Airbnb attends Oireachtas joint committee in Dublin

On Wednesday 28 June, Airbnb appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning, Community & Local Government in Dublin to participate in an important discussion focused on the future of short-term rental accommodation in Ireland.

Airbnb welcomed the opportunity to provide evidence to the Joint Committee on this important topic. Ireland is Airbnb’s international home, and we are proud to be part of the country’s thriving tourism sector. The home sharing community in Ireland are one of the most vibrant and welcoming in the world, opening up their homes to visitors and sharing their local knowledge. We are committed to working in partnership with the government here, as with governments across the world, as they address the challenges and opportunities of the Collaborative Economy.

Unlike many other cities and countries in Europe, Ireland lacks an up-to-date regulatory framework that clearly recognises home sharing as a distinct kind of short-term rental activity.

As discussions about new regulatory frameworks to define and manage home sharing proceed, it’s important to keep in mind the real impact home sharing has on individuals and the communities they live in. From an economic, social and environmental standpoint, home sharing enables a lot of positive activity.

Airbnb hosts in Ireland have been welcoming guests into their homes since 2009.  In Ireland in the past year, 12,000 unique hosts welcomed more than 800,000 guests to their homes. The average Airbnb host in Dublin earned €4,900 while guests generated €169M for the city.

We want to encourage these positive contributions to continue and enable home sharing, whilst continuing to ensure that unwelcome or unauthorised commercial operators do not have a place on the platform.

For more information on the impact Airbnb hosts and guests have made across Ireland, read our reports: