Short-term rental: The fight over Greek Airbnb properties escalates – Easter “lockout” threats

The Panhellenic Association of Property Managers-PASYDA is calling for a constructive dialogue with the government, expressing at the same time its strong protest against the way in which the government is preparing to take measures to limit the activity of Short-Term Accommodation.

In a letter to the prime minister and the relevant ministers, PASYDA acknowledges that there are problems and issues to be resolved, however it points out that there must be a constructive dialogue between the stakeholders, in order to find solutions that will not limit an activity that offers such a large percentage in the Greek tourism product but also to lay solid foundations for a healthy and sustainable development in the largest growing form of tourism worldwide.

As the announcement of the meeting of PASYDA members typically states, “we consider it inconceivable that there is an intention on the part of the government to define restrictions and prepare changes to the existing legislative framework and to persistently refuse to discuss with representatives of our industry”.

Short-term stay and the tourist “pie”

According to PASYDA and based on data from official agencies and organizations, short-term stays not only do not take away from the pie of hoteliers, but add a second much larger one with an ever-increasing trend. This can also be seen from the occupancy of the hotels, which moves above 90%, reaching 100% in many areas.

As PASYDA claims, preparing any temporal or spatial restriction, as proposed by the hoteliers, this will result in a decrease in visitors to our country since the hotels do not have more beds to cover this increase. But even if we had more hotels, visitors who prefer short-stay properties would not choose a hotel room for their vacation but would rather visit other countries.

“Therefore, the reduction of tourism in Greece would be inevitable even at a time when the tourist product is the one that brings revenue to the public coffers”, says PASYDA.

Answers to the question of tax evasion

The meeting of the members of PASYDA focused in particular on the issue of tax evasion to which the side of the hoteliers refers.

As PASYDA emphasizes, “with over 90% of properties declared in the Short-Term Accommodation Registry, the short-term accommodation sector is the only sector in our country that is taxed directly and with zero tax evasion. Each reservation is declared in the Registry and taxed automatically to the E2 of each owner annually. There is no scope for tax evasion since AADE regularly receives our bookings from platforms such as AIRBNB, BOOKING.COM, VRBO etc. and with the intersections it operates, it has the ability to detect, in almost real time, even the smallest cases of tax evasion, imposing excruciating fines”.

The Association points out that “short-term accommodation belongs to the category of urban leases with a taxation rate that reaches even 45%, which is the highest in Greece”.

Cleanliness and safety

Regarding the issue of cleanliness and safety of short-term accommodation properties, according to PASYDA, “the majority of them in Greece are fully renovated and furnished from the pocket of the respective owner and without any of us having access to NSRA programs and subsidies which especially hoteliers receive, but also without the right to deduct expenses that are taxed twice by the taxation system.

Also, from data published by Airbnb & Booking.com, regarding the evaluations of short-term accommodation, it follows that the Greek owners and managers of these accommodations are in the top fifth worldwide with the largest and highest percentage of positive evaluations compared to the population of our country”.

Reactions

PASYDA members raised three issues for the immediate future:

1. To officially request all parties and all candidate MPs for the upcoming parliamentary elections to make known their intentions in any change to the legislative framework governing short-term rentals.

2. The mayoral candidates should do the same before the next municipal elections.

3. To close their calendars during the week of Easter and if finally any restrictive measures are passed for their industry to continue closed until the week of the fifteenth of August.

The above proposals will be put to an online referendum that will be prepared in the next few days and PASYDA members will be asked to support them. “We must finally show that although we do not have a lobby like the hoteliers, we do have a voice and power to defend our rights”, concludes the PASYDA announcement.