The Cancun city council is preparing a new set of rules that will regulate private vacation rentals in the same manners as hotels, Riviera Maya News reports. The new regulations will be included in the modification of the Urban Development Program of the Cancun Population Center of Benito Juárez Municipality for the state.
Eduardo Mariscal de la Selva of the Association of Hotels of Cancun and Puerto Morelos (AHC) told Riviera Maya News that they are preparing the regulations, already working with councilors. Civil Protection and the Municipal Institute of Urban Development of the Municipality of Benito Juárez are also participating.
Mariscal de la Selva explained that the purpose of the regulations is for the safety of visitors. It is not for more tax collection, but to have a record of who the guests are and where the vacation rental sites are located. According to a census of Benito Juárez City Council, there are about 7,000 rooms that are rented to tourists and not regulated.
“It will be a new regulation that we would be making and it is not so much taxing the activity, but just regulating it,” he said.
Without regulations, there is a safety risk for tourists because there is no record of who is renting these spaces. During an emergency like a natural disaster, it is important to know the names of the guests and know how many there are to transfer them to the shelters.
According to the Ministry of Tourism in Quintana Roo, hotel occupancy is going down in destinations such as Puerto Morelos, Cancun, Cozumel, and Riviera Maya, compared with February of last year. However, the Cancun International Airport reports a rise in the arrival of passengers, which for the AHC is due to the demand for vacation rentals.
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