Tselegidis Kyriakos

Theologian – Legal Scholar – Economist

PhD in Religious Tourism, University of West Attica

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Tourism Management, University of West Attica

 

Abstract
The expansion of short-term rentals through digital platforms has reshaped the structure of tourist accommodation by broadening the supply of lodging and creating new forms of business activity beyond the traditional hotel sector. This development has also raised questions concerning the regulation of tourism supply, the oversight of digital platforms, the spatial concentration of visitor activity, and the effects of touristification on local housing markets and neighbourhoods. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, applicable from 20 May 2026, introduces common requirements for the registration, identification and exchange of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services. This article examines the Regulation through the lens of tourism governance and argues that its principal contribution lies in establishing a European information infrastructure capable of strengthening destination management, improving oversight of the actual supply of tourist accommodation, and supporting the justification of targeted regulatory interventions. The analysis also identifies the limits of the new framework: improved information alone cannot ensure sustainable tourism development or address the housing and social effects associated with tourism activity. Its effectiveness will therefore depend on the extent to which the available data are incorporated into the design and implementation of coherent tourism and destination-management policies.
Keywords: short-term rentals; tourism governance; Regulation (EU) 2024/1028; digital platforms; destination management; sustainable tourism.

 

1. Introduction
Digital short-term rental platforms have substantially altered the organisation of tourist accommodation. The ability to make homes or rooms directly available to visitors has expanded supply beyond the traditional hotel sector, increased market flexibility, and enabled tourism activity to develop in areas where conventional tourism infrastructure was limited. At the same time, it has created new forms of commercial property use and intensified competition in the accommodation market (Gurran & Phibbs, 2017; Zervas et al., 2017).

This development concerns more than the technological intermediation of tourism supply. Platforms affect the geography of visitation, the composition of the accommodation stock, and the relationship between tourism consumption and residents’ everyday lives. The occasional letting of a primary residence differs materially from the systematic operation of multiple properties by professional managers. As the latter model expands, short-term renting increasingly forms part of debates on destination governance, the touristification of neighbourhoods, and the externalities that may arise from intensified tourism demand (Nieuwland & van Melik, 2020; Wachsmuth & Weisler, 2018).

European cities and Member States have responded with a range of instruments, including licensing schemes, caps on rental days, primary-residence requirements, spatial restrictions and registration systems. This diversity reflects different levels of tourism pressure as well as different administrative structures. It also reveals a common problem: public authorities have not always had access to reliable and comparable information on the actual number of listings, their frequency of use and the spatial concentration of activity. For this reason, the enforceability of regulatory rules has proved as important as their substantive design (Bei & Celata, 2023).

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 seeks to address precisely this information deficit. Based on Article 114 TFEU and applicable from 20 May 2026, it establishes common requirements governing registration procedures, the identification of units and the transmission of data from digital platforms to competent authorities (European Parliament & Council of the European Union, 2024). It does not harmonise the substantive restrictions that may be imposed on short-term rentals. It does, however, create the technical and informational conditions for more evidence-based tourism governance.
The article addresses two research questions. First, what contribution does Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 make to the governance of the short-term tourist accommodation market in the European Union? Second, to what extent can the new data infrastructure support sustainable destination management, particularly in areas where tourism activity is associated with spatial concentration, pressure on the housing stock, or difficulties in enforcing local rules? To answer these questions, the analysis considers Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, related EU law, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the academic literature on short-term rentals, platform regulation and destination-level impacts.

 

2. Short-Term Rentals as Part of the Contemporary Tourism Economy
The growth of digital short-term rental platforms has expanded tourism supply without requiring a corresponding increase in hotel capacity. For visitors, this development broadens the range of available options in terms of accommodation size, location and characteristics. For property owners, it creates opportunities to make commercial use of real estate and supplement income. At destination level, the spatial dispersion of accommodation can also extend tourism activity beyond traditionally concentrated tourism zones and channel visitor flows towards areas with a more limited conventional accommodation base.

