Hostmaker: "Spain is missing the bus of the digital revolution"

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

"Simplistic solutions are applied to complex problems." An affirmation of the general manager of the operator of housing Hostmaker, Jaime de la Torre, with which it ditches the criticisms that fall on the rent of tourist flats, namely: rising prices, expulsion of the neighbors from the center of the cities, gentrification and, as a consequence, "tourismphobia".

"Tourist housing existed long before Airbnb. The eruption of these platforms has ordered and structured the offer, which has also been professionalized through operators such as Hostmaker," he says.

To attribute the gentrification of the neighborhoods to the tourist apartments "seems to me, to simplify a very complex question." The rise in prices, in his view, "has much more to do with the lack of housing in large cities like Barcelona and Madrid where there is no new construction." In this sense, adds "the impact of 10,000 tourist homes in a park of three million as it exists in Barcelona is imperceptible."

In a year, 2018, when the turnover of legal tourist use in Barcelona fell by 2.9% over the previous year according to the figures of the Association of Tourist Apartments of Barcelona (Apartur), "we are growing at 250% and offer 70% more performance to owners than traditional rental."

Barcelona is the second most important market in the portfolio of Hostmaker, only behind London

Energetic, an executive with a track record that includes Airbnb and Amazon, places Barcelona in the center of the company's operation, where last year managed to occupy the stock market of 250 flats that manage 84%, above the average of 77.95% in the city that publishes Apartur.

Halfway between the owner - usually listed joint-stock companies (socimis), family offices and private investors with several properties - Hostmaker starts its fourth year of operation in Spain, where it has doubled the number of homes it manages.

Regulation of the sector

Barcelona is, for the company, the second most important destination on a global level (behind London, where around 1,500 properties are managed).

Their specialization is the premium segment: houses with high standards of quality, design and comfort, that allow to obtain greater profitability and where, as they have identified, "the greatest potential of growth of demand." Even more so if we take into account that "in three or four years there will be a new major realignment" that, in his opinion, will punish the properties of lower quality.

Stayy with Hostmaker opens in Spain with a portfolio of 250 homes in Barcelona and Madrid.

Hostmaker specializes in premium segment tourist homes.

In Madrid, Hostmaker prefers to wait: the announcement of a regulation that "will virtually eliminate 100% of the tourist floors that can be offered" makes them cautious. "This is a retrograde proposal," points out La Torre.

A measure that, in his opinion, will result in the concentration of accommodation in the hands of fewer actors, so that "no redistribution of wealth." In short, "it does not help the citizen who has invested and does not help to promote the Madrid destination since you can not impose the offer but it is the traveler who demands a service."

Hostmaker bets on the regulation of licenses in the tourist market and for the professionalization of the service

Yes, it defends that the tourist rental must be regulated. Specifically, with recipes that allow freedom to rent the usual housing without restriction for a maximum of 100-120 days a year, in parallel to licenses for homes that are dedicated to rent throughout the year, and that must be in line with the number of housing in the market, the level of demand and its geographical distribution.

Demonstration of the traveler

He acknowledges that travelers can cause inconvenience to neighbors, but he calls it "the type of traveler". In this sense, it says "problematic tourism is not going to Monte Carlo, it goes to Magaluf."

And that leads to another reflection: "It is up to the municipalities to raise the level of tourism through active policies, such as the application of fees or licensing of activity for certain businesses.

"It is up to the municipalities to raise the level of tourism through active policies, such as the application of fees or licensing of activity for certain businesses."

Operators like Hostmaker, he points out, are betting on attracting higher-quality, premium tourism "which Barcelona and Madrid deserve," but it is up to the administrations to raise the quality of destinations. And as an example, the mass arrival of cruise passengers and their impact in Barcelona, ​​the multiplication of keepers or the mojitos street vending.

And, why, if the objective of these tourist companies is to raise the quality of the tourist society sees them as enemies? For de la Torre the answer is clear: "the administration has to stop demonizing the traveler.

We should bet on a welcome traveler instead of tourists go home."

Painted against tourists in Turó de la Rovira

For this reason he demands an immediate change of discourse on the part of the administration, especially in Barcelona. "In a country where 12% of GDP comes from tourism, there must be policies to integrate the traveler into the urban fabric and not reject the tourist.

"Spain already lost the train of the industrial revolution and is going to lose the one of the digital revolution"

Losing the train of the digital revolution

For this executive, the administrations lack long-term vision. Conflicts such as taxi and VTC, the freezing of tourist home licenses and concessions to hotels, the so-called Google rate or the absence of support for entrepreneurship will have a clear consequence: "Spain has already lost the train of the industrial revolution and is going to lose the digital revolution."

De la Torre advocates regulation "with head" and for the collaboration between companies and administrations. In this sense, it says "operators and platforms are open to dialogue but we find an administrative wall."

Nevertheless, it still has expectations of improvement. Among its concrete proposals to the consistory of Ada Colau is the possibility of collecting and paying the tourist tax of its hosts, "a very useful tool to control the flows of the tourism and to raise its quality and that, at the same time, are income that the city council should reverse in improvements for the neighborhoods and the city, from improving equipment to lowering municipal taxes."

And why not? "A lot of vision is missing in the long term."

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

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