Short-term rentals, Federalberghi asks for rules and controls

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Against the jungle of short-term rentals Federalberghi is asking for certain checks and rules against forms of unfair competition. This is the message that Alessandro Nucara, general manager of Federalberghi, presented during the hearing before the Senate’s European Union Policy Commission. “Lodgings rented for short periods represent about a quarter of the total tourist accommodation facilities in the European Union – said Nucara -. In Italy, the ads published on the main platform are over four hundred thousand. It is a phenomenon which in recent years, unlike other European countries, has been characterized by an expansion without rules and without controls, generating problems such as the exposure of consumers to safety risks, undeclared work, tax evasion and the transformation of the economic and social fabric of cities. And this creates damage, damage both for traditional companies and for those that manage the new forms of reception correctly and respecting the rules. We don’t want fences between hotels and those who manage other types of accommodation but only between those who respect the law and those who forget about it». The business of short-term rentals in private homes, according to Federalberghi calculations, is worth 11 billion in Italy. This amount is calculated starting from an estimate by the Ministry of Tourism which calculates the February revenues of those who rent apartments and rooms at 500 million euros. “Considering that February is a very low season and is normally worth 4% of the year – explains Nucara – it means that if the ministry’s data are correct, the market for these houses is worth 11 billion euros in Italy”. The point is that in 2022 the revenue from the dry coupon paid with the F24 was only 80 million which, according to the association’s calculations, is equivalent to an annual taxable income of 380 million. Among other things, the tourist tax, applied in over a thousand municipalities on the peninsula, also escapes collection. Again according to MEF data, it is estimated that «70 million euros may refer to around 14 thousand subjects, including bailees and tenants. Therefore: out of 11 billion collected, no more than 450 million have followed the main road indicated by the law – continues the general manager -. So there is a sidereal distance, a black hole between the two figures of the estimated turnover and the one recorded. For this reason we welcome the proposal for a regulation aimed at focusing on the scope of the phenomenon but only as a first step for the definition of a regulatory framework appropriate to the times. We believe that the proposal can and should be improved, with the aim of protecting the entire tourism ecosystem of the European Union”.

Confedilizia’s reply

Nucara’s statements were followed by a reply from Giorgio Spaziani Testa, president of Confedilizia, who defined them as “incommentable”. As for the alleged “black hole” in the revenue, Spaziani Testa speaks of “entirely imaginative and, therefore, incommendable numbers”. As for the absence of rules, the president of Confedilizia lists the state rules that apply to the short-term rental sector and says: “Limiting ourselves to state legislation (then there are the thousand regional and municipal regulations): 2017: obligation to withhold tax in the hands of the owners; 2017: obligation to transmit contract data to the Revenue Agency; 2017: obligation to apply the tourist tax, with relative communications; 2018: obligation, subject to criminal penalties, to communicate the data of the residents to the public security; 2019: establishment of the database of properties intended for short-term rentals; 2019: provision of an identification code for each property intended for short-term rental; 2020: obligation to transform the owner into an entrepreneur in case of leasing of more than four real estate units; 2022: possibility, for the Municipality of Venice, to limit the right to short-term lease». It should not be forgotten that, for example, in 2022 AirBnb paid the municipality of Rome 70 thousand euros in unpaid tourist taxes. Indirect confirmation of many borderline situations.