Only 20% of the AIRBNB’s in San Miguel de Allende have paid their fees

Published July 24th, 2021

About 300 Airbnb service providers, which represent 20% of the more than 1,500 that are in San Miguel de Allende, have paid the municipality the 10,000 pesos per year to operate and have registered in the registry established in the Law of Lodging by Digital Platforms, but this is far from the success that is required since there are no records in other municipalities, acknowledged the PAN deputy, Miguel Angel Salim Alle.

He mentioned that, due to the pandemic, the agreement between the Ministry of Finance, Investment and Administration has not been signed to have the register of those who are registered in various digital platforms of lodging, in order to be able to charge them the lodging tax to achieve an ‘even floor’ with the hoteliers in the entity.

“In that, we have been stuck because due to the pandemic issue, this year we are just regularizing, we are just starting to take up these issues, face-to-face meetings have to be held, agreements have to be made, agreements have to be signed, then we are taking up the issue to make an agreement between the State government with the digital platforms, that is the first step, and the second step is that all those who are on these platforms are registered in the state registry”.

For this reason, he said, the law approved in the current legislature has not been put into operation as desired.

He reiterated that San Miguel de Allende is the only municipality where so far, providers of this service have been registered; and he recalled that the State Congress approved in the Revenue Law of the municipality that digital platforms must pay 10 thousand pesos per year in order to obtain the permit to operate.

“The only one that has been regulating this issue has been San Miguel de Allende, but it has not been with the success that is required, because we have not reached a general agreement of the State with the Ministry of Finance (…) in San Miguel de Allende has advanced by 20% only, the other municipalities I am not aware that they have made any progress; in San Miguel de Allende there are about 2 thousand 500 rooms and according to the Hotel Association of San Miguel there are about a thousand 500 Airbnb outlets”.

Finally, the also president of the Economic and Social Development Commission assured that during the remainder of the legislature they will work to get said agreement, which will be followed up in the next legislative session of which he will also be a member since he has been elected consecutively, “we have not taken our finger off the ball”.