SHORT-TERM RENTAL WEBSITE Airbnb has requested that the government set up a register of approved short-term lets so it can block non-registered landlords from its site.

The company launched its ‘Airbnb Community Tourism and Housing Protection Plan’ today which includes five pledges “to help unlock the benefits of hosting for everyday families and protect housing”.

Airbnb has called for the introduction of a host register to help authorities enforce renting legislation and take action against property speculators.

This would prevent letters who are “damaging communities” from using Airbnb, the company said, amid allegations that the service is harming the Irish rental market.

In September the government announced a new licensing system to prevent property owners from advertising a short-term let unless they had received the required planning permission. 

Set out in the government’s Housing For All plan, it is similar to a regime operating in Lisbon whereby before property owners can’t rent out their home to paying guests, unless they register the property with the local authorities.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that his department was in talks with Airbnb.

The recent accusations about Airbnb’s impact on the Irish rental market were intensified by a report from Daft.ie that noted that there were just 1,397 homes available to rent on 1 February nationwide.

By comparison, estimates from website Inside Airbnb have shown there were more than 15,000 Irish properties listed on Airbnb in February. 

In a statement to The Journal however, Airbnb said that recent analysis comparing long-term rental supply with Airbnb listings “uses a flawed methodology and scraped data to make misleading claims”.

Airbnb says that its listings in Ireland include “a segregated part of someone’s home, converted barns, yurts and other types of spaces not suitable for long-term housing”. 

Last month, O’Brien said that the government would not oppose a Sinn Féin bill to crack down on short-term rentals that are being unlawfully rented for longer than 14 days at a time or longer than a total of 90 days a year.

The Short-term Lettings Enforcement Bill 2022, which would amend the Planning and Development Act 2000, completed the second Dáil stage at the end of May.

Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin TD said at the time that one of the “missing pieces” to the legislation was the lack of penalties for advertisers, such as Airbnb, as well as the property owner.  

Ó Broin said it is “not acceptable” for companies like Airbnb to “profit from law breaking” by allowing non-compliant short-term rental ads on their platforms. 

The new register proposed by Airbnb would ensure that only hosts with a registration number are able to publish listings on the platform.

Government reaction to Sinn Féin’s bill seemed to indicate that this could be overseen by Fáilte Ireland.

One of Airbnb’s other pledges is to increase the supply of hosts when tourist accomodation is in peak demand “via everyday families occasionally sharing their homes”. 

Data from the company indicates that the majority of hosts in Ireland share their primary home for three nights a month on average.

The additional income earned by Airbnb hosts is approximately two months of pay for the median Irish household, while nearly nine in 10 hosts who rented an entire home  had only one listing on the site.

The company also aimed to roll out noise and nuisance prevention measures already in use in other countries which have blocked 375,000 people from making reservations in the UK, France and Spain due to past complaints.

Other pledges included increasing the amount of remote workers using the site and continuing Airbnb’s work to accommodate Ukrainian refugees and domestic violence survivors.