Guest houses will be settled by rooms – Kommersant
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A new version of the regulation of the work of guest houses can bring such objects out of the shadows, occupying up to 10% of the accommodation market. The bill, which is being finalized by the Ministry of Economy, may be supplemented by a rule on the mandatory assignment of unique numbers to guest houses for use when booking, as well as a minimum set of requirements for objects. The current lack of quality standards has led to a situation where tour operators avoid working with guest houses, which, for example, in the Krasnodar Territory and the Kaliningrad Region account for up to 13% of tourist demand.
The regulatory measures formulated in the draft law on tourist accommodation have been taken into account in the drafting of the draft law on the regulation of guest houses. This is stated in the response of the Ministry of Economy to the appeal of a member of the public council of the tourism national project Alexei Kozhevnikov and co-chairman of the League of Small Hotels, Hostels and Tourist Housing Natalia Petrovskaya. Kommersant has a copy of the answer. The ministry did not specify the list of measures, noting that the bill will be posted for discussion after finalization.
The tourist housing bill provided for the assignment of short-term rental properties with unique numbers that must be indicated on booking services. The document was submitted to the State Duma in 2019, but its adoption was postponed. Aleksey Kozhevnikov explained to Kommersant that the Ministry of Economy is probably planning to include a rule on assigning unique numbers to the draft law on guest houses. Natalya Petrovskaya adds that it is also planned to develop a by-law with a minimum set of requirements for guest houses. It is the last moment that the general director of the Dolphin tour operator Sergey Romashkin considers important for tourists, pointing out that now there is no control over guest houses, which is why tour operators avoid working with such objects.
The draft law on guest houses in Russia has been actively discussed since April 2021. The corresponding proposals were then instructed to prepare by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Many of these facilities have been out of the legal field since October 1, 2019, when amendments to the Housing Code came into force, restricting the provision of services in residential premises. Since then, several versions of the bill have been discussed, but they have not received unequivocal support in the market. The latter option was considered in March by a working group under the government commission on tourism, where experts and market participants again commented. Kommersant also has a copy of the protocol.
Natalya Petrovskaya says that until 2019, guest houses were divided into “shady” objects and those that are registered as hotels, located in individual residential buildings. But now the second way for entrepreneurs is closed. According to the expert, it remains only to conclude employment contracts with all guests. The guests themselves cannot be sure that the owner rents the room to them, she adds. The introduction of unique numbers, according to Ms. Petrovskaya, will solve the problem and lead to the registration of all entrepreneurs who will be responsible for services, comply with sanitary and tax laws, etc.
According to Marina Goncharenko, executive director of Bronevik.com, guest houses now account for 8% of all objects registered on the platform. More than a third of accommodation facilities that connected to the service in April operate in this format, but the segment is characterized by high rotation. “The facilities are constantly opening and closing depending on the season,” she notes. According to Bronevik.com, in April 2023, guest houses accounted for 6% of all nights booked by users, compared to 4% in the same period last year. As Ms. Goncharenko notes, the format occupies a large share – about 13% – in the structure of demand in the Krasnodar Territory, Kaliningrad, North Ossetia, Karelia and Altai.
Alexey Kozhevnikov believes that the approval of the practice of assigning unique numbers to guest houses will allow in the future to extend the norm to short-term rentals. Renting so objects also partially found themselves in the gray zone after the adoption of amendments to the Housing Code. Recently, the idea of assigning unique identification numbers to topics was supported by a working group of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (see Kommersant of April 18).
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