Airbnb renters now outnumber locals in some Parisian neighborhoods

Perhaps more than any European city, a visit to Paris conjures romantic images of cafes and casually draped scarves and living like a local. But thanks to Airbnb, you'll see more starry-eyed would-be Parisians than, you know, actual Parisians. According to Quartz, in 2014, the two popular arrondissements Paris' Le Marais district actually had more Airbnb'ers than it had residents, with 66,230 guests to the 64,795 full-time citizens. That number is just one huge example of the home-sharing service's impact on the city, which has quickly become the biggest market for Airbnb listings.

During the summer of 2014, more than half a million people – 517,821, to be exact – stayed in one of the city's estimated 40,000 Airbnb properties, despite the threat of fines against the renters and an increasingly active government crackdown. Housing officials and investigators are currently on the lookout for illegal rentals (especially a "primary" residence that is rented out for more than 4 months each year) and those found to be in violation of the city's laws can be fined up to €25,000 ($28,400).

Airbnb knows that the Paris market is crucial – which is why it is trying to do what it can to avoid the kind of citywide bans that Berlin and Barcelona have handed out. According to the Wall Street Journal, Airbnb is doing what it can to politely court city officials, offering to pay lucrative tourism taxes, encouraging hosts to pay income tax on their rental earnings and offering up a number of favorable studies that show that Airbnb can improve the local economy (although as the world's most visited country, France isn't exactly starving for tourism dollars – and that was before the French swore they were going to stop snarling at visitors). "We're not here to bend the rules," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told French officials last week.

"More and more, it's just tourists,"François Plottin, a city hall inspector – and vocal Airbnb critic – has grumbled. But what is Paris without swooning visitors who wished they lived there? And an increasing number of residents say they couldn't afford to be there either, not without the additional Airbnb rental income. With the favorable exchange rate for Americans, it could be another crowded summer in Le Marais. Residents and renters will both probably need to look over their shoulders before they haughtily adjust their scarves.