Today’s news that hotels are booked solid from now for the 50th Carnival season in the second half of April (see related story) may be considered mostly good and a bit bad. It’s obviously great that so many persons want to come celebrate the annual revelry’s “golden edition,” but at the same time regrettable that the Dutch side’s room inventory remains less than 70 per cent of pre-Hurricane Irma levels, while the Northern half of the island is hardly doing better in this regard.
St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) says it has started referring guests to villa rentals and Airbnb properties. This also creates opportunities for residents with the necessary space to make a welcome extra buck, as was the case during the recent Heineken Regatta and SXM Music Festival.
In fact, government ought to waste no time in concluding formal agreements with Airbnb, Home Away from Home and other, similar services to regulate their local activities and collect taxes on its behalf. This will liberate authorities from having to control the income involved for fiscal purposes, a sheer impossible task as the botched effort to implement a condo tax already proved.
Many cities restrict these short-term vacation rentals to a maximum number of weeks or months per year to prevent regular housing from being permanently used as visitor accommodations, limit the nuisance for surrounding residents and/or protect the existing hospitality industry. The international providers keep records, which should make verification relatively easy.
As a destination with a one-pillar tourism economy, this aspect of the so-called “sharing economy” is not something to spend too long studying on. The reality is that people are still going to do it and possibly evade the taxes concerned.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
