Hello there
My partner and I have been hosting on Airbnb for almost 10 years. Last year, the city of Amsterdam required that all hosts obtain a permit to host their properties legally. We immediately obtained such a permit but, of course, most of our bookings for 2020 were cancelled.
When we did get a booking for August/September it was on the back of an extremely stressful time for us. A few months later, we suddenly got a letter from the city telling us that one of its inspectors had discovered that we hosted some guests in September but didn't register them according to the city's policy and that they were threatening us with a €6.000 fine and revoking our license.
After the initial shock wore off, we realised that indeed, we had forgotten to register the guests. It was simply an honest mistake. We've registered guests before and after that group and we explained this to the city in a letter in which we also clearly stated that there was no precedent for fining us since we had not rented out our apartment illegally nor had we ever broken any laws or rented it out for more than the permitted 30 nights.
We also requested that threats to fine us and revoke our license be cancelled.
Sadly, yesterday I received a letter in which the city told us that they were going ahead with the fine but were not revoking our license as a 'warning'.
Quite frankly, we're aghast at the moral bankrupcy of this city and it's unbelievable practices.
Its justification is that the fact that we didn't register the guests was a grave offense that went against its policy to curb mass tourism and that we broke the law. Given that we're in a pandemic and the visitor numbers to Amsterdam have completely collapsed, this argument is hardly relevant.
We did indeed break the rules of registing the guests but should we be getting punished in such a form for admitting to our mistake and offering to city to make this right according to the rules? Hardly.
As a result, we're going to refuse paying this fine and we're going to take legal action and are happy to go to court over this.
Has anyone else had this happen to them and can anyone advise how to proceed? Are there any affordable lawyers out there who could help or can Airbnb provide any support?
Thank you for your help!