The economic significance of this shift is also evident in its competitive effects on the hotel sector. Examining Airbnb’s entry into the Texas market, Zervas et al. (2017) found reductions in hotel revenues in areas where the platform had a stronger presence, with larger effects on lower-priced hotels and during periods of high demand. These findings indicate that short-term rentals are not a marginal form of hospitality but an integral component of the tourism market, capable of affecting both the structure of accommodation supply and pricing behaviour.
The tourism value of the activity does not mean that all forms of short-term renting generate the same effects. Occasional letting of a dwelling may operate as a complementary form of tourist accommodation. By contrast, the systematic operation of multiple units by professional managers more closely resembles organised commercial activity. This distinction is important for regulation because it affects the scale of tourism presence, the duration and intensity of property use, and the relationship between the activity and the local community.

The spatial concentration of short-term rentals may also accelerate processes of touristification. Wachsmuth and Weisler (2018) showed that the prospect of higher returns from tourism use can create incentives to convert housing stock, particularly in areas of high visitor demand. Studying Lisbon, Cocola-Gant and Gago (2021) linked investment demand for short-term rental use to heightened tenant insecurity and processes of displacement. From a tourism-policy perspective, these findings do not justify treating all short-term rentals as a problem. They do, however, indicate that destination management must consider not only the overall scale of tourism activity but also the degree to which it is spatially concentrated and the effects that the accumulation of visitors and accommodation units may generate in particular areas.

 

3. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 as an Instrument of Tourism Governance
Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 is based on Article 114 TFEU and seeks to improve the functioning of the internal market by establishing common rules for the collection and sharing of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services. The approach focuses primarily on creating a more consistent and reliable information framework for an activity that operates across borders and is facilitated by digital platforms. At the same time, Article 2(2) preserves national, regional and local rules concerning, inter alia, access to short-term rental services, land use, urban planning, housing and tenancies. The Regulation therefore aims to create common informational conditions that can support the exercise of competences by Member States and subnational authorities. EU intervention is directed towards harmonising information rather than homogenising the policies applied across destinations (European Parliament & Council of the European Union, 2024). The European Commission had identified two related difficulties prior to the Regulation’s adoption. Public authorities did not always possess reliable information on the actual scale of the activity, while platforms faced divergent registration and data-transmission requirements across countries and cities (European Commission, 2022). From a tourism-governance perspective, this problem is particularly significant because a destination’s actual accommodation capacity is not fully captured when a substantial share of supply remains outside conventional tourism-recording systems.

Against this background, Articles 4 to 6 specify the core requirements governing registration procedures for short-term rental units where such procedures are established by national, regional or local law. Registration must be available electronically and must allow a unique registration number to be issued, while the information necessary to identify both the unit and the host is collected. Of particular importance is the distinction between a registration number and an operating authorisation. Issuance of a registration number does not in itself authorise the activity, nor does it replace substantive conditions imposed by national or local law. The Regulation thus standardises the registration process without transferring to the EU level the competence to determine the substantive conditions under which the activity may be carried out.

This logic extends to Article 7 and the subsequent provisions, which connect registration with the operation of digital platforms. Where required, the host must indicate whether the unit is subject to a registration procedure and, once a registration number has been issued, the platform must ensure that the number is displayed in the listing. Platforms are also required to undertake reasonable and proportionate random checks, without being subject to a general obligation to monitor listing content systematically. These provisions create a functional link between public registration of the activity and the digital marketplace through which it is offered, thereby improving listing transparency and the capacity to verify compliance. They also form part of the wider EU framework governing digital services, in which platform responsibilities are shaped by the role platforms perform in making services available within the internal market (European Parliament & Council of the European Union, 2022, 2024).

The most significant change for destination management arises from Article 9. Platforms are required to transmit, at regular intervals and for units falling within the relevant regime, activity data, the registration number, the precise address and the URL of the listing. Member States establish a single digital entry point so that transmission occurs through a standardised technical infrastructure. These data can provide a fuller picture of actual tourist accommodation capacity, seasonality and the spatial distribution of activity.

The value of the data is not limited to enforcement. The Regulation allows non-identifying data to be used for policymaking, statistics and research. This can support assessments of area-level carrying capacity, the mapping of tourism pressures, the monitoring of concentrations of professional listings, and analysis of the relationship between tourism development and local land uses. The Regulation does not prescribe these applications, but it creates the conditions that make them possible.

