Portugal’s national association for hoteliers has long complained that the illicit ‘grey’ market for tourist beds is damaging its trade and the association was the driving force behind government moves to regulate this Alojamento Local sector.
The hoteliers today claimed there are 350,000 tourist beds available in Portugal of which 192,000 are provided by hotels and hostels and the rest, 158,000, via private rentals registered on the national ‘Alojamento Local’ registry.
The assumption that the Alojamento Local register of properties is full and up to date is a leap too far for registered AL property owners who know these figures are way off the mark.
Far from the hoteliers’ estimate that there are 158,000 AL properties already registered, trade sources say there are 120,000 private properties that should be registered, but around 80% are not.
The total number of AL licenses issued as at 23rd June, 2016 is just 29,335 with some adjustment needed to make them accurate.
“We have to make the following corrections: about 5,000 licenses are duplicate or cover identical premises, there are about 2,000 ‘mistakes’ in the official list meaning there are about 22,335 properties correctly licensed,” commented one AL license holder, adding that “after the new law in 2014, exactly one year later there were about 15,000 licensed properties - about 12% of the total.”
Citing official lethargy and a poorly constructed set of regulations, our source said that “nobody in this country since that time was interested in the matter and the AL operation came practically to a standstill. After 2 years now, it might be possible to estimate the number of licences up to about 20,000 and as such we may estimate the number of properly licensed properties is somewhere around 18,60% of total.”
Finally, “All other figures are pure speculation and lots of wishful thinking and proves of course the total incompetence of the system of collecting and divulging the tourist board figures.”
Certainly the various authorities really do not appear interested in policing the AL system. This includes local councils, ASAE and the tourist boards. This, combined with hugely misleading ‘official’ figures being released by tha national hotels association means that clarity is as far away as ever.
Our owner of fully licensed AL properties commented further,
“The only person that is still very upset with this licensing matter is Elidérico Viegas, the president of AHETA (the Agarve hoteliers association) who shouts every day from his hotel roofs how big the competition from the private accommodation sector is for his hotels and resorts.
“In a way he is right: the illegal beds effectively harm and disturb the legal business, not only because they do not pay IRS, IVA or social security, but they may not comply with hygiene rules, security rules, and courtesy and professionalism standards.
“As the number of private beds is about equal to the number of AHETA beds, Sr Viegas has reason to be upset but all legal and licensed AL property owners are even more upset as their illegal ‘grey market’ counterparts are killing and ruining the business."
So why are the hoteliers overstating the compliance figures for Alojamento Local properties?
The 2014 Alojamento Local scheme was introduced by the then Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes who predicted a large number of applications by property owners wishing to become legal, such were the threats for non-compliance.
His scheme has bombed, to the extent that the current Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, said in January this year that she would have to change the Alojamento Local rules as she realises that many are "hard to understand" and that adjustments to the current laws need to be made.
No changes yet have been made by Godonho and the AL scheme, unless radically rethought and rebranded, will remain the preserve of those concerned at the prospect at being caught out and fined, or quite rightly worried that a holiday renter has a bad accident at their property.
Alojamento Local compliance in the vast majority of cases is not complicated and the tax advantages, if used to the full, make compliance cost-effective.
In the meantime, the national hoteliers' association president needs to clarify his statements on the Alojamento Local market with respect to the number of correctly registered properties.
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For Alojamento Local help and advice, see the website for Nalle 'The voice for Local Lodging in Portugal'
