The Czech state is looking for ways to maintain control over short-term flat rental platforms like Airbnb. The government used the state of emergency to force landlords to share information about their tenants, which as Czech Radio points out is the same thing the City of Prague has been trying to do for years now. Owners are expected to send data on their customers not just from the period of the pandemic, but also from the past. This will be an uncomfortable exercise for those owners who’ve been failing to report all of their income. If the city is able to retain access to this information channel, it will act as a deterrent to those who are only interested in making easy, untaxed income. Prague’s mayor Zdeněk Hřib is also pushing for greater power to control which flats are being used for short-term rents and to monitor if proper hygienic and security procedures are being maintained. More controversially, he wants to give the other owners of flats in apartment buildings the right to vote on whether to allow such businesses to operate in them.
