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Travelling to Japan in June? If you've made a booking with Airbnb, you may have to find alternative accommodation.

The online home-sharing giant has had to cancel thousands of reservations after Japan's government put in place a new law around home-sharing.

The law regulates Airbnb's most popular destination market in the Asia Pacific region.

Airbnb said changes to the guidance around its implementation meant reservations would now be affected.

Under the new law, hosts are required to register their listing and display their licence number by 15 June to remain active.

But the Japanese government said on 1 June that any host without a licence number had to cancel upcoming reservations that were booked before 15 June.

Airbnb said it would therefore cancel any reservation made by a guest arriving between 15 June and 19 June at a listing in Japan that does not currently have a licence.

"We know this stinks - and that's an understatement," Airbnb said.

"Japan is an incredible country to visit and we want to help our guests deal with this extraordinary disruption."

Airbnb also said it had set up a $10m fund to help those incurring any additional expenses related to having to make alternative travel plans because of cancellations.

The booking issue in Japan is the latest hiccup that Airbnb has faced in Asia, one of its fastest growing markets.

Earlier this year, the firm said it would have to start sharing information about its customers who book accommodation in China with the government. Data shared with the authorities will now include passport details and the dates of bookings.

Hosts listing accommodation in China will also have their details passed on once they start accepting bookings.

The online home-sharing giant said the move meant it was now complying with local laws and regulations, "like all businesses operating in China".

Airbnb has said it is aiming to have one billion annual guests worldwide by 2028.

The firm is one of Silicon Valley's most valuable companies and is already worth an estimated $30bn.</s>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.

Airbnb has canceled reservations with arrivals from June 15 to June 19 for any unlicensed listings, and going forward will cancel any reservations for which the host doesn’t have a license within 10 days of the booking.

@AirbnbHelp @airbnb Why remove our listing? We are applying for a registration number. It is only June 2nd. You told us that we had until June 15th to add that number to our listing. I can see that thousands of listings in Japan are being removed. #airbnb #japan #tokyo #japan — Shinjuku AirbnbHouse (@HouseInShinjuku) June 2, 2018

As feared the Japanese government is forcing AirBnB to cancel tens of thousands of fully booked and paid reservations. This is the worst possible way the government could have dealt with this issue. 1/ pic.twitter.com/MouoRkzckk — Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) June 8, 2018

Along with requiring the licenses, localities can set their own restrictions, which have been criticized by some as too cumbersome. In Kyoto ― a tourist hotspot ― house-sharing in residential areas will only be allowed in the low season times of the year, from mid-January to mid-March. All hosts will only be allowed to rent their house out for 180 days a year.

The Japanese government has said that the regulations will protect locals and tourists and will “nurture healthy growth.” The country will have to deal with large numbers of visitors next year for the Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics.

The number of available Airbnb listings in Japan seems to have already plunged, perhaps due to hosts not wanting to go through the hassle of applying for paperwork.

HuffPost Japan reported that a government official in Minato Ward ― in central Tokyo, where there had been many listings ― said there had only been 40 requests for the license since June 5. Only five had been accepted, and the others were mainly rejected because they needed to notify their neighbors, or there was an issue with their fire equipment.</s>Airbnb has been one of the breakthrough stories in the wave of shared-economy startups that have emerged out of Silicon Valley, with a valuation of $30 billion for its travellers platform that lets people book private homes as accommodations, as well as other services. But even so, it’s not immune to the force of regulation and the impact it can have on its business.

Airbnb has had to cancel a swathe of reservations in Japan, after a change in local laws required hosts to have specific licenses, but some have failed to get these ahead of the deadline set by regulators.

It’s not clear how many people or hosts have been impacted — the numbers are shifting as hosts receive their licenses — but Airbnb says that it has set up a fund of $10 million to cover any travellers who might get put out as a result of the rules. Some have estimated that as much as 80 percent of bookings have been impacted by the changes.

