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I have yet to see a response that is favourable to Airbnb, but it’s a daily occurrence to see people expressing very negative thoughts about this company. Why?
To quote the Airbnb website “And so it all started with an email: Gebbia wrote Chesky with an idea: What if they made turned their loft into a designer's bed and breakfast, complete with a sleeping mat and breakfast? It was a way to "make a few bucks." 12 years later, that idea is worth $31 billion”.
Well, that establishes that it was good for the founders, but is it good for Portuguese tourism? Airbnb would seem to be competition to the established tourism industry. Recent studies found that it was 21 percent cheaper to rent out an apartment on Airbnb than get a hotel room, and 49 percent cheaper to rent out a private room. That makes Airbnb a threat to the established tourism industry, and they have invested millions in promoting visitors to Portugal.
Airbnb renters are at risk
Hotel chains offer a consistent experience. If something does go wrong, the person at the front desk will answer your call any time of the day or night. And however far in advance you reserve your hotel room, you don’t have to worry about losing it right before you’re scheduled to leave.
An Airbnb host could cancel your reservation any time for any reason. To put it bluntly, you are in the hands of tourism amateurs, not professionals. Also note, if your Airbnb reservation were to get cancelled at the last minute, you could end up spending more money to find a substitute. And if you show up and don’t find the Airbnb suitable, you may not get all your money back.
Damaging the normal rental market
The other complaint people frequently make is that Airbnb hosts tie up properties that could be used for the normal residential rental market. This forces prices up for people looking to rent long term rather than buy. It might make a quick profit for ‘hosts’ but it clearly damages the normal rental market. According to Bloomberg, Lisbon City Council is introducing measures to turn Airbnb-style homes into affordable housing, but Airbnb hosts are resisting. Airbnb are a little ‘shy’ about revealing how many properties they have available in Lisbon, but it runs into thousands.
According to the Airbnb website, most Hosts pay a flat service fee of 3 percent of the booking subtotal plus a 14 percent service fee. However, this is not always the case, Airbnb themselves say “When one starts to dive into the Airbnb commissions and service fees it might feel like trying to find one’s way through a jungle”. Recently Airbnb seem to have established a flat rate of 15 percent commission.
Properties such as villas, apartments, etc. that are made available for rental through travel agents, tour operators and rental agencies are all highly regulated and subject to strict standards. Airbnb properties are not subject to the same standards.
Many Airbnb properties are not properly licensed
According to e recent report by The Portugal News in December 2020, almost 50 percent of accommodation in Lisbon registered on the Airbnb digital rental platform does not have a valid license, with 30 percent of the properties not even having permission to be used for this purpose, according to this study.
Proposing the implementation of a license approval process by Turismo de Portugal, the authors explain that they found “cases of licenses whose spaces are left blank or are filled with ‘Airbnb123’”, according to Lusa News Agency. “In the most extreme case, we found the same license to be used for 24 properties.
According to a recent study, the data, collected in October 2019, revealed the existence of a “strong growth” business. “Since 2016, the number of properties listed on this platform, in Lisbon, has more than tripled, from 8,000 to 25,134 properties by the end of 2019”
The government are reported to becoming concerned by the growing diversion of apartments and houses from regular rental to short-term leases managed by Airbnb and similar services. One of the reasons is the tax advantages granted to short-term leases. The taxation rules seem to stipulate that only 35 percent of touristic or short-term leases are subject to taxation, which means a final tax bill that is no higher than 13.5 percent in the highest tax brackets for individual investors. This contrasts with regular leases paying a flat 28 percent rate on income. If you add arcane legislation and snail-paced courts that make difficult, costly and lengthy to evict defaulting tenants, it is no wonder that investors are flocking to buy whole buildings to convert into short-term rentals.
Is Airbnb good for the tourism market?
I think that has to be a resounding NO! Portugal’s tourism market is well regulated and well run. Villa rental companies are regulated, with proper customer service and backup to meet the needs of the customer. They have had many years of experience building the market and their work has resulted in Portugal having a very good reputation for quality of accommodation and service.
If something goes wrong, and it happens, such as a plumbing leak, a failure of the air con or kitchen equipment, not to mention the swimming pool, they have the technical people on hand to resolve problems fast. In the vast majority of case, villa complexes are well run, well maintained and offer a guarantee of service for the guest.
It seems to me that Airbnb ‘hosts’ are ‘cashing in’ on the years of hard work by the local tourism industry and trying to offer cut price accommodation for the budget conscious visitor. It seems they even get a tax advantage. The tourism industry employs many thousands of people who take care of visitors to a high standard.
