A South Coast-based host says regulation of Airbnb-style letting is largely positive, but questions how new rules will be policed.
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Attempting to stamp out party houses via a mandatory Code of Conduct is among a series of reforms to the short-term holiday letting industry announced by the state government on Tuesday.
Under a new ‘two strikes and you’re out’ policy, hosts or guests who commit two serious breaches of the code of conduct within two years will be banned for five years, and be listed on an exclusion register.
The Department of Fair Trading will be given new powers to police the online platforms and letting agents.
Anthony Houghton and partner let out suites at their property, Mt Hay Retreat at Berry, year-round via platforms such as Airbnb, HomeAway and their own website.
They reside on-site, and said the majority of guests to the couples retreat were from Sydney.
Mr Houghton, 45, and also president of the Berry Chamber of Commerce believed some form of regulation to address problematic properties was inevitable.
However, he sought further details regarding some of the changes.
“But there’s a lot of questions - who polices it, how do they police it and who pays for it?” he said.
“Then you might get neighbours make spurious complaints just because they don’t like it (short-term letting).
“I can understand that living in the city, where there’s lots of large strata buildings that have got issues because they weren’t rented out previously.
“But being in Berry and along the South Coast, this is not new. The only thing that's really changed is the way that people find these properties.
“It’s the same people looking for accommodation, it’s just a different way of doing it.”
Mr Houghton said they didn't typically encounter issues with guests partying, and don’t host weddings on-site.
“In the area as a whole, you do hear about the occasional issue, but it's certainly not regular or widespread,” he said.
Eacham Curry, HomeAway’s (formerly Stayz) director of corporate affairs said short-term rental accommodation is not only an important driver of economic growth and jobs for the Illawarra, but also adds crucial tourism accommodation capacity to the region.
“We will be working with local councils across the Illawarra and South Coast regions to ensure that short-term rental accommodation remains an important part of the tourism mix.
“To that end, we will be making the case to all local councils outside of Sydney that they grasp the opportunity of the sector and not set an arbitrary cap on short-term rental accommodation.
“Local restrictions on the availability of short-term rental accommodation will unnecessarily diminish the economic benefit that the short-term accommodation sector, drive up the cost of holiday accommodation, and send valuable tourism dollars to other parts of the state.”