Hotels, resorts feeling the pinch of Airbnb

CEBU, Philippines —  The Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) is calling anew on the government authorities, specifically the Department of Tourism and local government units (LGUs) to seriously look into Airbnb.

According to HRRAC president Carlo Suarez, the rising number of Airbnb facilities is already hurting the hotel sector, and this needs an intervention from the government, in terms of regulations.

“We felt the decrease in number [of bookings] in 2019,” said Suarez adding that if this trend will continue, Cebu’s hospitality sector expects another challenge starting 2020.

Earlier, HRRAC formalized its request to the government through DOT to craft proper regulations on the airbnb service to level the playing field.

“Airbnb is eating the market of the hotels,” admitted Suarez.

Suarez is apprehensive that the usual fully-booked Christmas and Sinulog seasons will be adversely affected this time, as decline of hotel bookings was noted last year.

“We hope that that DOT and the LGUs to look into this as the impact is negatively affecting hotels and resort all over Cebu,” Suarez said.

“We have experienced a decrease in room occupancy this year which we believe is in part due to a surging number of condos and apartments being offered through AirBnb in Cebu,” he added.

At present, accommodation facilities being accredited by the DOT include hotels, resorts, apartment hotels, pension houses, motels, tourist inns and homestays.

Airbnb had 12 million guests checked into an Airbnb listing in off-the-beaten-track destinations in Asia-Pacific in the past year, a 70 percent growth rate year-over-year.

Currently, there are almost 500,000 Airbnb listings in these destinations.

Airbnb’s community of hospitality entrepreneurs in these atypical destinations collectively earned nearly $1 billion through hosting on Airbnb in 2018.