resulted in joint statements, reflecting a consistent and shared set of concerns among the European social partners.

Short-term accommodation rentals have become a fast-growing component of the tourism ecosystem. For areas with already pressurised housing markets, this expansion has contributed to a decrease in the supply of long-term rentals and to further rises in rental and sale prices.

Despite the increasing professionalisation of STRs, they remain largely insufficiently regulated and supervised. This regulatory gap, compared to the more stringent frameworks applicable to traditional accommodation providers, has contributed to the rapid expansion of STRs and has generated a range of challenges, including unfair competition, undeclared work, safety and security risks, unreported tax revenues and tax evasion, unbalanced tourism and growing pressure on local housing markets.

Both HOTREC & EFFAT note that hospitality workers are impacted by short-term rentals and housing shortages, which increase pressure on the sector, raise living costs, and limit access to suitable accommodation near their workplaces. Workers with atypical working hours, as well as seasonal and migrant workers, who make up the majority of the tourism workforce, are particularly vulnerable when it comes to finding affordable accommodation in popular tourism locations.

In this context, HOTREC and EFFAT welcome the European Affordable Housing Plan and the announced Affordable Housing Act, which acknowledge competition distortions and regulatory imbalances between short-term rentals and hotels. Hotels are already subject to extensive national obligations, including working and employment conditions, standards, security and safety, fiscal, liability, registration of guests and consumer protection rules. A coherent, data-driven and predictable EU framework should empower national, regional and local authorities, in line with the principle of subsidiarity and autonomy, to adopt targeted and proportionate measures to address these challenges.

Closing the existing regulatory gap by establishing comparable obligations for STRs and hotels alike is a necessary precondition to effectively address housing pressure linked to the proliferation of short-term rentals.

Read the full joint statement here