site.btaGovernment Abandons Idea for Rating of Short-term Rental Properties, Sticks with Registration
NW 18:51:31 27-11-2019
LG1858NW.111
111 ECONOMY - AIRBNB - REGISTRATION
Government Abandons Idea for
Rating of Short-term Rental
Properties, Sticks with Registration
Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - The government is giving up the idea of introducing mandatory rating of properties offered for short-term rental on on-line platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, Homeaway, etc., but is sticking with the plan of demanding their registration with the Tourism Ministry as all other accommodation establishments.
This will be enacted through revisions to the Tourism Act.
The authors of the changes, budget committee chair Menda Stoyanova (GERB) and Valeri Simeonov (United Patriots), justified the need of regulating all forms of tourist business on short-term booking platforms. Stoyanova said that the only goal is to make sure the owners of such properties start paying taxes like all other people do.
She said users of the on-line booking platforms should rest assured that the changes are not going to harm their interests.
Repeat offenders of the regulations will be taken off the booking platform.
According to the initial proposal for amendment to the Tourism Act, tabled by Stoyanova and Simeonov, every person who rents out a room or an apartment to tourists via electronic platforms, such as Airbnb, booking.com, Expedia, Facebook, etc., will be required to obtain a 'star rating' from the Tourism Ministry. A failure to do so would be punishable by fines ranging from 500 to 5,000 leva for natural persons and from 1,000 to 10,000 leva for legal persons, and after a third violation access to the e-platform involved would be blocked by the respective Internet service provider by court order.
The Association of Bulgarian Tour Operators and Travel Agents (ABTTA) warned that the introduction of additional regulations on the over-regulated Bulgarian tourism market should be approached carefully. The director of the Institute for Analyses and Assessment of Tourism, Roumen Draganov, called the idea absurd. LN//
LG1858NW.111
111 ECONOMY - AIRBNB - REGISTRATION
Government Abandons Idea for
Rating of Short-term Rental
Properties, Sticks with Registration
Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - The government is giving up the idea of introducing mandatory rating of properties offered for short-term rental on on-line platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, Homeaway, etc., but is sticking with the plan of demanding their registration with the Tourism Ministry as all other accommodation establishments.
This will be enacted through revisions to the Tourism Act.
The authors of the changes, budget committee chair Menda Stoyanova (GERB) and Valeri Simeonov (United Patriots), justified the need of regulating all forms of tourist business on short-term booking platforms. Stoyanova said that the only goal is to make sure the owners of such properties start paying taxes like all other people do.
She said users of the on-line booking platforms should rest assured that the changes are not going to harm their interests.
Repeat offenders of the regulations will be taken off the booking platform.
According to the initial proposal for amendment to the Tourism Act, tabled by Stoyanova and Simeonov, every person who rents out a room or an apartment to tourists via electronic platforms, such as Airbnb, booking.com, Expedia, Facebook, etc., will be required to obtain a 'star rating' from the Tourism Ministry. A failure to do so would be punishable by fines ranging from 500 to 5,000 leva for natural persons and from 1,000 to 10,000 leva for legal persons, and after a third violation access to the e-platform involved would be blocked by the respective Internet service provider by court order.
The Association of Bulgarian Tour Operators and Travel Agents (ABTTA) warned that the introduction of additional regulations on the over-regulated Bulgarian tourism market should be approached carefully. The director of the Institute for Analyses and Assessment of Tourism, Roumen Draganov, called the idea absurd. LN//
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