Room aggregators to face legal troubles in the country

Online room aggregators such as OYO and Airbnb are expected to face legal troubles for their operations in the country as the ministry of tourism is in discussions on guidelines for accrediting online platforms that have homestay owners and hotels registered with them. If the guidelines are imposed, then India will join US, France, Germany, Singapore and other countries to regularize the players to help ensure safety, security and service standards. The lobby group have been calling for uniformity in regulations and tax structures between hotels and online aggregators. Their argument is that while it takes organized hotel chains to get 42 licenses to start a new property, there is no license requirement in unregulated sector.

Suman Billa, Joint Secretary Ministry of Tourism, said that “There is a question of regulating aggregators. An aggregator is anybody with a website and there is a possibility that a couple of companies could spoil the market if trust is broken. We need to accredit aggregators. So we have set up a committee and we are considering setting benchmarks and guidelines at two levels: for owner-partners and aggregators. We have a set of guidelines for homestays and bed and breakfast options and states have their own guidelines as well. Now we are planning to create a single set of uniform guidelines across the country. There could be several service issues. There needs to be a certain level of screening and an element of trust.”