STR Unpacked

00:02:49

Get In Before The Door Shuts

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/08

Tomorrow, Brussels hands every city in Europe a legal instruction manual for capping short-term rentals.The European Commission presents its Affordable Housing Act on Wednesday 9 September. Reuters and Euronews have both seen the draft.What it does: gives national and local authorities explicit EU legal cover to restrict short-term rentals in areas under housing stress. Until now there has been no such framework.How an area qualifies: Price-to-income ratio and its movement over time, plus indicators

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00:02:10

March 2027. England Finally Has A Date

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/07

England's short-let register has a date. By March.Lisa Nandy told the Commons on Thursday the national scheme will be "up and running in full by March", which means March 2027. It's the first firm month the government has put on it.Where that leaves the UK:→ Scotland: licensing, in force since October 2022→ Northern Ireland: certification, long established→ Wales: visitor accommodation register opens October 2026, deadline 31 March 2027→ England: register fully operational by March 2027What we still

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00:02:43

12.5% Fewer Listings. 12% More Guests.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/04

Spain has 12.5% fewer short-term rentals than a year ago. In July, 12% more tourists stayed in them.Three official releases landed on Tuesday and they all point the same way.INE, Spain, July:→ 11.5m international tourists, up 4.6%→ Spend €18.2bn, up 10.9%. €1,579 per tourist, up 5.9%→ Tourists staying mainly in rented homes: up 12.0%. Hotels: up 3.8%→ January to July, rented homes up 11.0% to 7.7m tourists→ Non-hotel paid accommodation spend up 20.6%, average stay 10.7 nights vs 5.1 in hotelsSet

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00:02:22

Airbnb Just Hired Booking's Homes Guy

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/03

Airbnb just hired the executive who ran Booking.com's hotels and homes business. And gave him Airbnb Hotels.Pepijn Rijvers started on Tuesday as Chief Business Officer, leading Homes, Hotels, Global Markets and Enterprise Operations.→ More than 12 years at Booking.com from 2008: Chief Marketing Officer, then Managing Director of Global Hotels and Accommodations. Chesky says he built Booking's homes business→ Then Chief Business Officer at Tripadvisor Group and president of Viator→ Replaces Dave

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00:02:04

Exempt Doesn't Mean Excluded

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/02

France's e-invoicing reform went live on 1 September. If you assumed VAT exemption kept you out of it, it does not.→ Every business established in France that counts as a taxable person must now be able to receive electronic invoices through a state-approved platform. Size, turnover and tax regime make no difference.→ Ordinary furnished letting is exempt from VAT, with no option to be taxed. The exemption attaches to the supply, not to your status. The reception obligation still applies.→ There is

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00:02:12

Airbnb Cut The Fee To 6%. Direct Isn't Free Either.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/09/01

Airbnb will cut your fee from 15.5% to 6% if you bring the guest yourself.Most of the coverage is treating that as a win for hosts. Run the numbers before you agree.The mechanics first. Late last week Airbnb began emailing selected hosts about a new "direct booking link" generated in the Listing editor.→ Share it through your social channels, email list or website→ A guest books through it and your host service fee drops to a reported 6% or 10%→ You can pass part of the saving to the guest as a

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00:02:01

Four Rules In Five Days

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/28

Greece's new spatial plan for tourism has been in force since 7 August. This week the sector worked out what it actually does.For short-term rentals, it names 4 measures:Conditions on making a property available, particularly where it relates to main-residence useLimits on how many days a year the activity can runGeographic zones where it can be restricted or prohibitedControls on new supply, including new-build homesThe ministry's own guidance describes these as measures that can be applied. Each

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00:01:51

£1,400 A Property To Ignore

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/27

Registration is free. Not registering costs £1,400 a property.The Welsh Revenue Authority has published its updated guidance on the visitor accommodation register, and the penalty schedule is now in the open.The dates:Registration opens October 2026You must be registered by 31 March 2027Visitor levy can start from April 2027, if your council adopts itLicensing follows, working assumption 2029, legal backstop March 2030Who it catches:Anyone taking bookings of 31 nights or less. Cottages, apartments,

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00:02:03

Prove It Or It's Tourist

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/26

If you let a home in the Canaries for a month or less, the law now assumes it is a tourist rental until you prove otherwise.Ley 7/2026 was published in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias on 14 August and took effect on 15 August. It is a law about speeding up building licences. Its eleventh final provision rewrites the islands' holiday-let law.Two new articles:Article 11. A stay of 31 days or less in a residential home, one or more times a year, or any marketing through a tourist offer channel, is

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00:02:11

Page One Now Costs $5 A Night

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/25

Vrbo will now sell you the top of its search page for $5 a night. You only pay when the guest books.Expedia published the full partner guide on 6 August. Worth reading the mechanics carefully, because some of the June coverage described a cost-per-click product. It isn't one.From Expedia's own documentation:Pay-per-booked-night, not pay-per-clickNo charge for impressions, no charge for clicksYou pay only when a traveller who clicked your ad booksMinimum bid $5 per booked night, no maximumAuction

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00:03:12

Your Renewal, Not The Designation

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/24

Highland Council says a control area will not affect existing short-term lets. Its own report says something more precise than that, and the difference is worth an hour of your time this week.On Monday the 17th, the City of Inverness committee voted to recommend that a control area for Inverness city be progressed, and that rural Inverness-shire be folded into a proposed Highland rural control area. It goes to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee next, then to Scottish Ministers, whose approval

