VRMA Administrator
Speaking at the recent Phocuswright Europe 2023 in Barcelona, representatives from Sonder, Awaze, and Interhome said the recent years of thriving short-term rental business have helped them establish their worth for travelers and hosts, as well as the larger community and its economy. Leda Zanlungo, the general manager for Iberia at Sonder, said she wanted to get away from the perception that short-term rentals are a blight on communities. “I believe, if you do it well, you do bring value to the neighborhood, to the community.” Henrik Kjellberg, a group CEO for Awaze, agreed that short-term rentals demonstrated benefits to local economies, which could help check restrictions put in place by local governments. "There’s a lot of initiatives from the European Union coming and a couple of countries, which is fine,” he said. “But I do think the governments need to be careful and transparent in how they look at that.” Sylvia Epaillard, co-CEO at Interhome, said, “As an industry we play an important part in some countries, in some regions for the economy. There’s ways to do regulations correctly and ways to do it less correct. Let’s make sure that on the global platforms we can transmit the message of how we are doing our job, and I think this nowadays is not yet done.”
PhocusWire (07/11/23) Derek Catron
