In 2018, the town hall of Bordeaux was one of the precursor municipalities in terms of anti-Airbnb regulations: it limits the number of short-term rental days to 120 per year, for owners. In four years, 4,000 homes would thus have returned to the traditional rental market according to the city. But Victor Piganiol, doctoral student in geography, qualifies this assertion: the link of cause and effect “isn’t that simple” to be established according to him, because it results from a banal subtraction between the number of accommodations available on Airbnb in 2018 and that at the end of 2021. However, the coronavirus pandemic has “it also disrupted the Airbnb system”emphasizes Victor Piganiol.
The epidemic has led some Airbnb hosts to temporarily withdraw from the platform, in the face of the absence of foreign tourists, in particular. Once borders reopen and restrictions are lifted, “these hosts will be able to re-flood the local market”, he anticipates. Victor Piganiol recognizes that he is “very complicated” concretely measure the impact of these anti-Airbnb regulations. In particular, there is the question of methodology: to be precise, it would be necessary to carry out a survey of thousands of hosts. And if the rental platform between individuals is the target of many attacks for its harmful impact on the real estate market, it also has many advantages according to the specialist: “democratization of tourism”, “burst of tourist flows” in more points of the city, “recipes for the local economy”.