Tourists Are Banned from Short Term Rentals in Berlin

Berlin forbids tourists to rent apartments or entire houses through Airbnb or similar platforms in an attempt to protect long-term rental housing according to local authorities, informs The Independent.

After the rental portals such as Airbnb experienced international success, there has been noticed a significantly decrease in the number of homes rented for a long period of time. Because of this reason, on 1st of May, authorities in Berlin have applied the "Zweckentfremdungsverbot" law, prohibiting renting an entire apartment for short term, through portals like Airbnb, by people without a city permit. Thus, tourists who want to visit Berlin can rent just a room in an apartment, but not the whole apartment.

More than 7,000 accommodations in Berlin are listed on Airbnb, and, last year, there were 12 million tourists in hotels, hostels and guesthouses of the German capital, Der Spiegel newspaper writes.

For now on, owners of apartments who violate the law will be fined with 100,000 euros. The law was adopted in 2014 but with a transition period of two years, which expired on April 30, 2016. Therefore, the records on Airbnb in Berlin fell by 40% in a month.
Airbnb spokesman Julian Trautwein declared that Berliners want clear and simple rules in order to continue to share the house with tourists.
Airbnb is an American company founded in 2008 as is an online platform where anyone can rent any house anywhere in the world directly from the owner. Airbnb has 600,000 accommodations listed in 190 countries.