Starwood Hotels founder says ‘unions will take care’ of Airbnb regulation
Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht told Bloomberg Financial News that hotels are working harder to prevent having to compete with Airbnb for business.
He said: “It’s undeniable that these industries are changing the landscape. I think hotel companies are working hard now to make their product not just a commodity or they’re going to get disintermediated by Airbnb and guys like that.”
“What we want in the lodging industry is a fair playing field,” he said.
“We want them to pay the same occupancy taxes and sales taxes that guests in our hotels have to pay. That’s absolutely required. That is one of the big benefits Airbnb has, that they don’t pay those taxes. In cities like New York it’s a 20% load. So that’s not fair. And the unions will take care of that for us. Because they will argue — and they’re right — that it will hurt a lot of union jobs all over the country.”
Mr Sternlicht’s comment come on the heels of global calls for sharing economy regulation. After successfully campaigning against OTA price-parity in France, French hoteliers announced last week that they will be “going to go harder” against Airbnb in the call for increased regulation.
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