LETTER | Drain accommodation sector’s rules swamp
Hotels are struggling due to bureaucracy and regulation, not because of short-term rentals
Originally Published on Business Day (18 February 2026)
Anton Gillis is right about one thing: Cape Town’s accommodation market is not a morality play between “disruptors” and “dinosaurs” (“Why SA needs short-term rental regulation” and “Rent control is not a moral debate”, February 13). It is a competitive market and the real scandal is how unevenly the government treats different players.
Gillis’ article argues that short-term rentals operate “like hotels” while enjoying “residential perks”. But the “perk” is often just freedom from a compliance regime that has metastasised around formal hospitality. Hotels are not struggling because short-term rentals exist; they are struggling because they are smothered by levies, licensing, paperwork, labour rigidities and ever-rising utility costs, all enforced with the confidence of a state that rarely delivers value for money.
If we actually care about fairness the answer is not to drag short-term renters into the same regulatory swamp. It is to drain the swamp. Start with the basics: scrap or reduce ancillary levies that treat tourism like a cash cow, and streamline municipal approvals and inspections so upgrades and expansions are not delayed by bureaucratic whim.
Reform zoning rules that force accommodation into artificial boxes, when the modern traveller and modern operator are flexible. Make it easier to build, to convert and to operate, then let consumers decide what standards they will pay for.
Where genuine externalities exist, enforce narrowly defined rules: noise, waste, parking and safety hazards that threaten neighbours and guests. But stop using “level playing field” as a euphemism for “equal burdens”. A level field is one where government steps back, sets clear property rules and applies them consistently.
Cape Town’s tourism industry will not be saved by reclassifying more properties as “commercial”. It will be saved by allowing more accommodation, more competition and less government interference so hotels can compete on service rather than compliance.