Congressman Óscar Novella Macías asserted that regulating Airbnb accommodations is necessary to promote fair competition.
“Just as hoteliers pay taxes, lodging companies should too,” the Morena party legislator proposed while sharing his initiative.
He also defended the need to create a registry of Airbnb service providers to “give visitors guarantees, because otherwise the state has no information.”
Former Secretary of Education Gema Mercado Sánchez and lawyer Jorge Rada Luévano had spoken out against the initiative before members of the Tourism and Budget Committee, to which Novella Macías pointed out that they had spoken with Airbnb representatives, “and they endorsed it.”
“I think it’s more likely that this has been brought up for political reasons, to stir up controversy. And that’s fine; “I mean, ultimately we live in a democratic country where everyone has the right to express their opinion on public decisions,” he said.
Rada Luévano had objected, for example, to Airbnb hosts having to obtain Civil Protection permits and registrations, to which Novella Macías responded that “a private residence, to the extent that it carries out an economic activity, falls under a different type of regulation.”
He had also raised the issue of registrations and taxes, to which the Morena party member stated that the revenue would represent, in a first estimate, around 10 million pesos annually for the state.
He also acknowledged that this initiative to regulate the service would imply a price increase for users.
Source: ntrzacatecas
