Amsterdam and Airbnb: Now Only 60 Days a Year

Is the constant sound of trolley’s driving you mad? Is there a new group of Italian guys living it up every weekend next door? Is the guy who used to live there now driving a Porsche while just swinging by every two weeks? Then congratulations, because you will be the one to profit from a new deal reached by Amsterdam and AirBnB!

Amsterdam and Airbnb reached a new and unique deal which now limits the renting out of a particular apartment to 60 days max. This was already the case, but now Airbnb will actually enforce it by implementing a piece of software that will remove the home-ad from the site if these 60 days of renting out are reached. Something that was deemed ‘technologically impossible’ before by Airbnb.

This isn’t the only countermeasure undertaken against the horde of Van Gogh-loving tourists that have been flocking to our nation’s capital with the help of Airbnb. Amsterdam is setting up a 24/7 hotline for complaining and a new ‘neighbor tool’ will also be launched where all Amsterdam residents can share their ranting about a listing; such as British bachelor-parties without the proper rental agreements. These stag-do’s shouldn’t be really possible as well in the future since a four people limit will be introduced on the site according to the city’s legislation. All in all this should add to the effort of tackling mass tourism.

Amsterdam and Airbnb: Exceptions?

It’s not all bad news for Airbnb-istas. You can still rent out a room from your apartment without limitations if you also still life there. You can even get a ‘bed and breakfast’ license and use this on Airbnb to get back to unlimited days of renting out. And it’s only Airbnb, you can still rent it out through similar services.

“This new agreement is in the interest of everyone in Amsterdam – residents, neighbors, home sharers and guests”, housing alderman Laurens Ivens said. “With this new approach we are working together with platforms such as Airbnb and it gives the city a new weapon to tackle illegal hotelling.” An Airbnb manager stated that this deal was unique and never seen before. They probably prefer it to the deals they got in Barcelona (600K fine) or New York and Berlin (partially banished).

Sharing economy problems:

It’s fair to say we love the sharing economy here on DutchReview (that’s a 5-part series people). And the same goes for Amsterdam, heck they just openend up a sharing fashion library. But one can’t deny that it also has some darker sides – one of these in this case is driving regular inhabitants insane and running regular (albeit often overpriced) hotels into the ground. This story definitely isn’t over yet.