The 20 French cities where Airbnb donated the most money in 2022

ECONOMY – Paris remains France’s most attractive city for tourists, but rural towns are playing a part too. American platform Airbnb announced Thursday, January 12 in a press release that it had paid 148 million euros in tourist taxes to the French city in 2022, or 60% more than the previous year. And thanks to the resumption of tourism following the lifting of Covid-related travel restrictions, rental services have been welcomed.

Logically enough, the three big cities became the podium of the largest number collected. Paris thus leads the way with 24.3 million euros affected against 9.4 million euros in 2021. Then, Marseille takes second place having received 2.8 million euros against 1.9 million the previous year. And in third place is Nice, which received twice as much tax in 2022 as it did in 2021, increasing from 1.2 million euros to 2.4 million euros.

“As such, these major cities benefit from the return of international tourists and major events, which again attract tourists to their territories”underscores the platform in its communications, which in France achieves the greatest turnover in the world after the United States.

Varrains, the most popular city with less than 3,500 residents

In the list of municipalities that receive the most housing taxes, we also find most metropolitan or medium-sized cities, as you can see in the list and map created by The HuffPost with data from Airbnb below.

• 4th place: Cannes (1.8 million euros)
• 5th Bordeaux (1.3 million euros)
• 6th place: Lyon (1.2 million euros)
• 7th place: Chamonix (1.1 million euros) and Montpellier (1.1 million euros)
• 8th place: Toulouse (1 million euros) and Biarritz (1 million euros)
• 9th place: La Rochelle (980,000 euros)
• 10th place: Antibes (860,000 euros)
• 11th place: Aix-en-Provence (820,000 euros)
• 12th place: Strasbourg (800,000 euros)
• 13th place: Lille (750,000 euros)
• 14th place: Morzine (630,000 euros)
• 15th place: Porto Vecchio (620,000 euros)

However, this does not mean that rural communities are not uplifting, quite the opposite. Nearly 30% of the tourist tax collected in France in 2022 was collected in rural towns with fewer than 3,500 residents, a steady proportion since 29% in 2021. Among these smaller cities, Airbnb determined that the three most popular were , in order, Varrains in Maine-et-Loire; Saint-Laurent-Sur-Saône in Ain and Cairon in Calvados.

This tourist tax increase is good news for the French economy, local businesses and Airbnb hosts, who, thanks to their rental properties, can easily supplement their income and cope with rising costs of living.” wrote, delighted, Emmanuel Marill, director of Airbnb France in the company’s press release.

Tool for analyzing tourist activities

The platform also shows that it communicates “host earnings to the tax office once a year since 2020” and provide the municipality, in accordance with applicable regulations, “detailed data about the stay” via its website, since November 2021.

In France, the tourist tax is paid by tourists in addition to the price of accommodation to landlords, hotel owners or landlords who then transfer it to the municipality. The level, set by local authorities, ranges from 1% to 5% of the price excluding stay tax per person. Its income allows local authorities to have additional resources, formally developing the tourist offer in their area.

Lack of housing for local residents

But behind the growth of travel rental companies, such as Airbnb, there is also a dark side. Many cities have complained about the development of furnished tourist accommodations via platforms such as Airbnb or Booking, which they accuse of causing a housing shortage for residents living in these cities year-round, or accentuating it.

The city of Paris, for example, has long refused furnished tourist accommodations, as we said in the video below at the time of the 2020 municipal elections. After the big cities, an increasing number of small and medium-sized cities in France are adopting rules to limit their expansion.

In April 2022, a European court passed an obligation imposed on tourist accommodation rental platforms to provide information to national tax authorities about transactions made. The European Union Court of Justice based in Luxembourg was initially seized from a dispute between Irish company Airbnb and Belgian authorities.

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