Airbnb Responds to Hotel & Business Mogul Bill Heinecke

With regard to the article - Hotel & Business Mogul Bill Heinecke: Letter to Minister of Interior Castigates Airbnb Stance as Irresponsible - published yesterday on Hotelintel.co, Airbnb has requested to exercise their right of reply, and here is what it entails:

12 December, 2019
Airbnb Statement

Statement from Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy for Southeast Asia Mich Goh
While we agree new rules for short-term accommodation need to be developed, we strongly disagree with some of the policies and incorrect claims put forward by Minor Group.

It is particularly disappointing to see such a big hospitality company oppose a partnership designed to help local Thais start their own legal homestay business.

Airbnb wants to be a good partner to Government and we are working hand in hand with various departments to empower local communities and promote tourism in emerging destinations.

Through our partnerships, we have delivered workshops in places like Saraburi and Nakhon Si Thammarat to help locals start their own homestay business, which have included an overview of what rules hosts must follow and how they can host in the most responsible manner possible.

We have also listened to local communities and authorities and suggested balanced and forward-looking regulatory principles for short-term accommodation in Thailand.

We look forward to working closely with local authorities to develop regulations that work and ensure local communities share in more of the benefits of tourism.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Airbnb’s proposed regulatory principles include:

Simple and online national-level registration - A simple, swift and online registration system for short-term accommodation to ensure compliance and promote high safety standards.

Differentiated regulation - A differentiated - rather than one-size-fits-all - approach to regulation which distinguishes between the various types of short-term accommodation activity. For example, regulations should differentiate between someone sharing a room in their home, their own home occasionally or someone with a vacation rental for full commercial purpose.

Industry-wide approach - There should be an industry-wide approach to regulation and close cooperation between all industry participants and regulators in implementing regulations.

Tough but fair rules for bad behaviour - The overwhelming majority of hosts and guests are good neighbours and respectful travelers, but there should be penalties that target extremely rare instances of bad behaviour.

Airbnb follows the rules and pays all the tax we owe in the places we do business. Our community-based model where hosts keep up to 97 percent of the price they charge means the overwhelming amount of money generated by our platform stays with local hosts in local communities.

Our community-based model also means local communities share in more of the benefits of tourism. Our modelling shows the local Airbnb community of hosts and guests generated over THB$33.8 billion in estimated direct economic impact in Thailand in 2018, and on average Airbnb guests say 46% of their spending occurs in the neighbourhoods where they stay