Biel Day And Tourism Apocalypse

It was one of those intense "debates", the sort where there are invited speakers who do a great deal of speaking and not a lot of actual debating, and the theme was our dear old friend, the holiday let. They've not invited me back. Not since, as a debater, I debated - vocally and in public - which planet the representative from the tourism ministry and indeed the then tourism minister, Jaime Martínez, were on. Never mind, there's another minister now, of whom the same question can be asked. More of him below.

Anyway, the debaters included Javier Blas, a lawyer whose Mastermind subject is holiday lets. He knows everything there is to know on the subject, which is a great deal more, therefore, than most inhabitants of the ministry. To cut to the chase, Javier believes laws on lets - the Balearic tourism law and the national Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (conveniently referred to in English, for all those English speakers who can't pronounce the law, as the tenancy act) - are both less than adequate, a point on which, one fancies, there is general agreement, except among those who drew up either of the laws: Jaime Martínez, for example.

It was a debate that was useful in reminding us all that nothing has been done by the current Balearic government to alter this unsatisfactory state of affairs. With the mad rush - one that seems to be getting more insanely rapid - to introduce the tourist tax, Jaime's successor, Biel Barceló, appears to have completely forgotten that he said the holiday lets thing would come before the tourist tax thing. Needs must, one supposes. As the Balearics are theoretically bankrupt, the government has to lay its hands on the first thing it can that happens to be lying around untaxed - tourists sprawled on a beach, in this instance.

It was of course all too good to last. We'd heard nothing from Biel on the tax for at least, erm, a week, and then he went and spoilt it all by upsetting everyone by apparently implying that from the start of next summer's season, a family of four on a fortnight's holiday will be handing over in the region of 100 euros. Or maybe it will be less. And maybe it'll be paid when checking in at a hotel. Or maybe not. Or maybe it won't be introduced next year. Or maybe it will. And maybe it'll be spent on tourist infrastructure. Or maybe it won't be. Don't worry though, Biel clearly knows. Just like the ministry sorts know all about laws on holiday lets.

The urgency to introduce adequate legislation to deal with private holiday accommodation has been made all the more urgent by what we must call the collaborative economy, a euphemism, where some are concerned, for renting out accommodation without the slightest intention of paying tax on it. While Biel seems to be neglecting the subject, someone who isn't, of all people, is the Pope.

On Portuguese radio the other day, Pope Francis said that religious congregations which have the odd empty convent or whatever knocking around can't simply turn it into a hotel or hostel and expect not to pay tax on income it generates. The "business" would not be "clean", he suggested, in letting monks know that they can't shove the takings into their back pockets. (Do monks have pockets? Perhaps not.) The Pope, clearly in tune with the new age of the collaborative economy, must be concerned that the odd convent might turn up on Airbnb.

As the collaborative economy seems so determined to take over tourism accommodation, be it convent or other, perhaps next Sunday should be renamed. Rather than World Tourism Day, it should be World Collaborative Economy Day, though in the Balearics it might be more appropriate to name it Biel Day. And as Cala Millor is where they celebrate world tourism more than anywhere else (the resort's tourist fiestas week starts tomorrow), Biel should get himself along. Meet and greet the tourists. Oh, by the way, have I told you that next year you'll be forking out a couple of euros a night for yourself, your good lady wife and the kids? Yep, Biel Day it should be. Tourism apocalypse beckons. There'll be no more tourism fiesta days. Party's over.

Uber And Out: Ridesharing in Spain

You would never get an Uber driver talking over a crackly line to a controller, getting information as to the next pick-up and finishing the communication with an "over and out". Uber drivers don't do this type of communication. They don't have controllers. They go as they please within the cities they serve, anticipating pocketing 80% of fares, needing only an Uber phone, an iPhone supplied by the company (for a deposit) that is loaded with a driver Uber app. Their only spoken communication will be with users, those in the car or those who may phone with a specific request. What could be easier?

If you live on Mars you might not know about Uber. In which case ... a short lesson. Uber is an American company that was founded under six years ago. It operates using a mobile app via which users can find the nearest driver who is signed up with the company. No money changes hands, as the user supplies credit-card information. The fare is calculated through a mix of time and distance. Drivers are vetted, so they have to provide proof of a valid driving licence and vehicle insurance and photographic proof of their cars; no rust buckets with many a dent for an Uber driver.

Uber rolled out its first overseas service in Paris at the end of 2011. It came to Spain  early last year but not to Mallorca. The service operates only in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Or did. Before a judge instructed Uber to cease operations last month. The taxi-drivers in Madrid denounced Uber, claiming unfair competition from drivers who have neither a licence to operate as a taxi-driver or the specific insurance for providing a public transport service. Spain is not the only country to have introduced a ban. France, for example, has as well.

The ban is not, however, looked upon as the end for Uber in Spain. The company is looking at ways of working around current laws and also, naturally enough, at what other courts might have to say, which might well mean at European level. It might also be encouraged by the fact that Spain's National Competition Commission (CNC) declined in June last year to ban Uber. Indeed, the commission has since opened up a process of public debate and consultation into what is generally now being referred to as the "collaborative economy", one through which individuals offer their services (of different types) via other mobile apps or social media. The Madrid taxi-drivers have got their way with the court but not with the commission.

Uber and the ridesharing (or carsharing, if you prefer) service that it makes available is one part of the so-called P2P phenomenon - peer to peer, in this instance user to driver. Uber is the facilitator and not the controller, even if it does have or is supposed to have certain controls over its drivers and can instantaneously change the basis for fare calculation according to demand, as typified by its "surge pricing"; it was this which pushed fares up during the hostage crisis in Sydney and drew such an outcry, for which the company has since apologised.

Essentially though, Uber is peer to peer, with one of the peers, the driver, providing his service, his time, his skills (?) and his car. It is, therefore, a similar principle by which accommodation websites like Airbnb operate. A peer has a room, a flat, a house to rent. The other peer, the customer, books it; Airbnb makes its money by taking a cut from the rent paid, just as Uber takes its 20% from a car fare.

The competition commission has not confined itself to Uber. It has also opened up a consultation regarding the renting of private accommodation, something which brings us yet again to the thorny issue of the holiday let. What is interesting with the Uber case, however, is that the Madrid court has applied a nationwide ban. Where accommodation is concerned, of course, it is up to the regions to decide. But the ban makes it ever more imperative that Spain and its regions adopt altogether more coherent approaches to the "collaborative economy". P2P has muddied the already muddy waters of holiday let regulations, but it is not going away, either where accommodation is concerned or ridesharing or any other service. There is now a lobby group, Sharing España, which includes providers similar to Uber; they are simply not as well-known and don't attract the same controversy or attention.

Uber is not out. It will surely return, but it will require a shift in understanding by regulators of a dynamic - the "collaborative economy" - which as yet is not well enough understood in Spain and is certainly not well enough understood in terms of the way in which, in the grander scheme of things, it may well bring about a change to traditional notions of employment and of work.