BARBADIANS ENGAGED in the shared accommodation business must pay their fair share of taxes.
Insisting on this, chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA), Rudy Grant, yesterday repeated his position that those Barbadian entities operating through online accommodation providers such as Airbnb should be made to operate on “a level playing field”.
He also again called for mandatory registration of such facilities.
“I believe that the issue is broader than Airbnb. The truth is that there are a number of other entities that are also providing accommodation that are not registered,” Grant said, adding, “we at the BHTA believe very strongly that there needs to be regulation for all of those entities that are providing accommodation for visitors.”
While he had no problem with hosts offering accommodation for just one week in an entire year, Grant observed there were other people consistently providing accommodation to visitors. “We do have a concern in relation to brand Barbados.
“We have to ensure that the appropriate standards are in place to properly regulate this very important industry; we have to ensure the persons who are providing accommodation services are adhering to certain minimum standards.”
