Accommodation provider Airbnb is advocating for minimal regulation of most of the properties on its website, arguing a heavy-handed approach would act as a handbrake on tourism growth in Western Australia.
Airbnb executives made the comments during hearings by the WA Parliament's Economics and Industry Standing Committee into regulation of short-stay accommodation in the state.
They told committee members their business model helped host families make ends meet, made travel more affordable, created local jobs and increased tourism to WA — often in areas that normally had few visitors.
It was in part a rebuttal to the Tourism Council of WA, which last week gave evidence that Airbnb, and similar businesses, were costing the state's economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year because fewer regulations meant properties on those sites were cheaper than hotels.
It called for a ban on residential homes or apartments being listed on sites like Airbnb if the owner did not live there, and for a state register of all other short-stay accommodation, with requirements to meet basic standards.
The council condemned what it called "an uneven playing field".
Airbnb today said it backed "fair and progressive" rules, with only "light touch" regulations for the majority of its hosts, who shared the home in which they lived.
The company's head of public policy, Brent Thomas, proposed uniform statewide rules and a system of "sliding regulation", depending on the nature of the property.
"The regulation you need for a two-bedroom home here in WA should be very different from the sort of regulation you need for a 200-bedroom international hotel," Mr Thomas said.
"The way you regulate a car is different from the way you regulate a semi-trailer."
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