Hotel industry boss criticises unregulated Airbnb accommodation

TASMANIAN Hospitality Association­ chief Steve Old has hit out at share economy operators saying the unregulated industry is not fair on those working in hospitality.

Tasmanian Hospitality Association general manager Steve Old

TASMANIAN Hospitality Association­ chief Steve Old has hit out at share economy operators saying the unregulated industry is not fair on those working in hospitality.

Mr Old was responding to submissions made by senior Airbnb and Stayz.com executives at a Tasmanian Planning Commission hearing in Hobart relating to draft state planning provisions for tourism, business, commercial and industrial zones.

Accommodation proposals include a rental cap of six weeks a year, but sharing economy organisations believe the cap will decimate the state’s tourism industry and stop people renting out rooms, holiday houses and apartments.

Airbnb says 118,000 of the 1.8 million tourists who stayed in Tasmania last year stayed in Airbnb accommodation.

Stayz.com says the industry contributes $600 million annually to the state’s economy.

However, Mr Old said the proposal was “not about stopping people running an Airbnb property at all”.

“For people to say it is capped at 42 days is to completely misrepresent the position,’’ Mr Old said.

He said the 42 nights or six weeks in a year was an exemption that meant a person running a business was exempt from planning red tape and would not need a planning permit for visitor accommodation.

Mr Old said mature commercial-residential markets such as Berlin, New York and Paris were already feeling the consequences of diminished availability of long-term affordable housing, and jurisdictions in those markets were responding by curbing the excesses of commercial-residential accommodation.

He said the national accommodation sector employed 87,000 workers, many of them casual staff who were univer­sity students or parents supplementing their incomes.