As Airbnb notes, the cancellations and its resulting moves are a result of changes to the country’s Japanese Hotels and Inns Act. Modified last year to include people using private homes for tourist accommodation for up to 180 days/year, those hosting now have to register and display a license number alongside their listings. The tourism authority (JTA) had set a deadline of June 15 to do this, and those who hadn’t received a license by June 1 had to cancel reservations booked before June 15, and Airbnb has extended this to cover the gap of other travellers so that they have time to make alternative arrangements:

The $10 million fund, Airbnb said, will cover “additional expenses for guests who are scheduled to travel to Japan and have had their plans interrupted due to a cancellation.” Those whose reservations are cancelled on or after June 15 because of the license situation will get a full refund and a coupon worth “at least 100% of the booking value” to use on a future Airbnb trip. They will also receive a $100 coupon for an Airbnb Experience.

Those who are unable to find alternative Airbnb places to stay for their trip will be put in touch with a travel agency in Japan, JTB, to find alternatives.

For those who are impacted by this news, Airbnb will be sending you step-by-step instructions of what to do next, or you can find them here.

This is not the first time that Airbnb has had a stumble on the heels of regulatory changes. In Amsterdam, regulators are preparing to halve the number of nights a property can be let out to 30 nights per year starting in 2019, from 60 nights currently. Berlin and Barcelona have also tried to limit the platform’s growth with their own regulations.</s>Anthony Bourdain was found dead of an apparent suicide in Paris.

Anthony Bourdain was a man that was loved and appreciated for his brutal honesty in the restaurant world. His take on food was, perhaps, best encapsulated by his hit show, No Reservations, which aired on the Travel Channel in the United States and on Discovery Travel & Living elsewhere in the world.

Bourdain famously remarked to Food & Wine Magazine that he would never dine at any Trump-owned restaurants because he had “utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt.” His comments came after the Trump Grill was voted by Vanity Fair as the “worst restaurant in America.”

So while Anthony Bourdain never crossed a Trump-owned threshold in No Reservations, there were eight places he did go to that proved to be a culinary — and visual — delight.

When Anthony Bourdain visited Iceland in No Reservations, he gave us an insight into his mind — an insight that many of us, at the time, didn’t notice or pay attention to. But in the second episode of the first season of the show, Bourdain reflected that he found the darkness of Iceland “comforting” (the title of the episode was “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend”) and participated in the local Icelandic customs while soaking in the Blue Lagoon and eating Hákarl, a fermented shark dish that’s considered the national dish of Iceland.

During the first season of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain traveled to the island of Sicily where he had spleen sandwich with then-Governor Salvatore Cuffaro. He also tried tripe (a cow’s second stomach), went cliff-diving, and took advice from locals on finding the best cannoli.

Anthony Bourdain was instrumental in helping dispel various myths about various countries, and there was no better example of that than when he visited the beautiful African country of Ghana in No Reservations. He visited the Makola Market, went fishing with tourism minister Jacob Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, and watched kente cloths being made on a loom. He also tried such dishes as barracuda, kenkey, and palm wine.

When Anthony Bourdain first started out as a chef, he worked in New England alongside Azorean Portuguese immigrants. To pay tribute to his roots, he visited the region and learned all about how these immigrants shaped the culture of New England today.

In what he called “the finest Mediterranean cuisine,” he took No Reservations to the Croatian coast, where he swam with bluefin tuna and went on a hunt to find a prized white truffle. And, in the episode, he literally got knocked off his feet.

Bourdain went to Finland after he received an overwhelming response on his social media pages from his Finnish fans to do so. He joined musician Sami Yaffa for a pub tram ride — and got completely drunk in the process — before going into a bloody sauna and having an interesting dinner with a cabbie’s mother.

Talk about serendipity. Weeks before the March 2011 earthquake that all but leveled the place, Bourdain took a trip to this glorious Japanese city, where he ate Hokkaido style ramen, waikanae crab, and Uni-ikura Don before dining at a ryokan enjoying a formal robatayaki. In the international version, not shown in America, Bourdain visited the Sapporo Beer Garden, where he had a beer called Ghengis Khan that’s not available in the United States.