 

4. Data, Platform Regulation and Tourist Destination Management
Tourism governance increasingly depends on the capacity of public authorities to monitor a market in which key functions are organised by private digital platforms. Information asymmetry is especially pronounced in the short-term rental sector, because the number of listings, the actual frequency of stays and their concentration in particular neighbourhoods can change more rapidly than conventional administrative data. A standardised flow of information can therefore improve the ability of destination-management bodies and public authorities to identify changes in the accommodation stock in a timely manner.

The empirical literature confirms that the adoption of rules is insufficient unless it is accompanied by effective mechanisms of implementation and enforcement. Examining restrictive policies in European cities, Bei and Celata (2023) found that regulation can reduce the number of entire apartments offered as short-term rentals and the presence of professional hosts without necessarily eliminating the spatial concentration of activity in highly touristic areas. This finding is particularly relevant to destination management because it shows that the effectiveness of an intervention cannot be assessed solely by the overall change in market size. The spatial distribution of activity is equally important: concentrations of accommodation in particular areas may sustain or intensify pressures on housing, neighbourhoods and local infrastructure even when the overall supply of short-term rentals declines.

The new information infrastructure can therefore facilitate more differentiated and spatially targeted policy responses. In destinations where short-term renting functions primarily as a complementary form of tourism supply and exhibits limited spatial concentration, the case for extensive regulatory intervention may be weak. By contrast, where there is a high density of accommodation units, substantial professionalisation of the activity, or heightened pressure on housing and local infrastructure, the available data may support stricter and more targeted measures. This approach is closely aligned with sustainable destination management because it allows regulation to respond to the actual characteristics and impacts of the activity in each area rather than applying identical rules across different spatial contexts.
Systematic data collection and use can also strengthen the evaluation of regulatory interventions themselves. A cap on rental days, a geographical restriction or a registration requirement should not be assessed merely by reference to its formal adoption. Its effectiveness should be examined in terms of whether it changes the actual behaviour of hosts, reduces non-compliant listings, alters the spatial distribution of activity or, potentially, displaces that activity towards neighbouring areas. Data can therefore serve not only to describe the existing situation but also to support longitudinal monitoring of policy outcomes and policy adjustment where intended objectives are not being achieved. Such evaluation presupposes a continuous supply of reliable and comparable information.

 

5. Tourism Development, Local Communities and Housing Externalities
The relationship between short-term renting and housing is a critical dimension of contemporary tourism policy, particularly in destinations where tourism demand places substantial pressure on real-estate markets. The shift of dwellings from long-term residential use to short-term tourist rental can reduce the supply available for permanent residence and, under certain conditions, affect house prices and rents. The empirical evidence does not, however, support a uniform interpretation of the phenomenon, because effects vary according to the characteristics of local housing markets, the geographical concentration of listings and the degree of professionalisation. Studying the United States, Barron, Kung and Proserpio (2020) identified a positive effect of increasing Airbnb listings on both rents and house prices, with findings consistent with a mechanism whereby housing is reallocated from long-term to short-term rental use. Similarly, Duso et al. (2024), examining regulatory interventions in Berlin, showed that effects differ according to the type of supply targeted. The intervention directed primarily at commercial listings produced clearer effects on the long-term rental market, whereas comparable effects did not emerge from regulation that mainly affected non-commercial listings.

For tourism policy, the relevant question is therefore not whether short-term renting should be treated as a problem in itself, but under what conditions its expansion generates significant externalities for housing and the functioning of urban space. The availability of dwellings for permanent residence, movements in rents and prices, the spatial concentration of accommodation, the professionalisation of the activity, compatibility with land-use rules, and the preservation of the social function of neighbourhoods are interconnected dimensions that should be considered in tourism-policy design. This approach shifts the analysis away from a simple count of short-term rental supply and towards an assessment of its actual spatial and social effects.

The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union provides the legal framework for this balancing exercise. In the joined cases Cali Apartments (C-724/18) and HX (C-727/18), the Court held that addressing an insufficient supply of affordable long-term rental housing may constitute an overriding reason relating to the public interest and may, under certain conditions, justify a prior authorisation scheme for repeated short-term rentals. At the same time, it emphasised that such a scheme must be appropriate and necessary to achieve the objective pursued and must satisfy the requirements of Article 10 of Directive 2006/123/EC concerning the criteria governing authorisation. The judgment is particularly significant for short-term rental regulation because it explicitly links the protection of housing supply with the proportionality of restrictive measures (Court of Justice of the European Union, 2020).

