234 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY enjoyment is made without the support of a business structure in itself and, consequently, without a profit motive so that it cannot replace a professional or commercial work. III. ACCOMMODATION ACTIVITIES Many online platforms allow the reservation of different accommodations, mainly on a holiday basis. Among them, we can find traditional intermediaries, online travel agencies (OTAs), real estate agencies and collaborative digital platforms. Airbnb stands out as the largest intermediary company in the search for accommodation without having a single property. To a lesser extent, other similar platforms such as Homeaway or Windu, all of which are closer to the business world, as they carry out transactions with an onerous character, obtaining a profit from the intermediation, through a management fee that they receive from both the host and the guest. Others, however, focus on providing an accommodation service, also with a consideration that is not consumed in currency, but in the exchange or in services that may have a little economic impact, being, nonetheless, of greater interest to the recipient. This is the so-called hospitality accommodation, which is carried out by platforms such as Couchsurfing or HomeExchange. III.1. Legal Nature III.1.1. BUSINESS ACCOMMODATION PLATFORMS (AIRBNB, HOMEAWAY, ETC.) The former would provide a service more or less similar to the traditional entrepreneur, but without the costs of maintaining their activity, so one of the legal problems raised by this new economic framework is that of possible unfair competition with the business sector. The European Committee of the Regions, in its opinion Collaborative economy and online platforms: a shared vision of cities and regions, addresses the issue, considering it a priority to establish the parameters and values of our economy that must be defended. The result is that the new paradigm created by the expansion of the collaborative economy takes a form that makes it sustainable from a social perspective22. In particular, it has an impact on the accommodation sector, where platforms such as Airbnb or cases “the users do not share a resource, but work informally or sell a good in a different way to the conventional one”. 22 Opinion (2017/C 185/04), p. 2.
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