It was one of the first cities they wanted to sit down and talk to when their platform launched, and a decade later it has become one of the cities most strongly responding to a popular set of issues. Linked to Airbnb: This September, a rule came into effect in New York that practically prevents this temporary rental application for tourist residences operate there. “We removed tens of thousands of apartments from the platform and since then hotel prices have increased by 8% and there is no sign of more housing being available – in short, nothing has changed and this shows what we can expect.” such a harsh regulatory approach”, the company’s founder responded this Tuesday.
This manager Nathan Blecharczykbecame one of the star guests of the fair Smart City Expo World CongressThis event will be held in Fira Barcelona’s Gran Via hall from this Tuesday (the day the Government approved a new regulation that will not make tourist apartment licenses permanent in Catalonia) until Thursday, November 9th. On the congress stage, The entrepreneur showed that he is in favor of regulation He planned to create a set of rules governing his activities, but felt that this should be determined closely with companies like yours.
“If you look Top 200 Airbnb cities [aquellas donde la compañía tiene más apartamentos o más actividad]80% have some form of regulation,” agreed Blecharczyk, attributing the wide variety of existing regulations to the fact that this is an area generally governed by local laws. “This is a ‘mainstream’ phenomenon, of course there need to be norms and rules ” he added.
Inside barcelona The founder of Airbnb assures that the platform has a good relationship with the public administration, especially at a time when this debate is very prominent on the political agenda. Especially since 2018, when the app promised to share statistical data with localities. “We created a better relationship of trust between the city and the platform,” Blecharczyk responded. The entrepreneur celebrated this good harmony, especially since the European Commission is about to approve a community regulation for short-term rentals, which has earned Airbnb’s approval.
Increasing housing prices and tourist density
Despite this, this businessman made it clear that he does not feel responsible for many of the problems that are often directly related to solutions like Airbnb. This entrepreneur talked about studies showing that platform is not one of the factors that directly affects performance. housing prices (“It’s a structural problem, there are more important elements [que este]”, kept).
He used a similar argument when faced with the question. Overcrowding of tourists. “This is an industry problem,” Blecharczyk said, giving an example. Venice anyone AustriaHighly sought-after destinations where Airbnb can only accommodate 5% of tourists.
In fact, the executive went further by ensuring Airbnb “played a positive role.” First, because of what regulation in New York has shown: the majority of apartments have begun advertising on other platforms with far less control than their own. Secondly, because, as he said, The app is a source of income for many people living in these cities. As a matter of curiosity, Blecharczyk explained that a homeowner in Spain earns an average of 4 thousand euros a year this way.