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Airbnb Japan axes 80 percent of its listings ahead of new rental law

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

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AirbnbGlobally acclaimed rental platform Airbnb has recently suspended a variety of its listings in Japan prior to a new law that goes into effect next week regulating short-term rentals in the nation.

 

The law comes into effect June 15 onwards.

 

It requires owners to obtain a government registration number and meet different regulations that some have decried as overly strict. A spokesperson of Airbnb Asia-Pacific Jake Wilczynski said that this weekend they need to reach out to those hosts who are yet to obtain their notification number and they would require this to accept new bookings.

 

They have informed their hosts that they are in the process of turning off future listing capabilities.

 

He had declined, however, to confirm the exact number of listings of Airbnb that have been impacted. But then the regional media reports and sources place the figure at about 80 percent of the rentals available on the site across Japan.

 

Wilczynscki mentioned that several Airbnb hosts had already received their registration and others were ‘going through or finalizing’ the process.

 

Airbnb and other peer-to-peer rental sites have publicly welcomed the new law, saying it removes uncertainty in a sector that has long existed.

 

But then some hosts say it imposes onerous rental requirements, which they see as intended to favour the hotel industry.

The law restricts stays to 180 days a year, and permit local governments to impose additional restrictions, with the tourist magnet of Kyoto only permitting rentals in residential areas between mid-January and mid-March, the low season for tourists.

 

They also criticise the registration process as excessively complicated and bureaucratic.

 

A Japanese tourism official told a leading news media agency that earlier this year that the law was “urgently needed to ensure public health and prevent trouble with local residents”.

 

The changes come as Japan works to boost already record numbers of tourists and as it anticipates an influx of visitors for next year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.

 

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