Accommodation booking platform AirBnB is willing to collect the 50c a night tourist tax from its hosts, one of various measures being discussed with the Malta Tourism Authority, according to its public policy manager Alessandro Tommasi.

AirBnB has over 350 agreements across the world where it collects tourism tax.

“We have over 350 agreements over the world where we collect tourism tax. This is a great opportunity for cities to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes. We have no agreement on this with Malta yet, but we do it elsewhere and we’re happy to explore this opportunity here as well,” he said.

Mr Tommasi was in Malta as a speaker at a seminar entitled “Evolving landscape of Boutique Hotels and Rental Properties in Malta” organised by property management company Casa Rooms.

While in Malta, he held meetings with the authority and other officials – the first for a considerable time – saying that cooperation between AirBnB and the government was “progressively improving”.

AirBnB is, like many other disruptors, loved and hated in equal measure and while it has – in his words – “democratised” travel, more traditional providers bound by regulation and licensing requirements complain about what they see as unfair competition.

This is by no means limited to Malta and one way to counter this is to engage with local authorities, Mr Tommasi said, explaining that collecting the tax, as licensed collective establishments do, was one way to do so.

The impact of AirBnB has been rapid and substantial.

Only a decade after it was launched, it already has 6,800 listings in Malta – although some properties might be listed in various ways, for individual rooms as well as for the whole unit.

This is a great opportunity for cities to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes

This worked out to 210,000 guests in 2017, more than 10 per cent of all tourists visiting the island. And Mr Tommasi insisted that the hosts’ gain was not the licensed operators’ loss: one of every three who came to Malta said in an AirBnB survey that they would not have come had it not been for the platform.

“Tourism is growing so fast at a European and global level and the pie is getting bigger. It is not a game where one wins and one loses.

“There is a huge opportunity for local economies around the world to embrace tourism – in a responsible way. It can be a great opportunity but policymakers can really make a difference in finding the right balance with regards to how much tourism they want, and what kind of tourism they want.

“Cooperation with platforms is a powerful tool when it comes to improving their policies.”

The sharing economy is based on the idea of using existing – underused – resources rather than building new. It also brings in revenue to those who would otherwise not benefit from the tourism industry, just as the ability to host English-language students did.

AirBnB calculated that the average listing in Malta makes around €5,100 a year, “valuable extra income for a family, helping them to make ends meet”, he pointed out.

Apart from the lack of regulation, as with host families, one of the most common complaints from traditional operators is that they probably do not declare their earnings, another form of unfair competition.

Mr Tommasi was sympathetic but said this was unlikely.

“It is not the first time players already on the market complain about newcomers. In many cases, the legislation for old or traditional operators does not fit for newcomers or for those who share their apartments on an occasional basis,” he said.

“Maybe Malta is a bit different to the rest of Europe as it is already so dedicated to tourism and to hosting students. So the regulation is streamlined in a way.

“And there is a need for those who are not tourism professionals but just regular families making extra income to become more familiar with the regulations.”

Asked about AirBnB collaboration with tax authorities, he said that since tax systems vary so much and since they operate in 65,000 cities in 191 countries, it was very difficult to customise the platform to meet the needs of each country.

But, Mr Tommasi explained, that the perception of rampant fiscal evasion was not accurate.

“We come from a time where the digital era has been perceived as one where you go online and no rules apply,” he said.

“But the opposite applies with the sharing economy. Listings are much more visible on AirBnB – and payments can only be done via credit card or e-payments – no cash is allowed – meaning that there are ways for the authorities to keep track. It is actually a lot more transparent than the cash transactions of the past.”