Airbnb landlords must share data with Czech authorities under new bill approved by Chamber of Deputies

Prague, April 8 (CTK) – Mediators of accommodation for tourists in private flats through digital platforms, such as Airbnb, will have to share the data from their contracts with Czech authorities under the bill that the Chamber of Deputies passed today within a package of anti-coronavirus measures.

The MPs approved the amendment to the law on conditions of running business in tourism in the state of legislative emergency.

The lower house also passed today another bill to soften the economic impact of the restrictions to curb the virus spread. It will enable tenants without income due to the coronavirus crisis not to pay rent in their flats without facing an eviction threat until the end of July. However, they must repay the debt by the end of this year.

Both rental housing owners and the right-wing opposition protested against this legislation.

The Regional Development Ministry argues that the new duty to share data from contracts on short-term tourist accommodation will help in the tracking of people who had contacts with a coronavirus infected person.

The senior opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) questioned the passage of the bill in an accelerated procedure in the legislative emergency state. ODS deputy group head Zbynek Stanjura said the bill would have been passed in a common regime before the arrival of the first foreign tourist to the Czech Republic anyway.

Czechs are still banned from travelling abroad, with some exceptions, and foreigners from entering the Czech Republic within the regulations of the state of emergency.

The new legislation is connected with a smart quarantine, Regional Development Minister Klara Dostalova (for ANO) pointed out.

Czechia is now testing a smart quarantine system to map a coronavirus infected person’s movements in the past five days thanks to the data from mobile phones and payment cards.

The bills are yet to be approved by the Senate and then signed by President Milos Zeman into laws.

German, American and British tourists used the Airbnb-type of accommodation in the Czech Republic most often and as their countries are now severely afflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, their return in high numbers to the Czech Republic cannot be expected soon, Czech association of landlords and private accommodation providers head David Bures told CTK previously.

According to the data of the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), some 1.16 million foreign tourists found accommodation via Airbnb in the Czech Republic, the highest number of them in Prague, in 2018.