Why Airbnb became so expensive in México and tips to rent safely avoiding internet scams

One of the most commonly misunderstood phenomenon is that of Airbnb prices.

When a person rents their property out in Mexico 🇲🇽 they acquire a set of fiscal obligations that are not easy to conquer.

This fact is often overlooked by Realtors selling properties who tell their clients that they can buy a condo at the beach and quickly make their money back through rentals, but they never mention these fiscal obligations.

For years, the internet and companies like Airbnb and VRBO basically allowed owners to skip these fiscal obligations to the Mexican government through their online platforms.

A couple years ago the Mexican Government had enough and began taxing online platforms, everything from Netflix and Uber to VRBO and Airbnb.

Owners quickly realized that the money they were charging generated a 30% income tax, 16% vat tax, and 3% lodging tax. Instead of taking the hit, can you guess what they did instead?

Do you understand why the sudden spike? They passed the bill onto you!

As of today, apart from hotels, Airbnb and VRBO continue to be the safest bet for vacation rentals hands down, their refund system although not perfect, seems as scam-proof as it can get, but if you want to look elsewhere, here's what I recommend you do:

A lot of people speak of contracts, and they're good to have, because they can lay procedures of unforseen events and cancelation policies, however what you really want to get is a FACTURA, any hotel would have absolutely no problem issuing one upon request, and any owner or rental agency should also have no problem issuing one.

What is it? It's a legal receipt that outlines your information, what the money is used for (concept), the entity responsible and their fiscal information. You can use a factura as proof or your purchase or reservation in the event of a mishap or any problem. If the person or company renting the property out cannot issue one you can be certain that something is not right, and whatever receipt they offer is not going to be valid.

Another way of making sure things are legit is that your payments are made to Mexican Bank accounts via Wire Transfer.

If they ask you to Pay cash or deposit to a foreign bank account you can also assume that there won't be any possible way to proove you paid anything to anyone if you run into any problem or unforseen event.

If you're a property owner and would like to know how to lower your tax obligation through our Copyrighted ©️ strategies please contact us at mexprofessionals.com