Italy bans key boxes on holiday rental accommodation. What does it mean for travellers?
Friends staying in rental lodging in Italy, like Airbnb or Reserving properties, should now be met in individual by homeowners.
There was rising discontent in European locations across the proliferation of Airbnb properties and the disruption this brings to neighbourhoods.
Earlier this 12 months, residents of cities together with Rome, Florence and Milan sabotaged key lock packing containers in protest in opposition to the rental property phenomenon and its tendency to drive up housing costs.
Now, the Italian authorities has introduced in a ban on the self-check-in system citing “public order and security dangers”.
This implies company staying in rental lodging in Italy, like Airbnb or Reserving properties, should now be met in individual on arrival by the homeowners.
Italy bans key packing containers for vacation rental properties
The ban on key packing containers and keypads was signed off on 18 November and was efficient instantly.
Nevertheless, police and native authorities have solely simply begun notifying rental platforms and property homeowners, in response to Italian media.
The rule applies to all forms of short-term vacationer lodging equivalent to Airbnb and Reserving leases.
The measure was launched to “forestall public order and security dangers in relation to the potential lodging of harmful people or these linked to legal or terrorist organisations”, the Italian inside ministry mentioned.
“The automated administration of check-in and entry to a property with out visible identification of company” means there’s a threat it “could possibly be occupied by a number of people whose identities stay unknown to the related police authorities posing a possible hazard to the group,” the assertion added.
The ministry mentioned the ban was launched in response to the “intensification of the phenomenon of short-term leases” ensuing from “the quite a few political, cultural and spiritual occasions scheduled within the nation”, together with the 2025 Jubilee celebrations in Rome.
What does the ban imply for travellers?
The brand new ruling means company can now not examine in to properties independently, equivalent to being supplied with a key code to open a lock field.
As a substitute, rental homeowners or managers might want to meet company in individual to verify identification paperwork and deal with the check-in procedures.
Friends’ private particulars and identification paperwork should be despatched to police authorities by homeowners inside 24 hours of check-in.
Roberto Gaultieri, the mayor of Rome, praised the ban as “excellent news for everybody” and welcomed the top of “the padlocks and packing containers that disfigure our streets and forestall sufficient safety checks”.
He added that he intends to herald “appropriate intervention strategies” to take away all these sorts of gadgets.
