ented for many months,
ented for many months, which is driving up prices This began to change last May, when Berlin effectively banned short-stay holiday apartments. Landlords can only rent out up to 50 percent of their home while they are there with the guest. Entire permits, which have been near-impossible to get. There are a number of court challenges against the city for unreasonable refusals to grant permits. But one year on, people are still renting on the site because they have not seen any enforcement. Mayor von Kassel says this is unwise. “The process takes one to two years … in a year or so, we will likely have 20 to 30 convictions,” he told the website CityLab. Airbnb says that restrictions like these penalise all users for the activities of a few. with the company. He added that “The vast majority are regular people, but there are also some professionals. We completely agree that professionals should abide by different rules than an occasional customer.” Amsterdam and London have recently followed suit and put restrictions on Airbnb rentals. But unlike Berlin, these cities worked with Airbnb to develop the rules. Amsterdam will enforce a limit of 60 days for Airbnb stays, and will be working with the company to collect tourist taxes. (See story on the role of Airbnb in Strasbourg) Airbnb has pointed to a report issued last year suggested thresholds to differentiate between professional operators and private occasional users. actively engage in.” Photo: Katarina Dzurekova 10 — SHARING ECONOMY & EUROPE MAY 2017
The sharing economy started out with a few people opening their homes, lending some tools, sharing cars - all for free. Monetising sharing practices has created a giant that some "original" sharers refuse to associate themselves with. By Eszter Zalan Money causes schism in sharing economy F or Anja Kuhner, sharing is a lifestyle. She shares her Duesseldorf apartment and her knowledge about the city, free-of-charge, with strangers from all over the world, who might eventually become lifelong friends. The journalist and executive director of the non- about the experience, not about money. She argues that hosting people from around the world helped her to better her understanding of different cultures. “Each person brings something to your life, a story, pictures, experiences,” she says. The once laid-back approach of opening a home became an industry in the late 2000s, with smartphones becoming a convenient access point to sharing services. Businesses started to make billions under the umbrella of sharing. Some, like Kuhner, still stick to the original making phenomenon. As many researchers in this area tend to do, she distinguishes between the “fake” and “real” sharing economy. Kuhner, who has written a book on free hospitality services, argues that the real sharing economy is in fact a niche. As soon as it gets out of this niche, it becomes a real business. “The real sharing will never be mainstream,” Kuhner told EUobserver. THE APP REVOLUTION Experts put the birth of the so-called sharing economy - sometimes also labelled the "gig", "platform" or "collaborative consumption" economy - in 2008, when Apple introduced its app platform that made it simple for anyone to create apps and services. an immense boost. Airbnb, the home sharing service, was founded in 2008. It now has 150 million users, and is valued at over billion USD (around € 18.8 billion). Uber, another company that has become a household name, was launched in 2009, and now has an eye-watering valuation of billion USD (around € 56.5 billion). services launched in 2004 also decided to go for- While the idea is still based on people sharing their own property, car or home, it is no longer solely sense, it is not primarily for sharing anymore, but rather appears more like renting. SHARING ECONOMY & EUROPE MAY 2017— 11
