Must submit Accommodation license

[Mahi86]

Greetings to all the super hosts.

I have been hosting for nearly 2 years. All was going just fine untill i started gett these emails from Airbnb.

It says that ,"to continue hosting on Airbnb I must submit Accommodation license" I don't even understand the problem.

I am not getting any inquiries or bookings from the past 2 months. What went wrong. Please help

[Elaine701]

@Mahi86 

I don't know if Seoul has a tourist licencing programme, but we do here in Mallorca. It's obligatory to have one or else you can be clobbered with huge fines and shut down. 

Airbnb occasionally demands that we provide proof of licencing with threat of delisting. No problem, we have one and send them the proof. 

However, ironically, Airbnb is chronically under scrutiny for listing illegal unlicenced holiday lets, and has been frequently fined for not removing be them from the platform. 

So, it seems that Airbnb's demand for proof of licence may just be an unenforced show of goodwill to local authorities (?) The documents they collect are apparently unverified and may not even be stored anywhere. It's just a checkbox exercise. 

If you have licence, send it to them (it usually takes 2-4 uploads over a period of several weeks, after being requested again and again before they recognise you've done it already). 

If you don't need a licence in Seoul, then send them a tax statement or something  else with a government logo on it, preferably written in Korean. They won't likely know the difference, and will check you off as "completed". 

[Helen3]

Have you checked whether your area has short term rental licensing if so you need to apply for one if you want to continue to host @Mahi86 

[Frances3408]

@Mahi86. I'm not sure if you are part of Seoul rules but it looks like they have changed since you set yourself up, hence the emails from Airbnb. Best you check with your local authorities on your obligations in your situation but I found this link on Google: https://airbtics.com/airbnb-rules-in-seoul-south-korea/ 

[Emilie]

Hi @Mahi86, 

I can understand why these messages would worry you! 

Elaine, Helen and Frances have shares some suggestions on how you can get to the bottom of it, did you get a chance to check their recommendations? Let us know once you've had a look at them and perhaps looked into those potential local regulations. 🙂

Thanks,

Emilie