Airbnb is a very slick operation, but it cuts out the tourism professionals, and they have been developing the market since the mid 1960’s. It’s difficult to guess what will happen to the market if this trend continues, but it’s not good news.
Resident in Portugal for 50 years, publishing and writing about Portugal since 1977. Privileged to have seen, firsthand, Portugal progress from a dictatorship (1974) into a stable democracy.
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Airbnb gives millions the chance to travel, who can't otherwise afford regular hotel prices. The guarantee of getting a suitable place relies on the reviews which clearly show others' satisfaction with all the factors which are important to visitors. Additionally the friendships achieved are not to be underestimated.
The sole negatives for me are the very high (unclear) commissions pocketed by the two billionaires, and the opaque website which is difficult for both sides, guests and hosts to work through.
In principle it is of benefit to the majority of people including restaurants and clubs etc whose trade INCREASES because of the additional numbers of people who can thus afford to travel.
By Big Bank from Algarve on 22 Mar 2022, 08:41
May I point you to a recent Airbnb renters experience in Lisbon where a woman rented what was in fact an illegal basement with no ventilation against fire risk.
She was let into the property by what is known as a Co host as the owner lived abroad.
She was robbed in the night of all her valuable possessions including laptops phones etc.It became apparent it was the co host who was responsible and a police check showed he had multiple offences on the Police data base.
The fact this even happened should send shockwaves,as there were clearly many failures in the vetting process of both the apt and the landlord and co host.
Then we get to the fact that the long term rental market has been obliterated because of Airbnb.Landlords are doing short term rentals and charging high rates to the detriment of key workers and other ordinary folk that just need a place to live.
Then there is the fact that Airbnb has sucked the life out of local communities because they simply occupy properties with short term transient guests.
Those guests often show no regard for the neighbourhood they are temporarily occupying.So think parties,loud music,screaming and shouting and multiple other anti social behaviours.
Finally it is an outrage that Airbnb landlords only have to pay taxes on 25% of their rental income. That is an affront to the rest of the population that are taxed to death.
In a nutshell Airbnb has turned multiple towns and cities into simply temporary bedrooms.Devastating the long term rental market.Destroying communities.
Causing misery and suffering to any unfortunate neighbours that live anywhere near to those properties.Finally,to add insult to injury Airbnb landlords receive outrageous tax breaks.
Enough is enough!
By James from Algarve on 22 Mar 2022, 09:13
All of those platforms are parasitizing on the work of others. Booking.com charging enormous commissions from the accommodations, while offering a bug ridden reservation system and trying to put all the caused errors and corresponding costs at the expense of the accommodations. Or Tripadvisor, robbing the clients by putting 20-25% on top of the accommodations price.
Wake up people! Use those platforms to see what's available, but book directly with the accommodation, that way you will either save yourself or the accommodation a lot of useless costs and you will help to sustain the real accommodation providers. Not the platforms that fill their pockets and act as if they "own the place".
By Atente Pessoa from Alentejo on 22 Mar 2022, 09:14
Just one more point.I know of Airbnb landlords that are renting multiple properties but putting different host names on the Airbnb website.They even change the name of the property to make it appear to be another property.
It is clear to me that there is a massive tax fraud scam going on here.
Especially as they are driving a Swiss number plated car although they have been living here for the last 5 years.
There needs to be an urgent clamp down by the tax authorities as not only are the landlords having to pay tax on just 25% of the rental income,there are many clearly scamming the system for even more.
By James from Algarve on 22 Mar 2022, 09:42
Im certainly no fan of AirBnB, but there are two other key factors at work that make this dofficukt to fix.
Very poor government oversight/standards or enforcement of existing rules AND human greed. Politicians in every country are slow to respond and when they do, often only seem interested in getting their cut.
By KENT from Other on 22 Mar 2022, 15:25
We are an abnb according to its original idea of sharing one's own house. For 4 yrs now we got to know 100s of wonderful guests, and luckily thanks to our AL the otherwise almost empty street (speculation but no investors) sees more souls all year round. So our answer is "it depends"
By Markus from Algarve on 22 Mar 2022, 18:40
We have successfully used Airbnb dozens of times all over Europe and in the United States.
San Francisco so heavily regulated and curtailed Airbnb, it severely damaged to the tourist industry here. At the same time, it did absolutely nothing to decrease rents or increase rental supply.
As a future expat, one way we can get to know neighborhoods is by staying in short-term vacation rentals, prior to signing a long-term lease.
