COLLABORATIVE PLATFORMS IN ACCOMMODATION B) Communication with significance. Considerations on the possibility that the Public Administration may demand/require the platform to provide the data a) Initial situation: reluctance on the part of the platforms The second level of collaboration is proving to be key for some Administrations: the transmission of relevant information upon request by the Administration. However, the exact information on who “shares” or “rents” each type of accommodation has proven to be difficult to obtain from the platforms. Access to data by Public Administrations can be ad hoc and is characterized as information by collection, as we will see below, or an exchange of information upon request. In this sense, it is common for platforms to refuse to provide information on hosts, despite a request from a public body, because providing it would go against the right to privacy of those who use the platform, as protected by European e-commerce regulations. The platforms’ reluctance to provide data may also be due, logically, to the fact that this requirement may affect their business model since the most valuable asset for them is not revealing the identity of the owners, otherwise, the interested party could contact them directly and avoid paying the management fees (a percentage of the agreed rent). This requirement to provide data can also reveal one of the most uncomfortable aspects of these platforms: recognizing that 20% of the owners are not people who offer a room/home to obtain extra income, but rather real estate networks with more than ten properties14. Faced with this situation of constant refusals to requests for information from Public Administrations, local councils with a significant supply of tourist accommodation issued a Declaration whose aim was to ask the European Commission to draw up new rules to control tourist rental platforms, obliging them to disclose the identity of the owners offering the properties and to share their data15 (which are legally obliged to share data with the Administrations). This declaration was adopted at the Conference on “European Tourism Rentals” held in Amsterdam in January 2018. 14 https://www.cerodosbe.com/es/viajeros/agencias/como-hacerse-rico-con-airbnb_519464_102.html, last access date: 24 November 2021. 15 Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, Paris, Krakow, Vienna, Reykjavik, and Amsterdam (London and Berlin did not attend but were invited to join the declaration.
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