€300k fine for Amsterdam Airbnb lister
The municipality of Amsterdam fined a home owner and key business Iamb&b a total of 297 thousand euros for not adhering to the city's rules regarding Airbnb listings, Het Parool reports. The home owner and Iamb&b together listed 11 apartments on the site.
All 11 apartments are located in a building on Kerkstraat. The municipality launched an investigation after complaints from local residents. They found that the owner of the apartments were not adhering to the city's rules which state that only the main resident may rent out a property through Airbnb and then for a maximum of 60 days per year and to no more than four people at a time.
Iamb&b is a business that helps people with their Airbnb listings, according to the company's site. The business helped this particular homeowner list all 11 apartments. The company helped the owner rent out the apartments, received the guests and handed over the keys, according to Het Parool. The Amsterdam municipality fined the owner 13,500 euros per apartment, and the same amount to Iamb&b. All in all the fine amounts to nearly 300 thousand euros.
"This is the prototype of an illegal hotel", Housing alderman Laurens Ivens said to the newspaper. He called this massive fan an important signal for key companies who perform odd jobs for landlords. "In practice they regularly collaborate with illegal hotels. If they know that the properties are listed too often, or that there are more than four tourists in it, they are also responsible.
