PAII
Sponsored Meeting at Mayhurst Inn with US Congress Representative David Brat, 7th
District, Virginia
23
June, 2015 – Subject “The Sharing Economy”
To: PAII Board of Directors and PAII Members
Submitted
By: Jack North, PAII, Board of
Directors, Mayhurst Inn, Orange, VA.
Attending: Representative
Dave Brat and two members of his staff, five local B&B Owners, other local
businesses leaders, Town of Orange and Orange County Government Officials, the
Chamber of Commerce, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) and the
press. It was an "eye opening" experience for many.
Most attendees had received a copy of the PAII Report on the
Federal Trade Commission Workshop on the “Sharing Economy” held in Washington
DC on 9 June, 2015.
The meeting opened with an introduction of attendees
followed by a quick review of the salient points from the Workshop. This generated follow-up and clarifying
remarks from several Innkeepers and the AHLA Representative (Troy Flanagan,
Vice President for State and Local Government Affairs). Their comments pointed out the stark
differences and inequalities between legal lodging establishments (hotels and
B&Bs) and some Airbnb, Homeaway and VRBO properties concerning Regulations,
Ordinances, Health and Safety, Insurance and Taxes. The potential risks to the public who are
seeking short term lodging, and who don’t realize that a non-legal rental
property may not have appropriate liability insurance and may not meet
building, fire, safety and health codes, were also discussed. The number of nearby Airbnb, VRBO and
Homeaway properties surprised many of the local government attendees, as did
the potential loss of tax and fee revenue.
The point that the various “rating sites (like TripAdvisor) cannot
simply replace government regulations (because they are not concerned with
guest safety or other legal/liability issues) was strongly emphasized
Representative Brat, while he is certainly opposed to more
Government regulations (and so is PAII), clearly indicated that he was an
advocate of ensuring that everyone, and every business, is equal in the eyes of
the law, and that it was obvious to him that there were significant inequities
and unfairness between legal accommodations and those that aren’t. He also recognized that many local
ordinances and regulations had, as their foundation, Federal Government Regulations,
and stated that he would look into those to see if any reduction or
modifications of those regulations was possible. He discussed, since Airbnb was providing 1099
and tax information about its member properties to the Federal Government, that
perhaps some of this information could be provided to the state governments if
they requested it.
I believe that the sheer size and scope of Airbnb ($23 or
$24 Billion Dollar Company with 25 million guests in one year) was a little
surprising to the Congressman, although it was obvious
that he knew of them (and Uber) and could see the value of the services they
offered (as does PAII). It was also
quite clear that he saw the unfairness of a situation when existing legal
businesses had to comply with a myriad of laws, regulations and taxes when
others did not.
YOUR PAII will follow up with Representative Brat and is in
the process of contacting other Senators and Representatives to inform them of
the benefits, challenges, and inequalities of the “Sharing Economy”, and to
encourage them to seek solutions that not only support innovation and overall
economic growth for all, but that do so in a manner that “does no harm” to
existing legitimate small and large business.
See you at the PAII Conference in Austin, TX, January, 2016!
Jack North
PAII, Board of Directors
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