BHA calls for tougher Airbnb regulation at parliamentary committee hearing
UK: BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim claimed many Airbnb hosts are “professional landlords” at yesterday’s meeting of the Business Innovation and Skills Committee.
UK: BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim claimed many Airbnb hosts
are "professional landlords" at yesterday's meeting of the Business
Innovation and Skills Committee.
Ibrahim criticised Airbnb and other sharing economy rental
platforms, claiming many of their hosts are "professional
landlords".
Speaking on behalf of the hospitality and tourism industry at the
hearing, Ibrahim claimed the sites are used by "many large-scale
landlords, operating multiple properties".
Ibrahim shared industry research which claimed:
• 40% of all home-exchange website listings are from 'professional
landlords' running unregulated 'pseudo-hotels'
• The top 1,000 home-exchange hosts are netting £150 million of
accommodation revenue annually
• Half of all home-exchange listings are entire properties rather
than rooms in host's own home
• London is most affected with the largest number of landlords (40
per cent of all listings in London are multiple property owners
renting accommodation on a short-term basis year-round)
Airbnb, which was represented at the hearing by head of public
policy Patrick Robinson, has said it would clamp down on what it
called "illegal hotels". Airbnb hosts do not have to meet the same
strict regulations as serviced apartments and hotels such as
planning regulations, food, health and fire safety regulations, and
critics accuse them of avoiding tax.
At the hearing, Ibrahim put forward three proposals to regulate
home exchange websites. They are:
• Home exchange websites should share with government bodies
(London Authorities and Councils, HMRC) named host level data to
demonstrate clearly; Who is letting over 90 nights in London?; How
many people are letting out a secondary residence?; How much tax is
due on the income?; How staff are employed and paid to service
multi-rentals?
• Home exchange websites should directly restrict landlords from
letting out for more than 90 days per year through their
platform
• Home sharing websites should require much stricter checks on
safety and security, something other sharing economy platforms,
such as Uber, have already implemented
Click here to watch video footage of the committee
hearing.
www.bha.org.uk