Airbnb in Zug: both sides hail good cooperation

Airbnb has been a success in Switzerland in terms of usage Keystone

The first agreement between a Swiss canton and online sharing platform Airbnb – that involves the collection of tourist tax - has been hailed a success by both sides.

The comments came in a statementExternal link on Friday to mark six months of cooperation between Airbnb and Zug Tourism, which concluded the contract on behalf of the canton of Zug. Since July 2017, Airbnb has been collecting tourist tax on rentals and passing them on to the tourist organisation – an arrangement that is working as agreed, the communique said.

There were 7,631 overnight stays in the first six months of the agreement. Zug Tourism is expecting further growth via the Airbnb platform for 2018. The statement did note, however, that at the moment overnight stays via Airbnb only accounted for 5% of overnight stays in the canton.

Zug was the first canton to conclude an agreement with Airbnb – a platform founded in the United States that allows people to rent flats and rooms – over the automatic collecting of tourist tax. According to Airbnb, it has similar agreements with 340 cities and towns worldwide.

In Switzerland, other cantons are keen to follow Zug’s example. French-speaking Fribourg has just concluded an agreement, Geneva and the southern canton of Ticino are also in the process, the Swiss news agency reports. Talks are being held with Bern and Valais, the most popular Airbnb destination in the country.

+Read more here about how cantons and parliamentarians want to regulate Airbnb