STR Unpacked

Munich has had a short-term rental registration duty since 1 August, with a 50,000 euro fine attached, and no way to register. Both come from the city's own documents. The change-of-use by-law of 9 July 2026 creates the duty at section 5a. The council resolved it on 1 July, it was gazetted on 30 July, and it came into force on 1 August. Section 14 makes failing to register before you list, or fail...

Koper's council sits tomorrow on a 270-day short-let cap, the most Slovenia's new law allows. It is still a cut, and Koper's own papers say so. Slovenia's hospitality act has applied since January. In May 2 ministers listed 14 municipalities where, for 2027 and 2028, the default falls to 60 days a year per dwelling. They include Ljubljana, Koper, Izola, Piran, Bled, Bohinj, Kranjska Gora and Radov...

Spain's hotels took 166.90 euros a night per occupied room in August, up 7.3%. Revenue per available room reached 133.10 euros, up 7.0%. Nights rose 1.4%. The price index rose 6.3%, not 7.3%, so part of that move is composition rather than pricing. Resident nights fell 1.1%, non-residents rose 2.8%. Non-residents are carrying this market, Spaniards are stepping back. And it is the hotel survey. Sp...

Poland charges a tourist fee in 234 of its municipalities. The law its lower house passed on Friday opens that to about 1,500. Today a town qualifies only if it has favourable climatic properties as well as landscape merit. The new text keeps landscape merit and drops the climate test, and the government's own impact assessment puts the reach at about 1,500 municipalities. Then it changes who coll...

In 2025 Vienna approved 132 conversions. From January it is closing that door. First, a correction to 14 July. I said Vienna was enforcing its 90-day cap in residential zones. The cap is not zoned. § 119 Abs 2a Bauordnung für Wien applies to every flat in the city. What is zoned is the way out: the § 129 Abs 1a exemption is only available "wenn ... sich die Wohnung nicht in einer Wohnzone ... befi...

The headline last week was a tax raid on holiday cottages. The document underneath says something narrower, and it does not say when. On 2 September Markus Campbell-Savours, Labour MP for Penrith and Solway, tabled written question 26763. He asked whether the Treasury had assessed the case for removing commercially let self-catering accommodation from non-domestic rating. James Murray, Financial S...

European short-term rental revenue rose again in August, and all of it came from rate. AirDNA's European review, published 15 September: RevPAR up 4.3% to €112.74. ADR up 7.5% to €160.10. Occupancy down 2.1 percentage points to 70.4%. Demand nights down 3.1% to 66.4 million. Multiply the rate by the occupancy and you land on the RevPAR to the cent. Revenue grew, volume shrank. If you discounted th...

Wales opens its visitor accommodation register next month. Joining it is free. Ignoring it costs £1,400 per property. From October 2026, anyone who takes bookings for overnight stays in Wales must register with the Welsh Revenue Authority. gov.wales is blunt about the reach: "You must register by 31 March 2027, even if your local council does not introduce Visitor Levy." That is 195 days from toda...

n Mallorca the criminal risk has stopped being about letting without a licence. It is now about what you do in the 10 days after the notice arrives. On Tuesday the Consell de Mallorca published its enforcement figures for January to July 2026. 146 sanction files opened, against 104 in the whole of 2025. A rise of 40%. 1,546 inspections. 4.37 million euros of proposed penalties across those 146 fil...

Paying to rank is not new. It is arriving at the one big channel that never sold it. On 1 September, Expedia Group launched Vrbo Sponsored Listings globally, one of 12 products announced that day. Expedia's own words: a "pay-per-booked-night advertising solution" that "offers no upfront risk and helps partners secure premium placement at the top of relevant Vrbo search results". It is an auction....

Jan Sahagun turned down the chance to start Trellis. He was in a job he believed in, he needed the stability, and he said no. So his co-founder applied to Y Combinator anyway and put Jan's name on the application. Jan found out afterwards. He went. That is roughly how his whole career has gone. He played hockey at a high level, then collected three master's degrees because he had no idea what he w...

England's tourist tax will not be capped. Neither will the number of nights it applies to. The government published its response to the visitor levy consultation on Wednesday 10 September. Most coverage has led on the missing rate cap. For anyone running longer stays, the night cap matters more. No cap on the rate. "The government does not intend to set a cap on the visitor levy rate, however, thi...

