Airbnb said on Thursday it’s been forced to cancel thousands of bookings in Japan after the government unexpectedly announced the immediate implementation of a law…
Airbnb said on Thursday it’s been forced to cancel thousands of bookings in Japan after the government unexpectedly announced the immediate implementation of a law that regulates home sharing.
The online chaos surrounding Airbnb’s most popular destination in the Asia-Pacific region comes as cities like New York and Paris seek to regulate the house-sharing service out of fears it’s jeopardizing the supply of affordable housing or being used for illegal activities.
“We know this stinks – and that’s an understatement,” the company said. It’s created a fund to cover customers’ costs of finding last-minute hotel reservations.
Japan last year made home-sharing legal, but it stipulated that hosts must register their home-share with the local authority and put their registration number on their listings by June 15. Airbnb said it had been helping hosts with this licensing process, but on June 1 the Japanese government suddenly announced that any host without a license would have to cancel bookings made before June 15.
