The world is constantly evolving; nothing is static. Inventions are evident every day, and humanity is a constant witness to the launch of new products, initiatives, and exciting ventures that herald change.
These new developments nourish us, make us grow, motivate us, and become challenges that invite us to renew, reinvent, improve, and produce the changes that lead us to survival.
The real estate industry, a key sector of the economy, is constantly evolving. One of the most revolutionary and successful ideas of recent years is the creation of platforms specifically for short-term rentals.
This rental model has become a real boom worldwide, boosting investment and creating new business opportunities for real estate agents and for tourism in various countries.
The most successful, Airbnb, founded in 2008 in San Francisco, California, has become a successful tool that offers multiple options and alternatives for vacationers from all over the world who want to lower the costs of their stay, and enjoy their breaks from everyday life as if they were at home.
Airbnb has generated a very wide range with its particular platform of hosts, as it calls those who list properties on its platform, with a wide range of properties so that vacationers can choose according to their needs and budgets.
Connection and belonging are the key values promoted by its founders. “People feel increasingly disconnected from the world, and loneliness pervades our society. The opposite of loneliness is belonging: the feeling of a deep and genuine connection with a person, a place, or a community. It is the feeling of being 'at home.' The feeling of being known and loved. We are a community based on connection and belonging, and we will continue to design new ways to provide it,” its creators state in their mission statement.
For traditional businesses like hotels, this particular tool has represented a real challenge, not only because of the attractive prices of the model, but also because of the facilities it offers for groups and families who can share in the same environment and have their own space.
In the Dominican Republic, the Hotel and Tourism Association has expressed its dissatisfaction with the "unfair competition" that, in its opinion, the platform offers, and has advocated for the inclusion of taxes in the same way that hotels are taxed.
Last week, Tourism Minister David Collado spoke in favor of taxing Airbnb services, while the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) finalizes regulations that will soon be released so that services provided through the platform can begin to be taxed.
The truth is that Airbnb is growing every day, with more than four million hosts currently and with the potential to grow significantly, given the new features it is constantly adding to its portfolio. Therefore, hotels are forced to renew and rethink their offerings in order to compete with this venture that has revolutionized global real estate tourism.
