Amsterdam’s bike rental companies are upset that a number of hotels are offering on-premises bike rentals to their customers, and have asked city officials to stop or at least hinder the practice.
The rental companies say the competition is unfair because the hotel bicycles are parked on the street in front of the hotels, while they are forced to rent stores and other facilities to store their bikes and operate.
The hotel-based bike rentals at 29 hotels are managed by a company called On the Rolly, which says it is abiding by all the rules, including ones that ban bikes at hotels that front on canals and limit the number of bikes to four in others. They are required to be parked within two metres of the hotel.
Rental companies are also upset at the city allowing the number of ‘shared’ bikes and scooters that can be rented from racks around the city, similar to bike-share systems in other cities. The companies complain that the shared bike companies pay no rent for using the public space, and that the city pays to set up the rack locations.
