Cancun's hoteliers blame vacation rentals for drop in profit

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Despite the problems faced by the state of Quintana Roo due to the massive recalling of sargasso, hoteliers insist that the main drawback is the holiday rent that involves "unfair competition for those who do pay taxes," said Roberto Cintron, owner of the Hotel Association of Cancun and Puerto Morelos.

Cintron has called the issue of sargassum "very serious", although he considers that the recale of this seaweed is another factor facing the sector. In his opinion, the main problem is the tourist rental, which does not stop growing and that suppose an unfair competition. In this regard, the president recalled that the general occupation in the state has fallen between 4.5% and 5%. "Considering the 104 thousand rooms, they are very many rooms less, 5 thousand," he indicated.

This has caused a reduction in rates of between 15% and 25% less to gain in occupancy. Cintrón has pointed out that this loss must be added to the cost of having crews of workers cleaning the sargasso beaches. In fact, he stressed that a hotel with 2.4 kilometers of beach front spends an average of 8 million pesos a month in cleaning, amount of more than 54 million pesos that will be available to the Federal Government this year for sargassum, according to the report by Jorge Castro.

Although for the employer, what worsens this situation is vacation rental. "The flights arrive, but they do not stay in the hotel offer, which is very serious," he stressed.

Businessmen have already asked on more than one occasion to regulate digital hosting applications such as Airbnb, which would serve to obtain some of the necessary resources for tourist advertising, as reported by REPORTUR.mx

However, such is the fall in occupancy that some hoteliers offer part of their rooms in the Airbnb mode in order to counteract the descent that occurs in the destination and that causes the despair of his guild.

This vacation rental model is gaining traction in the area. Therefore, some construction companies in Mexico are developing new projects to build hotels that mimic the Airbnb model as an alternative to the current vacation model.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Join us November 12-15 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Madrid 2019.