Vacation rentals under fire: new regulation threatens thousands of offers on "Airbnb" and "Booking"

The short-term rental market in Europe is entering a decisive phase: from May 2026, a new EU regulation on short-term accommodation will come into force, which fundamentally changes the way platforms like "Airbnb" and "Booking" work with vacation properties. The goal is clear – to fill the "tax and regulatory holes" that have for years allowed a gray segment of the market to grow at the expense of local residents and the hotel business.

What the new EU regulation provides

The new regulation does not ban short-term rentals, but introduces uniform rules for the collection and exchange of data on short-term accommodation throughout the EU. Each member state must build a "single digital entry point" through which platforms will submit monthly data on the activities of hosts – the number of overnight stays, guests, address and registered capacity.

A key element is the mandatory digital registration of properties in areas where there are local rules for short-term rentals. The owner receives a unique registration number, which must be visibly present in every online advertisement. "No registration, no ad" – platforms are obliged to check the number, block properties without it and remove offers that use false or non-compliant identifiers.

The European Commission emphasizes that the new rules will not decide for cities where short-term rentals are allowed, but will provide tools for the real implementation of existing local restrictions. Brussels does not introduce an overnight stay ceiling, but makes it easier for municipalities to find and sanction properties that circumvent the rules.

Why "Airbnb" and "Booking" are under pressure

Over the past decade, short-term rentals have gone from a niche segment to a mass phenomenon, which in some cities already accounts for up to a quarter of all tourist overnight stays. This has led to a rise in rents and housing prices, depopulation of central districts and conflicts between local residents, municipalities and platforms.

Some countries and cities did not wait for the new European legislation, but took their own, much stricter measures. Spain ordered "Airbnb" to remove tens of thousands of listings that do not have valid licenses or use fake numbers, and imposed multi-million dollar fines for advertising prohibited properties. Analysts see this move as a rehearsal for the upcoming implementation of the pan-European regulation.

The new EU rules transfer part of the responsibility for compliance with local legislation directly to the platforms: they must not only collect registration numbers, but also check them and stop advertisements that do not meet the requirements. In case of systemic violations, sanctions are provided for the platforms as well, and not only for the individual hosts.

Which ads are most at risk

Properties in large tourist cities and sensitive housing markets – Barcelona, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Athens, but also resorts along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast – are under the strongest pressure. It is there that the local authorities are most actively introducing limits on the number of rental days, licensing requirements, a ban on short-term rentals in certain areas or an obligation for the owner to live in the property.

The new regulation gives municipalities easier access to the data they need to apply these restrictions. Thus, thousands of ads that have so far "floated under the radar" – without registration, with an incomplete address, with a foreign license or disguised as "private sharing", will have to either come to light, or disappear from the platforms.

Apartments in central parts of large cities, rented out all year round as "aparthotels" without the necessary licenses are particularly vulnerable; dwellings formally registered in the name of individuals, but practically managed by professional companies; as well as ads that intentionally omit the exact address, floor and capacity.

Brussels' argument: protecting the housing market

European institutions motivate the regulation with the need to balance between "the positive contribution of short-term rentals to tourism" and "the pressure on the affordability of housing for local residents". In many cities, rents and property prices are rising faster than incomes – young people and key professions are finding it increasingly difficult to live where they work.

"The new legislation will allow local authorities to better apply the rules for vacation rentals so that housing remains accessible to residents" – summarize participants in the debate in the European Parliament. The goal is not to "kill" the sector, but to put a brake on the uncontrolled transformation of entire neighborhoods into "hotels without a reception desk".

The decision to start with tax and registration rules, rather than direct bans from Brussels, is a compromise: cities retain the right to decide whether to restrict the number of overnight stays or short-term rental areas, and the EU gives them a tool to see the real picture and prevent violations.

What does this mean for hosts and small investors

For individual hosts – owners of one or two properties – the new rules bring more bureaucracy, but also more clarity. Once they have registered their property, they will have official status and a more stable legal framework, as long as they comply with local restrictions on the number of days and the safety requirements, such as fire protection systems and insurance.

For small and medium investors who have bought apartments with the idea of short-term rental, the risk is greater: in cities with an aggressive policy against the "touristification" of the housing stock, part of the business models may turn out to be unprofitable or outright illegal. Similar signals are already coming from Spain, Italy and Portugal, where local authorities combine licensing regimes with areas in which new tourist registrations are almost not issued.

Experts advise owners to do a "regulatory audit" of their properties – to check the local rules, to assess whether short-term rental can be transformed into medium-term or long-term, and to assess whether it is not more reasonable to diversify their portfolio.

How "Airbnb" and "Booking" react

"Airbnb" has been under pressure for years to share more data with the authorities and is already participating in initiatives to provide aggregated statistics on the number of guests and overnight stays. However, the new regulation obliges the platform to go further – to the individual level of the ads, registration numbers and addresses, which increases compliance costs and the risk of conflicts with hosts.

Publicly, the platforms welcome the "clear and predictable rules", because the fragmented legislation in different countries has so far created chaos. At the same time, they warn that excessive regulation can harm small hosts and reduce supply, which will ultimately increase prices for tourists.

One of the key practical issues is how platforms will verify the authenticity of registration numbers and how quickly they will respond to orders from local authorities to remove ads. Experience from Southern European countries shows that when the state decides to act firmly, tens of thousands of ads can be removed in days.

What follows after May 2026

From the spring of 2026, the member states and large platforms must have fully functioning, interoperable systems for registration and data exchange. This is only the first step – there is already a discussion about a possible "second generation" of regulations, which would move from data to directly restricting the volumes and locations of short-term rentals, if the housing crisis continues to deepen.

In this context, vacation properties remain a profitable, but increasingly regulated asset. Owners who are willing to play by the rules – to register, to declare real data and to comply with local restrictions – will remain on the market. Those who rely on "gray areas" and anonymity will probably see their ads on "Airbnb" and "Booking" removed – sometimes literally overnight.