Keyboxes Banned by National Decree

 

 

The city of Florence is moving toward a 10 point plan for more sustainable tourism; the aim is for residents to go about their day-to-day lives with a bit more ease. Mayor Sara Funaro is pushing for these new mandates to become operative on January, 1, 2025.  

The decree under study includes the outlawing the use of keyboxes as well as amplifiers and loudspeakers on the part of tour guides and the implementation of a higher garbage tax for landlords owning multiple Airbnb properties. With the prohibition of keyboxes, this means that apartment owners will no longer be able to leave keys in a locked box outside their buildings for guests to retrieve on their own. The mayor believes that this is primarily an issue of security, but also an aesthetic issue, as both the historic city center and the Oltrarno are classified as a UNESCO world heritage site. 

The Minister of Interior Piantedosi, however, decided to take action before New Year’s Day. He sent out an internal memo on December 2, 2024 prohibiting the practice of self check-in via the use of keyboxes, with immediate effect.  Landlords and Airbnb agencies are now obliged to verify the identity of guests through an in-person check of the documents provided by those staying in the rental apartment and need to register this information and report it to the police headquarters within 24 hours. Starting in the New Year, a national identification code must be displayed outside apartment buildings with short-term rentals.

Airbnb also published a statement regarding the new law on its website during the 41st Annual Assembly of ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities) in Turin. “The company intends to back cities – such as Florence, Rome, and Venice – in their efforts to promote in-person reception of guests upon arrival and action to combat the illegal use of keyboxes in public spaces such as parks or fences.” 

Data shows that 95% of tourists are stay in only a five square kilometer (three miles) radius of Florence’s historic city center. This figure represents the sum of presences in hotels, short-term rentals, hostels and countryside bed and breakfasts that host both overnight and guests for longer stays. There are also visitors who come to Florence during the day from nearby cities, but the precise numbers are difficult to calculate.

New Airbnb listings have been banned in the Florence city center since July 30, 2024. This has been considered an emergency in the past by mayor Funaro, especially with the increase in tourism registered after the pandemic, which has caused issues for local residents such as the rise in the cost of housing and the difficulty in finding long term rentals. This decree, however, has been overturned before, before being reinstated and could very well be overturned again.

Within Italy, the market for short-term apartment rentals has a total turnover of 57 billion euros, and consists of a total of 640,000 total apartments: 11 billion euro turnover from reservations and 46 billion euro directly from arrivals.

In order to put the new mandate into place, the interpretation of Article 109 of the Consolidated Text of Public Security Laws was issued by the Rome Police Headquarters. In Italy’s capital city, Rome, the Ministry of the Interior of Italy stated that these key boxes are a “safety risk [and] controls are necessary.”  The physical presence of a human being is needed to ensure keys are given to the right people. Remote key delivery and virtual identification have been proven not to be effective to comply with security regulations. The Ministry of the Interior of Italy explained that “the automated management of check-in and entrance to the structure, without visual identification of the guests… [could potentially lead to] the structure be[ing] housing a person or more people whose generalities remain unknown to the police headquarters, posing a potential danger to the safety of the community.”

The city of Florence intends to charge a higher garbage tax for those renting four or more apartments on a short-term basis. This extra money will potentially allow garbage taxes to be lowered for Florence residents. 

Mayor Funaro believes that the measures will be beneficial to the locals residing in Florence, as overtourism has been an ongoing problem that is extremely difficult to combat, hopefully creating a more peaceful environment for people who live in the city.  (Tessa Scharff & Paulina Juzak)