It's understandable that hotels and hostels, which undoubtedly pay lots of taxes and suffer under reams of regulations, see AirBnB as unfair competition. But the 'sharing economy', which also includes Uber, has become a big part of our culture and economy, enabling an untold number of Colombians to earn extra income while putting a vacant room to use. As a person who runs a tourism business myself and has to pay lots of taxes and comply with often unreasonable - and sometimes impossible - laws, I can assure you that nobody will suffer thru this bureacratic nightmare just to rent an extra bedroom. Instead, if the law is enforced, it will either shut the sharing economy down (as taxis are attempting to do to Uber) or push it into illegality.
The magic of the Internet has made it possible for people with excess resource - such as an empty
Rooms for rent: Should this home's owner have to register as a tourism agency? |
This is all particularly true of a nation like Colombia which is just establishing itself as a tourist destination. Eliminating a whole category of lodging won't help its case.
AirBnB-type services creat real concerns, such as a neighborhood losing its character, or becoming unaffordable to its traditional residents, altho these things can happen anyway. Ways to handle these concerns are to limit the number of days per year which a property can be rented out, or prohibiting an individual from renting out multiple properties. And taxes can much more easily be collected from the company than from each individjal property owner.
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours
3 comments:
Competition is a great thing and something that all markets need. Governments best serve the people by staying the hell away from their business. Airbnb, however, is a disgracefully politicised organisation that really needs better competition itself. I for one would never use them due to their infringements on the rights of Christians and peoples right to free speech.
AirBnB is a great example of new competition and new options for consumers. My brother and his family recently stayed in AirBnBs in Europe and loved it. They felt more like residents than tourists.
I agree that AirBnB's market dominance is worrying - as is Uber's, Amazon's, Microsoft's, etc.
I'm not sure what you mean about their 'infringements' on free speech rights. Do you mean landlords' rights to exclude cerain categories of people, such as gay couples from their rooms? I'm surprised Oswald! I thought that you'd be the first to assert the rights of businesses to operate the way they want, and express themselves as they like.
Mike
A regressive tax is a tax imposed in such a manner that the tax rate decreases as the amount subject to taxation increases.
Tax specialist in Manchester
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