Short-term rental platforms like Airbnb are failing cities by not only driving up rent but also hurting affordable housing across the world, says a new study released today by The Left in the European Parliament.

Written by Murray Cox, the community activist behind the Inside Airbnb data project, and Kenneth Haar from Corporate Europe Observatory, ‘Platform Failures – How Short-Term Rental Platforms like Airbnb fail to cooperate with cities and the need for strong regulations to protect housing’ looks in detail at Airbnb’s existing deals with cities across Europe and America.

With case studies on Barcelona, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Vienna, New York and San Francisco, the report reveals how Airbnb has driven up rents, caused damage to urban communities, and wrecked affordable social housing programmes.

With mere self regulation currently in place for these platforms, the authors calls on EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager – who is in charge of  the Digital portfolio – to support cities throughout Europe in dealing with this disruption.

They emphasise that only by delivering strong rules can such companies be forced to cooperate properly with city councils in the upcoming EU Digital Services Act.

The main findings of the report will be discussed at the webinar ‘Time To Empower Cities!” on Wednesday evening with Left Co-President Martin Schirdewan (Die Linke, Germany) and French MEP Leïla Chaibi (France Insoumise, France) along with the authors.

Commenting ahead of the launch, Schirdewan said:

“Airbnb and similar short-term rental platforms have driven up rents, hurt urban communities, and ravaged affordable social housing programmes. This cannot go on!”

“We need the EU to support cities throughout Europe in dealing with this disruption by delivering strong rules to force such companies to cooperate properly with city councils. Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager must come forward with proposals to achieve this in the upcoming Digital Services Act”, he concluded. 

You can read the study in full here, and you can find out more details about the webinar on Wednesday 9 December at 18h00-20h00 CET here.

Platform Failures