Airbnb cheats in Paris are coming under renewed pressure to obey legal constraints.
Paris City Hall believes that nearly half the city properties listed with the rental website are being let for longer than the legal limit of 120 days per year and that the owners are failing to pay the appropriate taxes.
To combat this, officials have added a new interactive map on its official website which lists all the 107 officially registered Airbnb properties available for long-term rentals.
At the same time, however, Airbnb has claimed that Paris is one of its most sought after locations.
Owners found in violation of the city’s Airbnb regulations could face a fine of $28,000 and officials are considering raising it higher still Officials are appealing to the scruples of owners.
Mathias Vicherat, the mayor’s chief of staff, said that the move should encourage people to register.
"We hope that this causes a shock of civic conscience, and people begin to follow the rules on their own, without waiting to be eventually reported by a neighbour," he said.
But the effort has raised suspicions that it is a way to get neighbours to report those properties not properly registered. A number of Parisian residents have expressed concern that their zone is being converted from residential to tourist.
Last year, Airbnb reached a settlement with Paris to start collecting tourist taxes, the same as levied by hotels. In three months it remitted more than €1 million in tax revenue to Paris.
