The European regulatory project for the short-term rental sector reaches a further milestone.

Tourism: Council and Parliament reach a deal to bring more transparency to short-term accommodation rentals – Consilium (europa.eu)

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Excerpt from the European Council press release of 16 November 2023 in the early hours:

“As part of efforts to promote a balanced tourism ecosystem within the EU, the Council and the European Parliament have today reached a provisional agreement on a proposal for a regulation on the collection and sharing of data for short-term accommodation rental services.

Everyone wins with today’s agreement. The new regulation creates a single and simple set of information requirements for platforms and facilitates registration procedures for hosts. Greater transparency will strengthen travellers’ trust and help authorities design better tourism policies, ensure social and environmental sustainability, while contributing to the control of illegal activities.”

STR Belgium welcomes this important step and notes an implementation phase running throughout 2024 and likely 2025, following the formal approvals by the Council scheduled for 29 November and by the Parliament in early December.

As announced elsewhere, STR-Belgium strongly supports this European Union regulatory proposal, while also hoping for some introspection on the part of the Brussels regional authorities regarding their own regulations.

Indeed, this is an important element of the agreement mentioned in the Council press release:

“The co-legislators agreed to align the new regulation with the relevant provisions of the Digital Services Act and the Services Directive.”

For STR-Belgium, a prohibition policy on serviced residences as currently implemented cannot be compatible with the EU Services Directive.

Another challenge for the Member State Belgium, given the organisation of tourism in our country:

“Member States will create single digital entry points for the collection and exchange of information in a transparent manner. They will be interoperable and ensure data protection.”

Let us hope that Belgium’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2024 will offer opportunities for the various stakeholders to align around a result that is far more ambitious for the Brussels-Capital Region and its citizens than what currently exists.