Airbnb is a platform where people can offer a room at their house, an annex or an entire apartment for rent and it is very attractive among travelers because it is often a cheaper choice than hotels.
This online community is also present in Peru and it might be causing some of the evident contraction of three and four-star hotels in the country, according to El Comercio.
The Tourism Observatory of the San Martin de Porres University (USMP) said that the demand for three and four-star hotels contracted by 30% in the last year, as a result of the platforms offering temporary housing, among which Airbnb stands out among others.
“Moreover, according to the same platform, Lima is the third city in Latin America with the highest rentals for this type of service in Latin America”, said Luis Sicheri, an expert in tourism.
In Cusco, hotel reservations have dropped between 10% and 20%, compared to the regular rate of three or four-star hotels and one of the reasons Airbnb offers competitive prices is because regular people do not have to pay the taxes hotel chains are subject to. “It is a kind of unfair competition”, José Marcano, director of the aforementioned observatory told El Comercio.
“Only in Lima, Airbnb properties increased from 2,139 to 14,665 between April 2015 and September 2018, a period in which they would have generated an average of $55 million US dollars in revenues”, El Comercio wrote.
