The booming holiday homes market, particularly in the state’s South West, has at last been picked up by the regulation radar, with the government announcing a new accreditation program for property managers of short-stay holiday accommodation.
The booming holiday homes market, particularly in the state’s South West, has at last been picked up by the regulation radar, with the government announcing a new accreditation program for property managers of short-stay holiday accommodation.
The Holiday Accommodation Manager Accreditation Program, run by the Tourism Council of Western Australia, will require property managers and real estate agents who manage holiday homes on behalf of property owners to adhere to a set of guidelines and a code of ethics.
The program will also outline dispute resolution procedures and require managers to hold a separate bank account for clients.
A working group comprised of key government and industry agencies established the new program following months of industry and local business consultation.
Tourism Council of WA chief executive Ron Buckey said the accreditation program was aimed at encouraging professionalism in business operations and improving the standard of service across the sector.
“The accreditation looks at the front end of the business; whether you’ve got insurance coverage, risk management in place, staff induction, all those things you normally do when you employ people,” Mr Buckey said.
“They [the agents] would then be responsible that the people they have on their books have got those sorts of facilities in their rental program.”
Signing up to the accreditation program is expected to attract fees of about $250 per property per year, with discounted rates for multiple properties.
But some in the industry are worried that over-regulation in this rapidly growing sector will force some operators out of business.
Real estate agency Private Properties, which has 75 holiday home rentals in the South West on its books, was the first agency to register for accreditation.
Partner Rose Harris said that, while the move was positive for the tourism industry, the government must be careful not to be too heavy-handed.
“Our concern is that if they over-regulate – making it too costly or too hard to manage – then they’re going to close down a really important sector of the tourism market,” Ms Harris said.
“But it’s a good thing there are standards that should be applied to industry. We are aware of operators that don’t have a real estate licence, and the tourism council needs to know that they’re operating in a responsible manner, and working effectively for the industry.”
Ms Harris said the administrative process of receiving accreditation was “quite laborious” and required one person working on the application full time for close to a month.
Holiday home owners, who are not required to be accredited under the program, are awaiting the outcome of discussions by the Holiday Homes Working Group, which is currently in the process of developing minimum standards guidelines that home owners will have to adhere to in order to operate.
The working group is expected to report in March.
