Short-term rentals dominated discussions at the 2nd Regional Conference organised by the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers (POX) in Heraklion, Crete,
From the President of the POX, Yannis Hatzis, to the presidents of the local hotel owners’ associations and the Vice President of SETE, Agapi Sbokou (also a hotelier), everyone was ready to throw short-term rentals into the fire. In the eyes of the hotel industy, Airbnb is to blame for the rise in rental prices, for the lack of affordable housing for permanent residents in cities, for “overtourism”, for the burden of poor infrastructure in destinations, and for just about everything else that’s bad.
On the one hand, the housing issue is a real problem, to which renting on a short-term basis can contribute. However, it is a multidimensional issue that certainly cannot be solved entirely by blanket decisions banning and restricting short-term rentals.
As for the alleged over-tourism. Hatzis himself argued (admittedly, quite convincingly) that there is no such phenomenon in Greece. And the president of hoteliers Chania, Emmanuel Giannoulis, added that the talk around the alleged over-tourism, is intended to raise voices for the imposition of new charges on hotels and not to highlight the issues in the infrastructure, which remains incomplete.
What does it mean to “regulate” short-term rentals?
The talk of ‘regulating short-term rentals’ has created an unpleasant ambient around the industry that has made people feel like renting short-term is an unregulated, even illegal activity.
And yet, short-term renting is highly regulated and controlled. It has recently been subject to a number of charges including VAT, visitor’s tax, climate change resilience fees as well as additional business tax per accommodation which has been imposed on all legal entities. The fact that this is an industry that is in full compliance with the regulations and does not evade tax, as the Director of the AADE himself has said, wasn’t mentioned or discussed at any point.
It is no coincidence that recently there has been an increase in the number of reports referring to the upcoming ‘new regulations’ for short-term rentals. Even the Prime Minister, in an interview with the Star television station, announced that: “We are considering even more restrictions on Airbnbs, if necessary.” You can watch the full interview here, the reference to short-term rentals is at 14:40″.
A little earlier however, he had admitted that “rents have gone up because the property market is doing well”.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis also made a more specific reference to time restrictions, particularly in Athens, in a subsequent interview.
Since the beginning of December 2023 when the last bill concerning the industry was passed, hoteliers have expressed their dissatisfaction. They went as far as to describe the regulations as “too little and too late” and continued to put pressure on the government. At the POX conference, the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Alexandros Vassilikos, presented a study highlighting the social impact short-term rentals have.
The Airbnb antidote to all-inclusive
At the same time, Mr. Hatzis developed his arguments in favour of mass tourism, based on the most basic tourism product, “sun and sea”.
He said, “I am sure that mass tourism based on “sun and sea” doesn’t have the most positive connotation for the majority of the country’s citizens.”
Hatzis continued to say that a lot can be said and written in theory, but decisions should be guided by real facts, not theories. Developing alternative tourism experiences is extremely useful and necessary to expand Greek services and spread tourism GDP to the rest of the country. However, in a recent opinion poll amongst Greece’s main markets, 50% of German visitors and 40% of British visitors still chose their holiday destination based on the classic sun and sea model. Therefore, we must not forget that for better or for worse, the core contributor to Greek Tourism GDP stems from the key competitive advantage of the classic “sun and sea tourism”.
But what Hatzis did not mention is the fact that the majority of Germans and British tourists who come to Greece actually choose all-inclusive holiday packages. In other words, these are the tourists who stay locked inside resorts and spend nothing in the local community. It may be a model that has paid off for Greek tourism, but as a model it does nothing to benefit local economies as the revenue doesn’t spread within the destination.
In contracts to the all-inclusive tourism model favoured by many hoteliers is the short-term rentals model. Thanks to Airbnb-style accommodations, many destinations across the country have actually seen local business revenues boosted. Local restaurants, supermarkets and grocery stores, cafes, bars and entertainment venues are welcoming tourists who don’t opt for the resort style holiday. Even tickets to museums, archaeological sites and other attractions are boosted by Airbnb tourists.
What’s more, these short-term rentals were built using private funds and not with government subsidies.
The question raised by Mr. Hatzis and other hoteliers remains “what model of tourism do we want in the next 10 years?”, and in fact, it is a question many people are asking. However, the answer depends on which side of the fence you sit with regards to hotel and short-terms rental models of tourism.
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