The Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) will not allow private entities in the country to rent out private apartments and homes as tourist accommodations without TCB’s licence. According to the TCB, such practices contradict with the High Value, Low Volume tourism policy which affects licensed tourist hoteliers in the country.
Providing any accommodation informally is much cheaper for a tourist than going to certified hotels. This, TCB says impacts promoting Bhutan as an exclusive high end tourist destination. Moreover, it also adversely affects licensed tourist hotels in the country by reducing its occupancy. Only 3 star and above rated hotels are certified by TCB for catering to tourists.
“Legally and formally, no tourists should be staying in any other accommodations besides this. Another rule that supports our objection to this informal accommodation to tourists is as per the rule of trade wherein it says all businesses in Bhutan should be operated with a valid license,” Dorji Dhradrul, Director General, TCB, said.
To address the issue, the TCB held its second round of meeting with the relevant stakeholders. The meeting recommended the council to formally write to the concerned platforms or social sites offering informal accommodations.
“For example, Airbnb is one platform wherein tourists can book accommodations in Bhutan through these platforms. We are actually in the process of writing to Airbnb basically saying that any property that wants to register in their platform should have a certificate from TCB saying that the property is registered with TCB in Bhutan,” He added.
If found operating such businesses even after notifying the general public, the TCB said a team from the Tourism Council of Bhutan will investigate the issue first and will be dealt accordingly.
Meanwhile, the TCB is also looking at the classification of hotels in the country to curb such issues. The issue has come to the stakeholders’ notice a few years ago. However, the council start working on it only recently. It was found that there are about 270 Bhutanese properties registered under Airbnb. Airbnb is an online marketplace which lets people rent out their properties or rooms to guests.