Anthony Bourdain took his No Reservations crew to this lovely region of France where he stayed at a villa, ate daube, aioli, terrine, and Ricard Pastis, before trying — and failing — to cook a Provencal dinner for the locals.

Rest in peace, Anthony Bourdain. You will be missed.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. For readers outside the U.S., visit Suicide.org or Befrienders Worldwide for international resources you can use to find help.</s>Airbnb says Japan’s government required it to cancel all reservations with hosts that have not yet registered, even if they were in the process of seeking a licence.

RENTAL site Airbnb said on Thursday that it had been forced by the Japanese authorities to cancel thousands of reservations ahead of a new law regulating short-term rentals, and apologised for the "extraordinary disruption".

"This stinks - and that's an understatement," Airbnb said in a statement, adding it would fully refund cancelled reservations and was also creating a US$10 million fund to compensate affected travellers.

The popular holiday rental site had already suspended the listings of owners who had not obtained a registration number required under the law that comes into force on June 15.

But on Thursday it said Japan's government had required it to cancel all reservations with hosts that have not yet registered, even if they were in the process of seeking a licence.

"This is understandably frustrating, especially since many hosts are close to acquiring their licence," the statement said. "It's particularly disruptive for guests who have a trip to Japan planned for the weeks and months ahead."

The company said the fund would help travellers who incur extra costs as they rebook accommodation at short notice. The initial cancellations affect bookings between June 15 and June 19 but could be expanded.

"Going forward, unless the government reverses its position, we will automatically cancel and fully refund any reservations at listings in Japan that have not been licensed within 10 days of guest arrival," it added.

The number of Japan rentals on Airbnb had already dropped dramatically after the site over the weekend began suspending listings from hosts who have not yet registered with the government.

The new law requires owners to obtain a government registration number and meet various regulations that some critics say are overly strict. Hosts can only rent their properties for 180 days a year, and face additional restrictions imposed by local authorities.

In the tourist magnet of Kyoto, for example, rentals in residential areas will only be allowed between mid-January and mid-March, the low season for tourists.

Airbnb and other holiday rental companies have publicly welcomed the law, saying it removes the uncertainty that has long existed in the sector.

Japanese authorities say the legislation will protect tourists and local residents alike, and is intended to "nuture healthy growth".

But some Airbnb hosts say the registration process is overly restrictive and intended to benefit the hotel industry.

Rental sites like Airbnb have faced criticism in many markets internationally for driving up housing prices and competing unfairly with the regulated hotel industry.

The controversy over short-term rentals in Japan comes as the country works to boost already-record numbers of tourists and is anticipating an influx of visitors for next year's Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympics. AFP</s>Japan has cracked down on home-sharing giant Airbnb, and thousands of guests are being affected.

Last year, a new Japanese law came into effect that required Airbnb hosts to register their properties through the government and publicize their license number by June 15 in order to remain active on the platform. In a written statement by Airbnb released Friday morning, the company confirmed that thousands of hosts had already updated their listings with the necessary registration information, but “many more” were still in the process of finalizing their registrations.

Many were shocked on June 1, two weeks before the confirmed deadline and at the peak of the tourist season, when Japan’s tourism agency issued a sudden memo declaring that any Airbnb host without a license, regardless of their current status in the registration process, must cancel any upcoming reservations booked before June 15. As a result, thousands of Airbnb listings in Japan, a rapidly-growing market for the startup, vanished from the site.

“This announcement came as a surprise to us,” said Airbnb. “It was contrary to the guidance our team had previously been given by the Japanese Tourism Agency (JTA) and put the travel experiences of thousands of visitors to Japan at risk.”

To compensate for the burden the sudden policy-shift has placed on would-be travelers, Airbnb has created a $10 million fund to cover additional expenses, including flight costs, for guests whose plans had been thwarted due to a cancellation. Additionally, Airbnb intends to offer full-refunds on top of a $100 coupon for other Airbnb experiences.

“We are pretty confident that we will grow back,” Mike Orgill, the company’s head of public policy for the Asia Pacific, told Bloomberg.