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00:02:53

Nobody Discounted

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/21

Spain's hotels sold no extra rooms this July. They still made 6.6% more money.That was the pattern all week across Europe.INE published July this morning: 44.8m overnight stays, up 0.3% Occupancy 71.1% of bedplaces ADR €156.9, up 6.8% RevPAR €119.3, up 6.6%Residents booked less (down 1.1%), foreign visitors covered it (up 1.1%). Nobody discounted. Same signal AirDNA gave for Europe-wide July: occupancy flat, rate doing the work.Bank of Greece, yesterday: H1 travel receipts €8.8bn, up 14.8% from

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00:02:38

One In Eight. Gone.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/20

Spain has lost one in eight of its short-term rentals. The rest of Europe just put its prices up. 📉📈AirDNA's European review for July (published 14 August) is the starkest supply split we've seen this year:🇪🇸 Spain: active listings 365,000 — down 12.5% YoY. Nights stayed −11.8%. New bookings −14.5%.🇫🇷 France +3.96% · 🇮🇹 Italy +3.59% · 🇬🇧 UK +3.44% · 🇩🇪 Germany +2.99%Spain is the only major European market contracting. That's the registration regime doing exactly what it was built to

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00:02:30

1x EBITDA

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/19

A booking platform just told the market what your management business is worth. 🇩🇪HomeToGo reported H1 2026 this morning. The headline figures are good:➡️ IFRS revenues €160.1M, up 71.8% YoY (from €93.2M)➡️ Free cash flow €48.2M, versus minus €5.0M in H1 2025➡️ Adjusted EBITDA improved 26.6% YoY, accelerating to +58.6% in Q2 alone➡️ FY26 guidance reaffirmed: €400M to €410M revenueBut the strategic news is further down the release.HomeToGo's B2B arm now carries ~66% of group revenue, and revenues

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00:02:43

Rates Up. Occupancy Down. RevPAR Up Anyway.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/18

European nightly rates rose 8.2% in July. Occupancy fell. RevPAR still went up 7.7%. 📈New AirDNA figures reported this week show a rate-led market, not a volume-led one:📊 ADR €159.20, up 8.2% YoY🛏️ Occupancy 69.2%, down 0.3pp🏘️ Supply 4.18M listings, up 1.9%🌙 Demand nights 61.68M, up just 0.8%✅ RevPAR grew in 19 of Europe's 20 largest marketsOperators are not selling many more nights. They are selling them for more.Now Spain, which is the number everyone will screenshot:🇪🇸 Demand down

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00:02:44

Poland Missed The Deadline. Then Deleted The Clause.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/17

Poland missed the EU short-term rental deadline in May. It still has no implementing law. And the bill meant to fix that has split the government. 🇵🇱On 14 July the Council of Ministers adopted a bill amending the hotel services act. What's in it:🏨 Hotel services redefined to cover any let of 30 days or less, putting STR inside the hotel regime📋 A central register of tourist accommodation (CWTON), run by the tourism ministry, mandatory for every property including private flats📄 Written house

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00:02:40

The Eclipse Paid Out

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/14

Two minutes of darkness. €347 million. 🌒On Wednesday the first total solar eclipse on mainland Europe since 1999 crossed northern Spain — and it's Friday, so let's end the week on the numbers:🇪🇸 Spain's economy ministry estimated ~446,700 extra visitors and a €347M boost for eclipse week — hotel bookings +17.8% vs last August, airline seats +7.9%✈️ Amadeus: bookings up 90%+ in Santander, Asturias and Bilbao🔍 Booking.com: international searches +522% for Soria, +356% for León — towns most

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00:03:17

Mayors Next Year. Everyone By 2028.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/13

England's tourist tax just stopped being a big-city story. 🇬🇧The Cabinet Office's Rewiring the State paper (31 July) contains one line that changes the map: the government will give all strategic authorities the ability to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy — not just mayors.And the same paper commits to every area of England having a strategic authority by the end of 2028.Most coverage has collapsed the timeline. Here it is from the document:➡️ Mayors secure the levy power next year, alongside

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00:03:27

Bookings +75%. Rates +6%. Same Week, Same Country.

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/12

Spain goes dark this evening. In A Coruña, totality lasts 76 seconds. 🌑The demand was never in doubt. The pricing was.SiteMinder compared 10–12 August bookings against the same nights last year:➡️ Asturias: bookings +76%, rates +85%➡️ Palma: bookings +75%, rates +24%➡️ Valencia: bookings +75%, rates +6%Same event. Same week. Same country. Three completely different rate responses.Lighthouse shows it from the other side. Santiago de Compostela offers near-identical viewing to A Coruña and sits at

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00:02:53

8.6 Million Euros, One Tax Nobody Collected

STR Unpacked ·

2026/08/11

An 8.6 million euro fine, built out of a 750 euro minimum. On 31 July, France's Constitutional Council said the maths holds. 🇫🇷The case: the communauté de communes de l'Île d'Oléron v Airbnb, over uncollected tourist tax.➡️ April 2025: the Poitiers appeal court sets €1,500 per night for 2021 and €1,000 per night for 2022➡️ 7,410 nights across the two years➡️ Total: €8.6m, which Airbnb says is more than 25 times the tax that went uncollectedAirbnb challenged the penalty regime itself, joined by

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