It's so much more enjoyable to stay in a place with character, and local charm, and meet local hosts, as opposed staying in some chain hotel with a very tiny sterile room.
By Jamey Frank from USA on 23 Mar 2022, 00:34
I have a neighbour with two small one/two bed apts next to each other.
He regularly rents them via Airbnb and has 20 people in them.Which is absurd and far greater than the intended capacity of those spaces.Of course by allowing that many people he is bringing the cost per person down in order to maximise occupation.
Furthermore he does not has an AL sign outside,only his own signs up saying holiday rentals with a phone number,
Does anyone know the law on this? My understanding is they are required to have an official AL sign up outside and that being a registered AL comes with regulations in terms of capacity, noise etc.
By James from Algarve on 23 Mar 2022, 07:28
Your agrue the problem is lack of normal housing but you blame Airbnb hosts for the problem. Instead of denouncing airbnb hosts, most of which are community & locally minded people, why not ban hotels? Hotels represent the billionaire corporate model that exploits people for profit while being germ & bed bug ridden accommodations. Using your argument, that the problem is a housing issue, the government should purchase the hotels and turn them into affordable housing.
By Jay H. from USA on 23 Mar 2022, 10:16
If someone needs to stay for example 2-3 months a place, how would they do without Airbnb? Ordinary landlords refuse to let for less than 12 months, and they don't include utilities and internet. So should a short-term visitor run around signing electricity and internet contracts? It wouldn't work. A hotel would be ludicrously expensive without providing the type of rental needed, i.e. a private space with a kitchen and laundry facilities where people we don't know don't enter our private space daily to clean and stick their noses in our things, possibly stealing them. Because the author has never heard of theft from hotel rooms, where plenty of people we don't know have keys, has he? Or does the author mean that staying temporarily a place for 2-3 months should be illegal because it is taboo to compete with the established hotel industry, and everything that moves must be regulated and taxed to death? We can always find examples of bad practices by Airbnb hosts, but we can usually find examples of bad practices in every single industry, so why single out Airbnb? There is a housing problem, and it is compounded by the low wages, but dictating to Airbnb owners how they must use their property is unlikely to solve that problem.
By TF from Porto on 23 Mar 2022, 11:35
Of course people can find bad anecdotes with any company but I've stayed in several Airbnbs in Lisbon and Porto, some for up to 3 months at a time, and I've had nothing but positive experiences with hosts who want to make sure you have a great stay. Airbnb provides a lot of flexibility and ease-of-use for tourists and for people like me who need to be in the country for only 5-6 months each year. Hotels are extortionately priced, wasteful, and don't allow you to cook for yourself. The rental market is also full of scams, overly bureaucratic, hard to navigate as a foreigner and imposes onerous conditions. People love to bash Airbnb but people use it because it works and provides support if you're not getting what you paid for. People who criticize it are often those with a vested interest in other lobbying for other business models, or don't understand how it works. As for the problem with rising house prices (frankly, in every major world city), this is complex issue with a lot of supply-side and regulatory causes - singling out Airbnb is dishonest.
By Paul from Lisbon on 23 Mar 2022, 11:39
I am both an Airbnb guest and host. Airbnb is a great way for tourists and locals to connect beyond the established tourism professionals. Greedy multi-home operators and middle men gouge and push local rents up and locals out. These platforms do enable owners to help cover mortgage or to travel themselves. Portugal could follow the lead of other cities that only allow property where the owners actually reside (proven by license), i.e. one property per owner/couple, and a limit of nights per year (eg. 100 nights). City authorities don’t need to blanket ban; just be tougher and get more creative with these platforms. If that happened, there would be a flood of properties becoming available again for regular, mid-term and longer rental.
By PO from Lisbon on 23 Mar 2022, 14:47
Airbnb is the middle man that deals with the paperwork. Unfortunately, you do get good &bad within the industry as you would in any. You have terrible hosts & guests you get some shady people and good. Airbnb advise you not to deal directly with hosts without airbnb you then risk any liability and access to safety nets, there is nothing airbnb can do for you 2protect. Majority of the issues stem from people not using airbnb to make the booking & thinking they can get around by dealing directly with the host but want to hold airbnb accountable. There needs to be evidence. That's where airbnb comes in.
There are people using a false account that you believe is a host it's stolen identity, airbnb definitely will place a stop. They have good protocols in place to assist.The people that work for airbnb receiving the calls from hosts & guests get it in the ear all day from extremely rude & angry people because they either didn't get their way, something went wrong, the host canceled & other these guys get sworn at, called names, screamed at and when the agent has explained all they need to, directed & given the information & what can or cannot be done they will rate the agents -give them a low rating.These people earn minimum wage work odd shifts, they may be promoted not in pay, they are simply trying to make ends meet, keep a roof over their heads. They will get deducted with low scored ratings even if they did all that is required, taught to do. People forget its not the agents fault for the I'll doing of rules, hosts, guests. They will not ask, nor will they say if you are allowed to post a comment on their behalf, it's a personal decision you make. They will get into trouble for requesting a comment, score they rely on it
By L from Porto on 23 Mar 2022, 16:18
What a narrow minded overview of the market. Whether you think it’s good or not, it’s actually the market and demand that dictates its success. Not hospitality groups or media outlets. You either listen to the market and address its needs and demands or you fall behind like Blockbusters or London black cabs.
By Aga from UK on 23 Mar 2022, 18:58
The article written is unnecessarily biased in its opinion of AirBNB, and therefore journalistically not acceptable.
It's like blaming Amazon for sending people the items they purchase!
I have been in the tourism industry for 30 years, and there are pro's and con's to the online rental industry. Happily, by scrolling through the more thoughtful and valid comments a good balance of relative advantages/disadvantages can be found.
Unlike most corporately owned hotels, AirBNB payments (taxes and commissions aside) are going directly to local owners, and not to hotel chains that expatriate every bit of profit they can, and use every means of accounting to ensure the minimum of tax is being paid.
Of course the traditional hotel owners lobby politicians hard to get the AirBNB's out, and corner the market themselves. The issues being discussed here are not confined to Portugal, but a global tourism issue, and one well studied by tourism academics in every destination.
A particular problem does exist in major cities around the world, where there is a certain amount of displacement of local housing. However, the AirBNB industry is a very positive tool for rural or remote tourist destinations, where no hotel developer would even contemplate an investment. The negative effects of this are obvious, and two-fold: a) they remove the ability of a country to distribute tourists, (concentrating them into the cities), and; b) deprive rural communities of the substantial tourist spending on additional services, food and beverage, and retail. In rural locations these vendors are most often small and family-run businesses, and not "chains".
Some research of the facts would have led you to a better and balanced article.
By Tony Williams from Other on 23 Mar 2022, 19:36
Airbnb employees - work graveyard hours.
Deal with rude and entitled guests and hosts a like. There are many good hosts and guests too.
People chance their hand at trying to get money out of airbnb with extreme colorful stories.
They deal with discrimination even though airbnb policies and rules against discrimination.
They are paid low rate bottom line.
The work is intense and demanding.
Try working around demands from every single person who refuse to understand rules and regulations that bark orders as though the agents are personal butlers to their every demand /request.
They are not recognized for their service within the company let alone the public.
The agents are hard working individuals surviving just as much as the next person regardless of job titles.
They are rated and scored by the company based on reviews and ratings from the public sector - those who use the company for services. Based on this they will either be let go and or will not make much money on an already below income rate. By rating the agent instead you determine their future within the company. Disadvantages go both ways, the only ones truly losing are those who work as agents. They are underpaid, unappreciated.
Those trying to scam, get a free ride and exercising anti-social behaviors are not helpful to airbnb, to good hosts and guests.
Airbnb overall helps to employ people who have not been able to find work or make ends meet.
Using this platform is helpful for many individuals. But please before you begin remember this there are many people trying to survive and this is a means and for affordable holidays for anyone.
By M from Porto on 25 Mar 2022, 12:50
Good responses thankfully above. The millions of lucky people who have great holidays in the right place for very reasonable prices compared to the James version of one host being a crook, indicate that human responses DO have an effect on the system. Before you book read the reviews. Likewise here. One poor Jimmy who knows someone who saw the number plates of a car from Switzerland at the same location, should get a job as an investigator for BBC, rather than ignore the millions who pay the taxes, enjoy seeing new places, get to know nice strangers and spread the word to others. Jim who works for the hotel industry could go on holiday but can't afford the hotel prices. Jimmy is stuck in a hole with a grievance. Has he the energy to come back a third time to out his mind and convince us all to ban Airbnb from which he has zero profit?
By Big Bank from Algarve on 27 Mar 2022, 07:32
I welcome the recent Supreme court ruling on AL.
They are quite right in determining the original use of those condominiums were not for high turnover of renters.
They now need to apply this principal to neighbourhoods .Residents do not expect everywhere to be turned into defacto short term hotel rooms.
Bad Hombres coming to good neighborhoods is a no no.
By James from Algarve on 27 Apr 2022, 19:09