France is a land of plenty for Airbnb: hundreds of thousands of seasonal rental ads now cover 23,000 municipalities, making the country one of the largest markets on the Californian platform. A creation of individual and collective wealth, insists its general manager in France, Emmanuel Marill, who deplores the “shortcuts” in the housing debate.
L’Express: How do you explain the enthusiasm of the French for Airbnb?
Emmanuel Marill: France is one of Airbnb’s largest markets in the world, after the United States. It is a country where the adequacy between the product and the territory – the “product market fit”, as the Americans say – is excellent. Because there are a lot of days off, a very good Internet connection, exceptional sites in terms of tourism, and besides that, real problems of purchasing power and access to property. The combination of these five factors explains the success of Airbnb. People say to themselves: “I need money, so I’m going to rent what costs me the most, my residence, and thanks to that, I’m going to pay my expenses or go on vacation.”
Since our launch in France in 2012, the accommodation offer has evolved considerably. With several hundred thousand advertisements, we now cover 23,000 municipalities, and 40% of our activity is now concentrated in towns or villages with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants. The demand, it is mainly domestic – French people who travel to France -, which was not the case ten years ago, when the platform mainly attracted foreigners wishing to visit Paris or some emblematic sites. Finally, the Covid pandemic has created a new trend: longer stays, with family or in groups, in the countryside in particular, during which tenants take a week before their “real” vacation, and a week after, to telecommute. . This extension of stays secures the hosts.
Airbnb is accused by several elected officials of contributing to overtourism in certain cities, particularly on the coasts. How do you answer them?
Overtourism is a fairly concentrated phenomenon: 65% of tourist flows concern three regions, Ile-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Côte d’Azur. I think, on the contrary, that Airbnb is a factor in the dispersion of tourism, and in this, a solution to mass tourism. People are not looking for a specific destination on the platform, but for a type of accommodation, a price and services. To have the perfect equation, they are ready to do 10 or 20 kilometers more. Even across Paris: the arrondissements where we have the most ads are the 14th, 15th and 17th. Not the heart of the city, even in proportion to the number of inhabitants. Because there are bigger and more affordable apartments in these boroughs. We can clearly see this with the phenomenon surrounding the Olympic Games. Last May, following the second ticket sale, searches for properties to rent increased ninefold. Among the top destinations, there is obviously Paris. But also Saint-Ouen, Clichy, Saint-Denis… All these cities being connected by metro to the capital, tourists favor the size of the accommodation, and the price, rather than the immediate proximity to the Olympic sites. It is also a way to open this economic windfall to many more people.
In addition, French mass tourism is very structured, from Saturday to Saturday, during school holidays. Our travelers coming for a large part from abroad, they are not bound by these constraints, they can fill in the gaps. This also creates a dispersion, no longer geographical but calendar. The seaside or winter sports resorts have every interest in it.
In the countryside, finally, the seasonal rental brings wealth and tourist tax. We have been working for four years with the Association of rural mayors of France, it is a major axis of development for us. The French love France but they want to avoid places that are too touristy. And this “everywhere else” is the most beautiful thing about the country: 80% of heritage sites are located off the tourist trail. Our challenge is to convince local residents to put their homes on the platform. Because it’s a gain in purchasing power for them, and a source of income for the municipality that it can reinvest in local development.
Airbnb critics want to further tighten regulations on tourist furnished rentals. At the risk of breaking your model?
Let’s be clear: Airbnb has absolutely no vocation to go against the general interest. When this regulation, which is already the most elaborate in Europe, is applied by the municipalities that choose to do so, it works. And we are for it! Real estate speculation stops. And the hosts have a secure framework. The real subject is the municipalities in tight areas, where the demand for housing is greater than the supply. There are more than 1,000 in France today. But only 200 of them have implemented the regulatory measures governing seasonal furnished rentals, with registration with the town hall, change of use of the rented property, or even compensation, which requires the host to long-term rental of another property of the same surface area for each furnished tourist accommodation created. La Baule, Deauville or Honfleur request, for example, a change of use with compensation for the second or third property rented.
Other municipalities are reluctant to regulate because they have many second homes, often family homes, which have been there for decades and which structure economic activity during the summer. What will happen if we encourage, through too strict regulations, their owners to no longer go through a platform like ours? They risk renting them discreetly, from hand to hand, via other sites which are not subject to the same obligations, which will represent a dead loss for the municipality – the tourist tax – and for the tax authorities – the income tax on industrial and commercial profits. We have been required, for several years now, to pass on to the tax authorities the income generated by all our guests. Airbnb is an open book. Is it really in the interest of the community to want to close it?
France is facing a serious real estate crisis, which forces many employees to stay away from their work. Rather than making tourist rentals, shouldn’t your hosts put their property on the traditional rental market?
Don’t fall for shortcuts. The housing crisis is deep and multifactorial. When cities under pressure on housing put in place regulations on vacation rentals, the impact is immediate. In Paris, nearly 75% of the ads offered on the platform are for main residences or guest rooms, and it is very complicated today to put a furnished apartment for more than 120 days a year on a platform. This debate is biased because it obscures an essential point: the vast majority of people who go through Airbnb rent their main residence. Whatever the taxation or the new constraints imposed on them, it will not free up more square meters for other French people because they already live there! The only impact will be less purchasing power for them. Last year, the median income of a host was 3,900 euros gross. And Airbnb paid 148 million euros in tourist tax to the municipalities. It’s not neutral.
The real question is second homes and their place in 21st century France. What do we do with it? It is better, in my opinion, that these houses be alive, inhabited, maintained, that they generate individual and collective wealth, rather than having closed shutters and cold beds. The added value of Airbnb is to make them useful. Let’s use the existing building, renovate it and share it. This park will then be efficient from an energy point of view and productive for the territory.
Some say that sales of second homes would partially meet housing needs. But you don’t sell a family home on a whim. And who will buy them? Locals ? Maybe. Or even wealthier people, because they are often located in attractive areas. There is then a risk of further gentrification of these territories. Unless the town hall preempts them. But given their price, will the operation make sense for the municipality? In short, it is an eminently complicated subject, which deserves reflection. However, at the same time, we are witnessing an accelerated deportation from large metropolises to small and medium-sized towns, which the Covid and teleworking have amplified. To sum up, Parisians go to Nantes, and Nantes residents to La Baule or its surroundings. These migrations have taken many municipalities by surprise: a local urban plan, with ambitious programs for new housing, cannot be decreed overnight. In this context where geography, sociology and economics collide, Airbnb is a bit too perfect a culprit…
You call on your hosts to renovate their homes. But they don’t have to make it happen an energy performance diagnosis (DPE), since they do not have the same constraints as donors…
It’s true, there is no obligation related to the DPE on the seasonal rental. The energy transition is a necessity, which should be encouraged. If it is the main residence, aligning the hosts with the conventional rental regime risks impacting their purchasing power and hampering their renovation projects. Many use vacation rental income to do work.
On the other hand, an owner who buys another accommodation and who dedicates it to seasonal rental should, in my opinion, respect the regulations which apply to long-term rental. Another solution would be to promote incentives: we could thus encourage hosts to use their income on Airbnb to finance their renovation work, via a tax credit earmarked for the cost of the work, for example. I repeat: when it is framed intelligently, the seasonal hiring is a formidable asset for France, not a calamity.