Pressured by legal changes, which will force them to rent their spaces only half of the year, Airbnb hosts have organized to fight as a group for what they call a defense of their human rights.
In a talk with Forbes, Magdalena García, and Héctor Rivera, who rent spaces through Airbnb and are representatives of the group “We Are All Hosts,” explained the factors that, they believe, will cause economic damage instead of benefit in the City. from Mexico.
It was in April 2024 when modifications were made to the Tourism Law of Mexico City, establishing that hosts, or people dedicated to offering temporary accommodation, must be part of a new registry, after the obligatory contracting of insurance. of civil liability.
Read also: The restriction to 50% of the nights to accommodate tourists is unjustified and anti-competitive: Airbnb
Subsequently, in October, a new reform was applied, capping the occupancy allowed in the homes offered in the applications at 50% per year.
With both changes, the then head of Government, Martí Batres, said that the aim was to stop gentrification and mitigate unfair competition towards the traditional hotel sector.
However, hosts do not consider the changes in the law to be solving problems.
“We consider that the law does not really resolve the alleged unfair competition or gentrification,” said Héctor Rivera.
“Gentrification is not caused by casual stay, and the problem of gentrification is not in all of Mexico City. And due to the issue of supposed unfair competition, in reality temporary stays pay a lodging tax even higher than what hotels pay, it is not that they have more of a burden,” he explained.
Meeting with CDMX authorities planned
People dedicated to renting rooms in Mexico City through platforms such as Airbnb, grouped in “We Are All Hosts,” have organized to formally argue before the capital’s authorities how the modifications to the law, which requires them to pay insurance of Civil Liability and renting a maximum of 50% of their annual occupancy, are an imposition that abuses their human rights.
Read also: Capital Congress limits accommodation through platforms like Airbnb
It will be this Monday, January 13, that a performance of “We are all hosts” will be received by representatives of the capital’s secretariats, said Magdalena García and Héctor Rivera.
By then, the hosts will explain that many of them only have the rental of their spaces as their only income, and that 80% of Airbnb hosts only have one home for rent.
They will defend that they generate jobs that would have to cease to exist for half the year.
Also, according to what they said, they will seek to make it clear that they are not against the regulation, but that the limitations could be segmented to the localized areas where there is gentrification.
“The regulation must be orderly and must be subject to a series of legal principles that do not violate human rights with the application of a law,” said Magdalena García.
For its part, after the changes to the law, Airbnb has defended that it is the platform that collects and remits the most money in taxes to the authority in Mexico. Likewise, he highlighted that it has generated annual economic benefits of more than 15 billion pesos in CDMX alone, while for every dollar spent in Airbnb spaces, guests spend 3 dollars on other activities and services in the communities.
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