Survey results in Vung Tau City show that there are 43 villas and 435 apartments for tourist rental in operation in the area, but according to the assessment, most of them do not fully meet the conditions and legal regulations.
"This type of accommodation business tends to develop strongly and has the risk of disrupting the development of tourism economy as well as affecting local budget collection. And especially seriously affecting security and order as well as fire prevention, urban order, food safety... Therefore, there must be effective solutions and immediate measures to rectify it", Mr. Hoang Vu Thanh - Vice Chairman of Vung Tau City People's Committee - commented.
The reason for this situation is said to be because the villa and apartment owners are not present at the business location, and online sales lead to tax losses. Meanwhile, customers can rent services without declaring their names, ages, and numbers like traditional hotels, making it more difficult to control. In many cases, it is difficult for authorities to check for violations when the homeowner and the tenant declare that they are relatives. Importantly, the locality does not really have appropriate plans to manage this type.
The most dangerous thing is when these homestays become drug use and trafficking hotspots. Specifically, from 2018 to now, Vung Tau City Police have discovered 54 establishments and 289 violators when inspecting homestays. Of these, 15 cases, 29 subjects were prosecuted, 260 subjects were administratively fined and forced to undergo drug rehabilitation.
Image of drug den discovered by police. Photo: Quynh Giang
Mr. Nguyen Lap - Chairman of Vung Tau City People's Committee requested that when granting licenses, the competent authorities must carefully assess, not be too lenient, the minimum area and minimum number of people in an apartment, according to the provisions of the Housing Law, and at the same time urgently develop connection software to manage people who come to rent homestays.
