Holiday rental website Airbnb is not prepared to share information about individual landlords who don’t meet Amsterdam’s rules for renting out property with city officials, broadcaster NOS said on Friday.

Amsterdam allows people to rent out their homes via websites such as Airbnb for up to 60 nights a year and to no more than four people, provided they own the property or don’t live in social housing.

However, there are thousands of properties in the city which are rented out illegally or by professional companies and Amsterdam has threatened to tear up the Airbnb deal without more information from the website.

NOS quotes an Airbnb blog as saying that: ‘we are not prepared to provide anonymous information, which the city can use to take decisions. We want to protect the privacy of our landlords and guests.’

Tourist tax

Airbnb says the vast majority of landlords stick to the rules and that ‘commercial landlords are not welcome’. The website does collect tourist tax on behalf of the city but does not give details about individual payments.’

In May, the company said Amsterdam’s Airbnb hosts rent out their properties for an average of 28 days a year, earning an average of €3,800 in the process.

In February, city officials agreed to spend an extra €1m gathering facts about illegal rentals. However, research by DutchNews.nl shows that a lot of information is already available.

More properties

The Insideairbnb.com website shows that 25% of hosts list more than one property, and more than one in ten flats offered for rent are available to more than four guests at a time. Neither is permitted in the agreement the council signed with Airbnb in 2014.

Parliament recently voted in favour of a Socialist Party motion which would require everyone who wants to rent out their home via websites like Airbnb to register their plans.

However, it is unclear if the government will put the motion into practice. Housing minister Stef Blok is known to oppose the idea, NOS said.