Airbnb introduces tax on rentals in Paris
August 26, 2015
Airbnb has agreed to add a small tourist tax on rentals in Paris. In a statement, it said that as of October 1, it will collect 0.83 euros ($0.95) per person per day from lodging tourists.
The privately owned San Francisco-based company is a website for people to list, rent and find short term lodgings. Hotels complain that such peer-to-peer platforms have an unfair advantage because they often do not have to pay any tourism taxes. In Paris, the online platform Airbnb even competes in the luxury hotel market.
The tourism representative of the Paris mayor's office, Jean-François Martins, welcomed the move to bring Airbnb more in line with city hotels, who already pay the tax and are bearing the brunt of increased competition. Parisian hosts are already required to pay income tax.
Airbnb already charges tourism taxes in many places in the US and Europe. Paris is the most popular location in the world for home-sharing services. The Airbnb platform offers about 50,000 listings there. Since the foundation of the company, over 2 million overnight stays have been booked in the French capital through Airbnb.
ot/sc/eg (afp, rtr, ap)