Sakeliga to oppose ‘AirBnB’ Bill
18 April 2019
Business organisation Sakeliga has instructed its legal team to object to a new bill that could seriously harm small-scale, short-term home rental businesses in South Africa enabled by online services such as AirBnB.
Sakeliga's steps come after last Friday’s publication of the Tourism Amendment Bill (2019), and certain acknowledgements by Blessing Manale, chief director of communications at the Department of Tourism. Mr Manale is reported to have admitted the Department has its sights set on small scale home owners who rent out their homes with the aid of services such as AirBnB.
According to Gerhard van Onselen, senior analyst at Sakeliga: “The bill is ostensibly aimed at promoting the tourism industry, but really the bill is about intervening in the business of small-scale, short-term home rentals and the services offered by companies like AirBnB. The Minister is not going to promote the tourism industry, he is going to artificially drive up prices and interfere in an industry that regulates itself much better than government can.”
“An increased supply of short-term rental units results in healthy competition. Market innovations help to weed out of poor service providers. At best, government is reinventing the wheel, and – at worst – it’s letting the air of the tourism industry’s tires.”