Hi all:
I know some cities have cracked down on vacation rentals by owner... was Paris one of them? I seem to remember some discussion about it a few years ago on our last trip but I can't remember the outcome.,...
Can I still safely rent from vrbo or airbnb? If not, what apartment rental places do you recommend? Or hotels? Traveling with a friend but we would like separated sleeping spaces, and central location!
Thanks!!!!
Kim
Most Paris apartments are illegal including nearly all on Airbnb and VRBO. Many run by agencies are also illegal although agencies do pay taxes on them. The risk is that you could be expecting an apartment and have it pulled from the market at the last minute. Enforcement is spotty but has been stepped up. Officials naively believe that hassling private owners from leasing out apartments short term will make them available at lower prices to local renters. What will happen IMHO is that investors from cash rich countries like in the middle east and China will simply buy them up as investments and leave them empty as is happening all over the US.
We rented a vrbo last May and two days before we arrived our apartment was canceled on us! Luckily we found a nicer place to rent for 9 days. My brother and his wife's vrbo rental worked just fine, no problems. You do take a chance when renting but chances are you won't experience what happened to us. We ended up renting from Paris Perfect apartments. Absolutely beautiful place and it was on sale 30% off. We lucked out!
Vacation rentals in Paris are generally speaking illegal for the property owner but not illegal for the vacationer to rent. The only exceptions that I know of to general rule that rentals must be for a year at least are the student exception, the 120-days of permissible rentals per year for a permanent resident who rents out his or her residence, and the people who meet the very expensive requirements to have a permitted vacation rental. Last I heard, there were about 120 addresses in the third category that are registered with the authorities. Supposedly, sometime soon, one will not be able to list an apartment without some kind of registration number but I have no idea when that will happen or if it is already the rule. Is there a crackdown? I don't know if I would use the word crackdown more like enforcement but accompanied by insufficient staff to actually have consistent and real enforcement of the law. Until there is widely known and wide spread enforcement or penalties for the vacationer, I believe that people will continue to rent apartments and take their chances. As far as I can see the best predictor of an investigation is if other owners in the building complain. I have not seen anything that quantifies how likely it is that there will be a cancellation and I doubt that I will but I have noticed lately that I am hearing about more last minute cancellations than I heard in the past.
"Most Paris apartments are illegal. . .". This is an oversimplification.
According to this source and others, an owner of an apartment---the one who lives there-- can rent it out for up to 120 days a year. It must be registered, etc., but they can do it.
https://bonjourparis.com/apartments/i-know-paris-vacation-apartment-rental-legal/
The trick is figuring out which ones on VRBO are legal. Personally, we prefer to rent from an agency, like vacationsinparis.com.
Vrbo and Airbnb apartments can be cheaper in general than agency apartments and some think that you are more likely to find an owner-rented apartment at these portals. The thinking is that if it is owner-rented, it might be more likely to be an apartment that can be rented out for up to 120 days per year. That is probably true though I see a lot of property managers on AirBnb and Vrbo and people with hundreds of reviews on multiple properties which means that they cannot be that person's permanent residence. Apartments that are permanent residences that are rented for 120 days per year or less do not have to be registered.
Agency apartments for short-term rentals are illegal for the owner to rent out on a short term basis the majority of the time. Why? Because owners have contracts with owners in which the latter commit to making the apartment available 42 to 48 weeks per year so unless the owner has met all the requirements of the law, the apartment should not be rented on a short-term basis. The only agency I know of with some "legal" apartments is ParisPerfect but their places are IMO expensive. I am sure there others because PP does not have all of the apartments on the list of legal short term rentals (https://opendata.paris.fr/explore/dataset/registre-des-autorisations-de-changement-dusage-pour-les-meubles/information/). The good thing about agency rentals is that if your deal falls through, they usually have a replacement property available for you.
In response to the law published last Sunday in the Journal Officiel regarding short term rentals, AirBnb has published this. (below link) AirBnb has become the generic term for these types of rentals, vrbo and others
https://france.airbnbcitizen.com/find-out-more-about-the-new-legislation-for-french-hosts/
So far, no dates for enforcement in Paris specifically have been mentioned . . . but like most of French law, slowly but surely. However, the link referred to in the above post might be that established for all registration indicating that in Paris, all systems are go. Who knows?
While researching for apartments via VRBO I had bookmarked 7-8 apt's I might be interested in while continuing research. Most were already booked up through July or August. When I went back to review my favorites two of those apartments had been taken down with a notice that "This listing is no longer active". I had also looked at apartments available from rental companies but many were more expensive than I was willing to pay or were inconvenient to metro, etc. That was when I decided I didn't want to possibly be left scrambling to find somewhere to stay so I booked a one bedroom apartment with the Citadines St. Germain. Everything else might be flying by the seat of my pants but I want my flights, trains, and sleeping arrangements to be locked down as much as possible for my peace of mind. I don't want the added stress of worrying for months about whether my apartment will be available when I get there. Now, that is me. Many might feel differently and be willing to take the chance.
While perusing the Citadines website I saw the option to join the Ascott group for free to get discounts. I had to do some looking just now to find it but here is the link to it. Scroll down the page. It is called Ascott online advantage. Ascott
I did that and they had a seasonal booking option which gave me a sizeable discount, and I mean sizeable! I had to pre-pay up front but have the option of cancellation with full refund up to four days before arrival. I'm good with that. The Citadines has both one bedroom apts. and studios. If you want privacy you might each rent a studio. I think with the Ascott member discount they were around 122 euro/night.
