SANDAKAN – Tourism players in Sabah have lauded the state government for considering a ban on private condominium units and residential homes being used as short-term rentals after tourists recently found a hidden camera inside a socket at an Airbnb property.
Kinabatangan Corridor of Life Tourism Operators’ Association president Alexander Yee said the ban should have been imposed before the pandemic, when tourism associations in Sabah pushed for the state government to take action on unregulated short-term rentals.
“If the government had taken action then, the matter might have been resolved by now. The government now has a shorter time frame while trying to implement holistic regulations.
“There is a risk to regulate without proper lead time since property developers now market some of their projects as having homestay potential. Strictly regulating this will mean that developers would lose this potential market segment and dampen the already slow property market.”
However, Yee said it is better late than never, and fully supports the Sabah government to impose regulations on short-term rentals.
Last Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister II cum State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam at a press conference in Kota Kinabalu said the ministry was looking at the possibility of restricting Airbnb from operating in condominiums and private housing areas.
He also advised tourists to opt for licensed homestays and hotels as they would be regulated and their services monitored under the ministry.
Most operators on the Airbnb platform are not registered under the local authority and are operating without a licence.
According to Yee, this is a huge problem as these operators are not provided for under public liability insurance, which subjects the people staying there to risks that would have been minimised in a registered hotel.
“There are other risks such as fire escape, health and hygiene, and now most recently privacy invasion. Moreover, the councils (local authority) are missing out on collecting the rightful tax for commercial properties since these are mainly residential properties.
“Regulate those already on the market and provide clear guidelines for those yet to be launched,” he told Scoop.
Meanwhile, Sandakan Tourism Association president C.K. Teo said hotel operators here are all for regulating unlicensed Airbnbs to ensure that all parties can play their roles to ensure the safety and quality of the hospitality services provided in the state.
“Hotels and homestays must maintain a certain service standard. For these unlicensed Airbnb operators, no one is really monitoring, and this could lead to bigger issues.
“Our tourism industry is only starting to recover now from the Covid-19 pandemic, and such an issue (hidden camera) (has occurred) which affects tourist confidence in our services. This is the last thing we need.” – September 30, 2023