Congress approved the “mico” that would ban rentals and accommodations like Airbnb in Colombia

Green Party House Representative Mauricio Toro on Saturday denounced that an article of the horizontal property law was approved in Colombian Congress that would ban the accommodation and rental of residences in the country such as those promoted on the digital Airbnb platform.

During a session in the House of Representatives which brings forward the passage of several bills as the term of the legislature ends tomorrow, what the opposition parliamentarian called an “orangutan” was approved.

“The Colombian House of Representatives has approved an orangutan in horizontal property law, which will allow the ban on Airbnb-type rentals and accommodations. The private property rights of thousands of citizens are violated. The power of the big hoteliers has been felt today in Congress “, said Congressman Mauricio Toro.

In this sense, he pointed out that with this article, private property is violated, and the right of citizens to rent their homes, with their resources and property, with the intention of generating income, to an extent that had already been regulated in Tourism Law.

“With this article, you are prohibiting an activity that you yourself have regulated. I have the right to own my private property and to rent it out because the law allows it. I do not have to submit my right to use my tax-paying property to an outside group that determines whether or not I can do so.», Assured the representative during the session in Congress.

In turn, he indicated that this article seemed to have been written by the Colombian Hotel and Tourism Association (Cotelco), which it accused of being the one who had opposed the permanence of these platforms of short-term rental and that it had engaged lobbyists with the intention of putting items that benefit them.

“Here it seems that they were defending the rights of “good people”, the expression which has become so fashionable in these protests.. The rights of the people of stratum six and apartments of billions, ”concluded the representative.

This is what the law on tourism provides for platforms like Airbnb in Colombia.

Last Thursday, December 31, 2020, President Iván Duque Márquez sanctioned the recently approved tourism law, which is seen by the government as a tool for the economic reactivation of a sector heavily affected by the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic -19.

The new law, includes some points on the new legal aspects that operators of digital platforms providing tourism services must now comply with, like Booking the Airbnb.

“On the issue of platforms, the sanctioned law balances the field with clear rules of the game for all, where there is no legal vacuum that favors certain providers over others”, assured the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in its web portal.

So, the ministry underlined that with this law, the platforms, like other providers of tourist services, “They must have the National Tourism Register (RNT) and those who advertise their services through them must also have this requirement, ie have the RNT. This registration is free and online ”.

In turn, the platforms must, according to article 38 of the Law on Tourism, “Activate the necessary fields for the tourist service provider using the platform to report the services offered and the conditions, as well as the confirmation and cancellation policies”.

The document specifies that said information “viewable by anyone who has purchased a product in order to present a complaint or claim and must be provided to the competent authority when requested ”.

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