Mexico City forms committee to regulate rental platforms
Mexico: The Ministry of Tourism in Mexico City, known as Sectur CDMX, is making its first steps to regulate home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb within the municipality.
Sectur CDMX head Carlos Mackinlay formed a committee back in October to address the topic of alternative accommodations for tourists in the city, deeming them to threaten Mexico City’s traditional hotels market.
According to the NITU.mx website, CDMX officials, hotel executives, local legislators and Airbnb representatives have begun discussions to collaborate on a formal model to regulate such businesses.
Mackinlay and Ana Patricia Báez, president of the Mexico City Congress Tourism Commission, met for the first time on Tuesday 18 February with Luis Barrios, general director of Hoteles City Express and former president of the National Association of Hotel Chains [ANCH], and Jorge Balderrama, public policy manager of Airbnb.
Sectur CDMX estimates that more than one million tourists stayed in short-term rental accommodation in Mexico City in 2019, most notably in districts such as Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo and Benito. The city also recently became the country’s first destination to impose a lodging tax on rental stays.
As well as taking into account economic considerations, Mackinlay is proposing a new regulatory framework which would also apply to other key social issues, including civil protection, risk prevention and structural safety parameters.
Airbnb’s Balderrama pledged his support for the committee’s work moving forward in crafting “fair and successful” regulations to eliminate bad practices within the alternative accommodations space.
