Airbnb push
Hosting platform is leading the charge in proposing a nationwide approach on the regulation of short-term rentals
Airbnb has begun a push for a nationwide regulation of short-stay rentals, backing a framework for bed taxes and information sharing with IRD to ensure tax compliance among hosts.
Representatives from the online accommodation market met with Local Government NZ’s metropolitan mayors group in Wellington on Friday to present a set of broad proposals to consider.
A rising number of councils have begun consultations on regulating aspects of the sector. Derek Nolan, Airbnb’s head of public policy for Australia and NZ, said it could face difficulties if councils acted alone developing different rules.
“We need regulation . . . [but] let’s not have 70 iterations of it around the place; let’s have a conversation about how we can have a national approach, with some local differences built in” rather than “a hodgepodge of different regulatory contexts across the country”.
Airbnb effectively proposes a framework for a bed tax levied on all accommodation providers, which councils could opt into.
It comes amid mounting pressure in some parts of New Zealand for a new means of revenue to cope with growing tourist numbers.
Auckland Council charges a targeted rate on providers, while Queenstown Lakes District Council wants a night “bed tax” of 5 per cent for all accommodation providers.
Nolan said a Queenstown-type levy could be easily charged in proportion to how much of an impact a property was having.
Some hosts only offered a room on occasion, while others rented out entire properties full time, meaning the impact of two hosts on local amenities could be very different.
“The targeted rate is a kind of clumsy tool to deal with those [differences],” Nolan said, whereas a bed tax was “proportionate to how much they decide to participate in the sharing economy and how often they decide to host”.
Such a charge would need a law change. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says it’s not possible under the Rating Act now.
Airbnb’s proposals also include a code of conduct enabling hosts who egregiously breach standards to be banned from any platform.
A “sliding scale” of regulation would impose fewer rules on hosts who offered only part of their homes for rent differently to those which offered entire properties, Nolan said.
Airbnb also proposed the creation of a data-sharing framework, so long as it protected privacy, to improve understanding of the sector as well as ensure hosts were paying the required tax on their activity.
“We’re very open to making sure compliance [with tax obligations] is part of what we are doing,” he said.
The company was seeking meetings with Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis and officials at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Nolan said the company would allow the proposals to “sink in” as it appreciated it would require a change at a national level, but it appeared mayors were pragmatic.
“They realise this is new, do they want to spend all their resources of 70 different councils, hiring people to all do the same job?”
Queenstown Lakes mayor Jim Boult said he did not agree with Airbnb’s proposals entirely, but “applauded” the company’s change in stance towards regulation.
“From where they were a few years ago where it was a bit of a locked-horns environment between councils and Airbnb, [it’s a] much better environment and I have in recent times found them to be open and interested in finding solutions.”
The concept of a national approach “makes sense”, Boult said.
“I certainly wouldn’t say that what applies to [Queenstown Lakes] applies for everyone but I think the idea is an excellent one.”
While Boult welcomed Airbnb’s support for a framework for bed taxes, he indicated he would not withdraw from his council’s plans which would require a law change.
“We’re pretty committed to our model. We’ve been working on it for three years, we’re delighted with how far we’ve got and we’d be really nervous of something that just interfered with that process.”
Last year Stats NZ said platforms like Airbnb and Bookabach could be worth up to $700 million a year.
More than 18 per cent of guest nights booked last year were in holiday home rentals, said the Stats report, accounting for 12 per cent of all accommodation revenue. The industry accounted for just 8.4 per cent of guest nights in 2013.
Figures last year showed about two-thirds of eligible Airbnb hosts in Auckland have so far avoided paying the bed tax.
The council said the rate would capture about 3800 of the city’s 8000 or so Airbnb properties. But the figures indicated just 1219 of those advertised on online platforms had been charged the tax.
We need regulation . . . [but] let’s not have 70 iterations of it around the place. Derek Nolan, Airbnb