The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) urged the government to abolish the RM10 per room per night tourism tax and regulate Airbnb to level the playing field for all stakeholders in the industry.
MAH President Cheah Swee Hee said the abolition of the tourism tax and regulation of Airbnb were among the issues discussed during a meeting with the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) in Menara Ilham, reported the News Straits Times.
“Yes, we discussed the tourism tax. We got to find a solution to that. It has to be fair to everybody, because at the moment with a flat rate, we are not encouraging long stay because you are charging customers every night. So, they (hoteliers) are finding a solution to that,” he said.
“The best is to abolish it. That would be more attractive to the tourist, but of course, whatever said and done, they will have to discuss the issue.”
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MAH and CEP also discussed minimum wage as well as unlicensed hotels within the country, reported The Edge.
“We discussed about connectivity and how to bring in high spending tourists. The other one is the minimum wage. The hotel sector is very unique, we already have the service charge as part of staff income, but because of the (minimum wage) regulations that mention basic salary, it makes the income (earned) by people (working) in the hotel sector seem to be very little, but in actual fact, their service charge is very high, it can be up to RM550 multiply by six points and the service charge can be up to RM3,000,” said Cheah.
“We also discussed about unlicensed hotels like Airbnb. We have to have the right regulation for it. We cannot discount any business model in any industry, but we need the regulation so that we can have a fair playing ground for everybody.”
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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