The situation with restrictions on hostels in residential buildings has drawn attention to another problem: short-term apartment rentals through various services, including Airbnb. According to representatives of the public organization "Opara Rossii," the status of such apartments "accommodation facilities" should be defined in the new law on tourist accommodation
According to Kommersant, Opora Rossii has proposed introducing a law on tourist housing. The organization's head, Alexander Kalinin, sent corresponding letters to Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
According to the petitioners, the adopted hostel law is incomplete because hostels are not considered the primary means of tourist accommodation, and their status should be defined in a new law on tourist accommodation. Incidentally, Senator Igor Fomin, who oversees tourism, explained that a delay in the implementation of this law, which prohibits hostels from being located in apartment buildings, is currently being discussed.
Igor Fomin also noted that if the law were to take effect now, budget revenue would be reduced by 2 billion rubles over the course of the year, and 2,000 accommodation facilities would cease operations.
According to the text of the Opora Rossii letter, this primarily concerns apartments and private homes rented out through booking systems like Airbnb. In some regions, the share of such accommodations exceeds 50% of the total. According to experts from the Organization of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, this puts owners of registered accommodations at a disadvantage compared to their competitors, as they pay taxes, provide security, maintain migration records of guests, and so on. Meanwhile, those who rent out their apartments on a daily basis do not bear this financial burden.
Opora Rossii Vice President Alexei Kozhevnikov believes that the creation of a law on tourist housing could solve the problem of apartments that serve as cheap hostels, housing migrants.
As a reminder, it was previously announced that the tax on Airbnb rentals in Tel Aviv would be doubled.
Source: trn-news.ru