From this perspective, Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 assumes particular importance for the development of evidence-based short-term rental policies. Its principal contribution lies in creating common informational conditions for systematic monitoring, while the substantive content of national and local housing and tourism policies remains within the competence of the Member States and relevant public authorities. The Regulation establishes a framework for collecting and sharing data between providers of online short-term rental platforms and competent authorities in order to improve information about the activity and the enforcement of applicable rules. More systematic and comparable data can therefore strengthen the evidential basis of public-policy choices, enable more precise identification of areas in which the activity is highly concentrated, facilitate distinctions between occasional and more professionalised operations, and support evaluation of the effects of existing regulation.

This information infrastructure can also strengthen the evidential basis for assessing the proportionality of regulatory interventions. Because the effects of short-term rentals are not spatially uniform, the choice between horizontal restrictions and more targeted measures should be linked to the actual characteristics of each destination and its local housing market. Data can support an assessment of whether a restriction is necessary across an entire destination or whether its application to specific zones, categories of accommodation or forms of professional activity would be sufficient. They can likewise help determine whether an intervention achieves its intended objective without imposing disproportionate effects on areas or forms of short-term renting that do not exhibit comparable pressures. Transparency and data quality thus acquire particular institutional importance: they are not merely prerequisites for more effective market oversight, but can strengthen the justification, targeting and proportionality of regulatory policy itself.

 

6. Discussion: From Data Transparency to Sustainable Tourism Governance
The analysis allows Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 to be situated within the broader context of tourism policy and destination management. Its significance lies principally in creating a common and more reliable information framework for an activity that has acquired a substantial position within the tourism economy and is organised to a large extent through digital platforms. More systematic registration and data exchange can improve the capacity of public authorities to monitor the evolution of the activity, identify its spatial and social effects, and evaluate the effectiveness of regulatory interventions. In this sense, the Regulation helps bridge the gap between digitally organised tourism supply and the ability of public authorities to obtain adequate and comparable information for effective and evidence-based tourism governance.

From the perspective of destination management, the significance of this change extends beyond improved administrative compliance. A destination’s actual accommodation capacity, seasonality, visitor distribution and the concentration of tourism activity in residential neighbourhoods are all relevant to infrastructure planning, the management of public space, and relations between tourism and local communities. Incorporating short-term rentals into more reliable monitoring systems can improve the evidence base on which such decisions are made.

The first research question can therefore be answered clearly. The Regulation strengthens tourism governance by standardising key elements of registration and data exchange without imposing a uniform model of market regulation. This choice is compatible with the substantial diversity of European destinations. A destination characterised by intensive urban tourism, a resort area and an area with limited visitation do not face the same pressures and do not necessarily require the same policy instruments.

With regard to the second research question, the information infrastructure can contribute to sustainable destination management only under certain conditions. Data must be accurate and up to date; public authorities must have the administrative and technical capacity to analyse them; and their use must be linked to clearly defined policy objectives. Without these conditions, greater information availability may remain an administrative outcome with little substantive effect on tourism planning.
There is also a risk that expectations will be attached to the Regulation that exceed its scope. Sustainable tourism development requires policies addressing spatial planning, transport, the environment, visitor management, the quality of tourism supply, and relations with local communities. Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 does not replace these instruments. It can, however, function as an information infrastructure that enables them to be designed with greater precision.

The future evaluation of Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, due by 20 May 2031, will provide an important reference point for assessing its contribution to the formulation and implementation of tourism policy. That evaluation should not be confined to measuring the degree of compliance by online platforms with data-collection and transmission obligations. It will also be important to determine whether the new information infrastructure improved measurement of short-term tourist accommodation supply, strengthened the detection and control of non-compliant or illegal activities, and supported the implementation of more targeted spatial interventions. The evaluation should further examine whether competent authorities used the available data to monitor the effects of short-term rentals on housing, neighbourhood functioning, and the broader balance between tourism activity and permanent residence. The substantive effectiveness of the Regulation will therefore depend not only on the completeness and quality of the data generated, but also on the extent to which those data are incorporated into tourism-policy design, implementation and evaluation. In this sense, the 2031 review will offer an opportunity to assess whether EU intervention succeeded in converting improved information into a substantive instrument for more effective and better-evidenced destination management.

