The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, approved on first reading a proposed ordinance encouraging the establishment of an association of Airbnbs and providing guidelines for the accreditation of local Airbnbs by the City Tourism and Special Events Office as a mechanism to maintain quality tourism standards for Airbnbs in the city.
Under the proposed ordinance, registered and operating Airbnbs are mandated to associate themselves into the Association of Baguio Airbnbs (ABA) or any other name their officers or member-hosts would prefer with their respective Airbnbs subjected to the accreditation of the City Tourism and Special Events Office of the City Administrator’s Office into 1-star up to 5-start statuses, depending on the amenities each of the Airbnbs provide and the criteria that the committee will impose.
The ordinance mandated the creation of a City Airbnb Coordinating Council to oversee the operation of local Airbnbs, to promote and provide benefits and support for the proliferation of their business and to outline the implementing rules and regulations as may be necessitated by the measure.
The council shall be chaired by the City Mayor or his duly authorized representative and co-chaired by the Chairperson of the Committee on Tourism, Special Events, Parks and Playgrounds. The City Administrator shall serve as the action officer while the City Tourism and Special Events Office will serve as the Secretariat. The members shall be the Baguio Airbnb hosts and other members as may be necessary.
While the ordinance does not penalize Airbnb hosts who refuse to ally themselves to the association, nor does it compel them to do so, but rather to encourage them, non-member Airbnbs will miss out on the benefits the association aims to provide, and may not be able to take advantage of the promotions and incentives the city and the ordinance intends to achieve.
The ordinance pointed out that inviting existing and candidate Airbnb hosts to associate themselves and be accredited by the City Tourism and Special Events Office echoes Section 123 of the Tourism Act of 2009 which provides that the government shall develop a system to enhance the value of accreditation among primary and secondary tourism enterprises and reiterates that only accredited enterprises shall be beneficiaries of promotional training and other programs of the department and its attached agencies and corporations.
Republic Act (RA) 9593, otherwise known as the Tourism Act of 2009, declares that tourism is an indispensable element of the national economy which must be harnessed to generate investment and employment and thereby seeks to encourage competition in the tourism industry and maximize consumer choice by enhancing their continued viability of the retail travel industry and independent tour operation industry.
