Enforcement on AirBnB to be strengthened in the next few weeks - MHRA president

Following meetings with Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), enforcement of legislation for AirBnB accommodation will be strengthened in the upcoming weeks, according to association president Tony Zahra.

Zahra told The Malta Independent that the MHRA has been assured that such enforcement will take place in the next four weeks.

A number of AirBnB owners and other people providing accommodation to tourists were not going through the proper channels and were not following the law, this newsroom was told.

MTA had previously announced that AirBnBs and private accommodation would need an MTA licence.

Zahra emphasised that such legislation must be followed up and that, unfortunately, there are people who are operating illegally.

“The law needs to be followed by everyone,” Zahra said.

He explained that MTA has the necessary information to strengthen enforcement in this regard.

This was not the first time that Zahra spoke about the challenges hotels face from competing services such as AirBnB. Earlier this year, a survey by Deloitte stated that growth in non-collective accommodation such as AirBnB is outpacing that of hotels.

The survey for the first three months of 2019 indicated that whilst there was an increase in the number of tourist arrivals, occupancy levels in hotels went down by 5.5%; indicating that they were mostly taken up by the private accommodation sector.

The report had stated that the AirBnB sector has increased by about 1,000 units per year at a price bracket which is close to the 4-star hotel sector.