Visiting Toulon this Friday where he spoke to participants in the French Ski Areas Congress, Emmanuel Marill, CEO of Airbnb France, defended the virtues of the seasonal rental platform for developing the regional economy. Interview.
In the current context of the housing crisis, are your relations with communities more tense?
The housing crisis is evident, due to multiple factors; the rise in interest rates, changes in PLU, the need to no longer artificialize land, vacant or unsanitary apartments…. The problem did not wait for Airbnb. But the context is no longer the same. 12 years ago, when we arrived, the seasonal rental activity existed but was not regulated. Airbnb has democratized it. In 12 years we have experienced 12 successive legislative blocks governing tourist rental. Today, 230 cities have adopted a particularly effective regulatory block, which governs this activity, including 40 in the Var.
Is it sufficient?
Things are clear. If you rent your main residence, you do what you want, within the limit of 4 months per year, and in the case of a secondary residence, if there is no constraint, the municipalities are happy to see this solution attracts tourists and brings in tourist taxes, for example €400,000 in 2022 for the city of Toulon alone and €7M for the Var department where Airbnb is established in 140 municipalities. But if there are housing tensions, they have the possibility of regulating, by imposing the registration of a rented property and its change of use, which goes from a family home to a more commercial use. But in the majority of cases, second homes have shutters closed most of the time or cold beds in the mountains for example. We don’t want that or new residences for speculative purposes.
Finally, few municipalities regulate?
According to our own census work, because there is no consolidated list at the ministry level, which we are also calling for, only 230 municipalities have taken up this regulatory block while 4,000 in total would fall within the criteria. . This might be ignorance, a lack of support. A total of 20,000 municipalities in France have accommodation rented via Airbnb on their territory. Over the past seven years, I have met a lot of mayors, they are always very interested in access to housing data.
Has the profile of rental companies changed over the past 10 years?
Initially, these were mainly people who rented their main residence for a few days, then there was a professionalization of the activity, due to the absence of rules. Since the legislator regulated, we have found a balance. In Paris for example, today 80% is rental of a main residence or room in a private home. People have embraced the phenomenon by using their home or vacation home, this generates income that helps pay utilities, €3,900 per year on average. We are successful in the 25/35 age group, for whom the notion of sharing, a house or a vehicle is familiar. But also among those over 60, who rent a room to generate income and have a presence.
Does this lead to new services as the business matures?
The activity continues to develop in France, and in the Var the growth is above double digits, since the collection of the tourist tax that we generate is up by 30% in 2022. But yes, we have launched new services, “Airbnb start” to support those who want to get started in rentals, “Aircover” for insurance, and currently in France we are testing a concierge service, to ensure the check-in and check-off of rentals, as well as than luxury, because we also find exceptional residences on the platform.
