The National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur) classifies non-traditional hosting platforms such as Airbnb, Homeaway and Vrbo as a “threat”. The group believes that they threaten competition from the traditional sector such as hotels, cabins and others that have always been under the same regulations.
The vice president of Canatur, ArnoldoBeeche, said that the hotel activity has “a new competitor, a new business partner, which is the threat of non-traditional lodging.”
Data shared by Beeche indicates that one in six tourists who arrive in Costa Rica choose this type of option that mixes technology with the traditional hosting service.
Lack of regulations and equality
The Canatur spokesperson considers that what is needed are regulations. He says that it is not enough that the Ministry of Finance recently reached an agreement with Airbnb to start collecting Value Added Tax (VAT).
The vice president of Canatur believes that there is still a difference in the costs of requirements such as municipal patents, which the owners and the application must not pay. Neither are the differentiated charges for electricity service, garbage collection and other administrative permits.
The Airbnb company, however they indicated that they needed more time to respond. Since June 13, an interview was also requested at the Ministry of Finance to specify information on the collection of this tax, however there is still no response.
Beeche made these statements this Tuesday, June 27th, during a forum organized by the National University of Costa Rica (UNA), within the framework of its 50th anniversary.
Start VAT collection
On June 1st, Airbnb announced that it had become the first foreign platform offering accommodation to register with the Ministry of Finance for the purpose of collecting value added tax (VAT).This as a provider of cross-border digital services. In this way, the double taxation that affected those who used the platform was eliminated.
Through a statement, the platform highlighted the modernization of the tax system for digital platforms by Costa Rica under the Multilateral Agreement on the Exchange of Information on Tax Matters for digital platforms and the collaborative economy.
In addition, pointed out that it marked a first step for the implementation of the model rules for information reporting by digital platform operators created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Some Airbnb facts
A recent report prepared at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) indicates that by 2017 there were 14,000 retirement options in the country through this platform. For the same year it was estimated that 260,000 tourists had used it.The average rental for the properties was 23 days per year, which represented an average profit of $2,600 per year for the hosts.
This is clear from the Report Towards the Information and Knowledge Society 2022, prepared by the Information and Knowledge Society Institutional Program (Prosic).
Data from a study carried out by the economic analysis and forecast company Oxford Economics (paid for by Airbnb) concludes that 1 in 4 nights reserved on the platform correspond to local tourism.In addition, 94% of the hosts are residents, 4% live in the United States and 2% in other parts of the world.
The same study concludes that in 2021 guests who used the platform to stay spent $493 million on other tourism-related activities, such as entertainment, food, transportation, and shopping.
Measurements indicate that for every $10 spent on Airbnb accommodations in Costa Rica, tourists spent $24 on other activities.84% of these resources came from foreigners and 16% from Costa Ricans.According to the study, guest spending on these other items translates into the generation of 13,000 jobs such as restaurants or adventure sites.
Airbnb was born in San Francisco, United States, in 2007 and in 2008 the first announcement of a stay in Costa Rica was made, located in San Isidro de Heredia and which continues to provide the service.Currently 94% of the hosts are residents, 4% live in the United States and 2% in other parts of the world.
