Willemstad (May 19th, 2016) – Today CHATA hosted a successful information session titled Sharing Economy – The Impact on Hotels at the Avila Beach Hotel.
The sharing economy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy. In essence it makes use of otherwise underutilized assets by making them accessible online to the general public, such assets being marketed typically by individuals and not companies. The shareconomy as it is often called, emerged as a result of the global spread of the internet.
With tourism being the predominant sector driving many economies throughout the Caribbean, its imperative to analyze what effects this growing trend can have on hotels in Curaçao.
Airbnb
Airbnb is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging. This platform has seen rapid growth from its inception in 2008. With over a million listings in 190 countries, Airbnb has established itself as the largest peer to peer hospitality service. Airbnb has over 300 listings in Curaçao.
Trend reports suggest some concerning measures of displacement, with travelers opting not to stay in hotels, and thus negatively impacting overall hotel revenue. As the sharing economy continues its quick ascension, Airbnb may soon disrupt high end hotel revenues the way other sharing economy services like Uber did to taxi services.
With the support of some sharing economy companies like Airbnb, more destinations globally have changed legislation to implement the taxation of home vacation stays. While this has helped with local revenue collections, avenues for leakage and non-‐‑payment by vacation home owners are still prevalent. Consequently, the opportunity for the government, which is generally seeking new revenue sources, is significant.
CHATA will continue to monitor this growing trend and continue to improve its Small Accommodation program to include a vast majority of the smaller accommodations on Curaçao. In addition, CHATA has partnered up with CTB and the government to create new future-ready legislation.