Three things happened in European short-term rentals this week, and one of them has been badly under reported. The Affordable Housing Act, published Wednesday, gives compliant operators something to argue with. Article 10(1)(e). Where an authority restricts short-term rentals to safeguard housing affordability, the measure only stands where that authority "applies and enforces Regulation (EU) 2024...

Brussels published the Affordable Housing Act yesterday. The most important line in it is not about caps. Article 3(1): short-term rental restrictions taken on housing affordability grounds "shall not be subject to Directive 2006/123/EC, including the notification obligation laid down in Article 15(7)". That notification duty is what puts a proposed restriction in front of the Commission before it...

Greece is paying owners to leave the short-term rental market. As the law stands today, that offer expires on 31 December. Most of this week's coverage led with the extension. The extension is not law. The deadline is. What was announced on Monday, at the detailed briefing on the Thessaloniki fair package: New registrations in the short-stay registry stay blocked in central Athens and central Thes...

Tomorrow, Brussels hands every city in Europe a legal instruction manual for capping short-term rentals. The European Commission presents its Affordable Housing Act on Wednesday 9 September. Reuters and Euronews have both seen the draft. What it does: gives national and local authorities explicit EU legal cover to restrict short-term rentals in areas under housing stress. Until now there has been...

England's short-let register has a date. By March. Lisa Nandy told the Commons on Thursday the national scheme will be "up and running in full by March", which means March 2027. It's the first firm month the government has put on it. Where that leaves the UK: → Scotland: licensing, in force since October 2022 → Northern Ireland: certification, long established → Wales: visitor accommodation regist...

Spain has 12.5% fewer short-term rentals than a year ago. In July, 12% more tourists stayed in them. Three official releases landed on Tuesday and they all point the same way. INE, Spain, July: → 11.5m international tourists, up 4.6% → Spend €18.2bn, up 10.9%. €1,579 per tourist, up 5.9% → Tourists staying mainly in rented homes: up 12.0%. Hotels: up 3.8% → January to July, rented homes up 11.0% t...

Airbnb just hired the executive who ran Booking.com 's hotels and homes business. And gave him Airbnb Hotels. Pepijn Rijvers started on Tuesday as Chief Business Officer, leading Homes, Hotels, Global Markets and Enterprise Operations. → More than 12 years at Booking.com from 2008: Chief Marketing Officer, then Managing Director of Global Hotels and Accommodations. Chesky says he built Booking's h...

France's e-invoicing reform went live on 1 September. If you assumed VAT exemption kept you out of it, it does not. → Every business established in France that counts as a taxable person must now be able to receive electronic invoices through a state-approved platform. Size, turnover and tax regime make no difference. → Ordinary furnished letting is exempt from VAT, with no option to be taxed. The...

Airbnb will cut your fee from 15.5% to 6% if you bring the guest yourself. Most of the coverage is treating that as a win for hosts. Run the numbers before you agree. The mechanics first. Late last week Airbnb began emailing selected hosts about a new "direct booking link" generated in the Listing editor. → Share it through your social channels, email list or website → A guest books through it and...

Greece's new spatial plan for tourism has been in force since 7 August. This week the sector worked out what it actually does. For short-term rentals, it names 4 measures: Conditions on making a property available, particularly where it relates to main-residence use Limits on how many days a year the activity can run Geographic zones where it can be restricted or prohibited Controls on new supply,...

Registration is free. Not registering costs £1,400 a property. The Welsh Revenue Authority has published its updated guidance on the visitor accommodation register, and the penalty schedule is now in the open. The dates: Registration opens October 2026 You must be registered by 31 March 2027 Visitor levy can start from April 2027, if your council adopts it Licensing follows, working assumption 202...

If you let a home in the Canaries for a month or less, the law now assumes it is a tourist rental until you prove otherwise. Ley 7/2026 was published in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias on 14 August and took effect on 15 August. It is a law about speeding up building licences. Its eleventh final provision rewrites the islands' holiday-let law. Two new articles: Article 11. A stay of 31 days or less...

Vrbo will now sell you the top of its search page for $5 a night. You only pay when the guest books. Expedia published the full partner guide on 6 August. Worth reading the mechanics carefully, because some of the June coverage described a cost-per-click product. It isn't one. From Expedia's own documentation: Pay-per-booked-night, not pay-per-click No charge for impressions, no charge for clicks...