Dubai Tourism signs agreement with Airbnb

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing announced on Tuesday it had signed an agreement with online rental site Airbnb to promote responsible hosting in the emirate.

The memorandum of understanding follows uncertainty surrounding the legal status of Airbnb in the city after Dubai Tourism unveiled new holiday home legislation this year.

Read: Dubai reveals new holiday home regulation

Adjustments to the regulation last month made obtaining a holiday home licence easier for property owners and allowed renters to apply for short-term permits to host guests with the agreement of their landlord.

Read: Dubai renters now able to apply for holiday home permit

Under today’s agreement, Airbnb will cooperate with Dubai Tourism to prevent breaches of the holiday home regulation by informing members of the rules via a unique hosting page on its website and regular emails.

The company will also short anonymised data about short term rental hosts and the two will explore joint marketing and promotional opportunities.

There are almost 3,500 Airbnb listings in Dubai, double then number last year, according to DTCM. In addition the number of guests choosing Airbnb in the emirate has doubled.

“In keeping with global demand trends and a highly digitised market place for key enablers of tourism infrastructure, we are pleased to partner with Airbnb, a pioneer in this space, to help promote diverse accommodation options to our visitors in a safe, secure and controlled manner,” said Dubai Tourism director general Helal Saeed Almarri.

“This not only lets us be more competitive as a tourism destination but also speaks to our ability as government to drive demand led policy making and embrace innovation to further our proposition.”

Airbnb’s EMEA managing director Olivier Gremillon said the move was good news for Dubai and would help grow and diversify tourism.

“This is just the start of our partnership and we look forward to the future and the many opportunities it holds for travellers,” he said.