But, the stringent Japanese policies seem to have affected Airbnb immensely. According to a report by the , Airbnb has been forced to remove 80% of Japanese listings in the past few months alone — plummeting from 62,000 listings to 13,800 since spring.

“While this is a difficult time for our hosts and guests, we believe the new rules will ultimately be a positive change for Airbnb and our Japan community,” said Airbnb. “There will undoubtedly be a period of adjustment, but ultimately, clear rules and regulations for home sharing will make our community in Japan bigger and stronger.”

Airbnb launched in Japan in 2013. It is yet to be seen how the company will recover from this setback to further their growth in the nation, one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for tourism.</s>Video of Anthony Bourdain showcasing Cleveland in 2007 episode of 'No Reservations'

Video of Anthony Bourdain showcasing Cleveland in 2007 episode of 'No Reservations'</s>TOKYO—A new law that legalizes home-sharing in Japan was supposed to help Airbnb Inc. open the country up to more visitors. Instead, it has led to the loss of tens of thousands of listed offerings as well as canceled reservations and angry customers saying they may never use Airbnb or visit Japan again.

Under the law, which takes effect June 15, Airbnb hosts wanting to open their homes to paying guests need to acquire a license and comply with fire and other safety regulations. Until now, many hosts have been operating in...</s>Heading to Japan next week? You should probably double-check your Airbnb rental, because it might be cancelled. The country will soon enforce a law requiring vacation rentals like Airbnb residences to be registered with the Japanese government, prompting the removal of more than 48,000 Japan-based Airbnb listings, and the cancellation of reservations for as early as next week.



According to Nikkei, the more than 62,000 Japanese listings seen as recently this spring have dwindled to just 13,800 due to an amendment to Japan’s Hotels and Inns Act, which now requires hosts to register their listing and restrict rental periods to 180 days per year. On June 1, Airbnb was instructed to cancel reservations made at unregistered residences, two weeks before the June 15 deadline.

“As a result, any reservation scheduled for guest arrival between June 15 and June 19 at a listing in Japan that does not currently have a license has been cancelled,” said Airbnb. “Going forward, unless the government reverses its position, we will automatically cancel and fully refund any reservations at listings in Japan that have not been licensed within 10 days of guest arrival.”

Airbnb, according to its statement on the incident, says it was caught by surprise, and the June 1 announcement was “contrary to the guidance” the company was given by the Japanese Tourism Agency. “Much to our disappointment, after a number of discussions, including a meeting today, the JTA was unwilling to return to their original position or to make reasonable compromises to protect travelers visiting Japan,” said Airbnb.

This isn’t the first time Airbnb has been the subject of scrutiny based on its detrimental effect on neighborhoods and available residential housing. Japan’s restrictions follow the registration and 120-day rental limit imposed in Paris, France. A court will rule on June 12 whether or not the unregistered rentals, amounting to over 80 percent of the city’s Airbnb listings, must be removed from the site.

To its credit, Airbnb plans to support affected travelers with what it’s calling its Japan Travel Response Plan. A $10 million fund will be used to cover “unexpected and unavoidable expenses based on this sudden development” for guests with cancelled reservations. Affected guests will also receive a full refund, along with a $100 coupon toward its activity-centric Airbnb Experience service. Affected guests must email Airbnb and submit copies of the relevant receipts (like hotel accommodations and flight change fees) to get reimbursed for the unexpected costs “within two to four weeks.” Gizmodo has reached out to Airbnb for further clarification.</s>Travel Channel is paying tribute to Anthony Bourdain. The network announced it will air an all-day marathon of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, on Sunday, June 10.

Bourdain was found dead, an apparent suicide, in his hotel room in France. The chef and TV host was working on an episode for his CNN series Parts Unknown.

The No Reservations marathon runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday, June 10 on Travel Channel. No Reservations, which featured Bourdain exploring local cultures and cuisines everywhere from the United States to Uzbekistan, aired more than 140 episodes from 2005-2012. In 2009 the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming.
Due to a change in Japanese legislation, Airbnb announces that it will be cancelling thousands of reservations made in the country.