 

7. Conclusions
Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 represents an important development in the governance of the European market for short-term tourist accommodation. Its contribution does not lie in harmonising substantive restrictions on the activity, but in establishing common standards for registration, identification and data exchange. In doing so, it brings a large and dynamic segment of the digital tourism economy within a more coherent framework of public oversight.

For tourism policy, the value of the new system lies primarily in improving knowledge of actual supply. Recording the spatial concentration, frequency of use and degree of professionalisation of units can strengthen destination management, support assessments of carrying capacity, and enable more targeted interventions in areas where tourism activity generates externalities.
Housing pressure and changes in neighbourhood functioning remain important dimensions, but they are not the only grounds on which the Regulation should be assessed. The central question is whether the European information infrastructure will be integrated into a broader strategy of sustainable tourism governance that takes account of both the economic contribution of short-term rentals and their effects on destinations.

The Regulation’s substantive contribution will therefore depend on how the available data are transformed into a practical policymaking tool. Their use by public authorities and destination-management organisations can strengthen the evidence base for measures tailored to the specific spatial and social conditions of individual areas. Conversely, restricting the use of the data to administrative purposes would limit the Regulation’s capacity to contribute meaningfully to sustainable and effective destination management. At the same time, a more systematic and comparable data base creates new opportunities for empirical research into the effects of short-term rentals. Future studies could combine quantitative and spatial data to examine whether concentrations of accommodation are associated with changes in housing prices and availability, neighbourhood composition, the functioning of local businesses, and the everyday lives of permanent residents. Longitudinal and comparative use of the new data would also help avoid overgeneralisation and allow the effects of short-term rentals to be assessed in relation to the specific spatial, social and tourism characteristics of each destination.

 

References
Academic literature
Barron, K., Kung, E., & Proserpio, D. (2020). The effect of home-sharing on house prices and rents: Evidence from Airbnb. Marketing Science, 40(1), 23–47. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1227
Bei, G., & Celata, F. (2023). Challenges and effects of short-term rentals regulation: A counterfactual assessment of European cities. Annals of Tourism Research, 101, 103605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103605
Cocola-Gant, A., & Gago, A. (2021). Airbnb, buy-to-let investment and tourism-driven displacement: A case study in Lisbon. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 53(7), 1671–1688. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19869012
Duso, T., Michelsen, C., Schaefer, M., & Tran, K. D. (2024). Airbnb and rental markets: Evidence from Berlin. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 106, 104007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2024.104007
Gurran, N., & Phibbs, P. (2017). When tourists move in: How should urban planners respond to Airbnb? Journal of the American Planning Association, 83(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2016.1249011
Nieuwland, S., & van Melik, R. (2020). Regulating Airbnb: How cities deal with perceived negative externalities of short-term rentals. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(7), 811–825. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1504899
Wachsmuth, D., & Weisler, A. (2018). Airbnb and the rent gap: Gentrification through the sharing economy. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 50(6), 1147–1170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18778038
Zervas, G., Proserpio, D., & Byers, J. W. (2017). The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(5), 687–705. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15.0204
Legislation, case law and official sources
Court of Justice of the European Union. (2020). Judgment of 22 September 2020, Cali Apartments SCI and HX, Joined Cases C-724/18 and C-727/18, EU:C:2020:743. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62018CJ0724
European Commission. (2022). Commission staff working document: Impact assessment report accompanying the proposal for a regulation on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services (SWD(2022) 350 final). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52022SC0350
European Parliament & Council of the European Union. (2006). Directive 2006/123/EC of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market. Official Journal of the European Union, L 376, 36–68. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32006L0123
European Parliament & Council of the European Union. (2022). Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of 19 October 2022 on a single market for digital services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act). Official Journal of the European Union, L 277, 1–102. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022R2065
European Parliament & Council of the European Union. (2024). Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 of 11 April 2024 on data collection and sharing relating to short-term accommodation rental services and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724. Official Journal of the European Union, L, 2024/1028. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1028/oj