February the 23rd, 2021 - Croatian rental owners want to strengthen their own role as cogs of the machine of Croatian tourism, and get more of a say when it comes to decision making with local tourist boards.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, this week, for the very first time at the initiative of private landlords of Kvarner, Istria and Zagreb, which started up last summer, the National Association of Family Accommodation was founded.

''The main goals of the association will be to strengthen the role of Croatian rental owners and the private/family accommodation sector when it comes to decision making, raising the development and importance of small businesses, and then attracting funds from EU funds for quality improvement projects,'' revealed Goran Prskalo, a Zagreb landlord and one of the initiators an association that should defend the interests of hundreds of thousands of Croatian rental owners.

"In a country where 50 percent of the tourist traffic is realised by family accommodation, this segment is not represented in decision-making bodies at all, no one asks us anything, although many of us have a lot of experience in tourism, we know what the needs of guests are, what sort of destinations they like, and what the problems we need to solve together are.

That's why we're wanting to change the laws that prescribe representation in the tourist councils of the tourist boards, which include representatives of sectors that have nothing to do with tourism, and when it does come to the representation of tourism, in turn, mostly hotel companies are listed,'' said Prskalo.

Prskalo provided the example of the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb, in which even telecoms have a stronger voice than family accommodation providers, which in recent years has gained significant momentum in Zagreb, and attracted hundreds of thousands of guests.

Prskalo doesn't plan to run for president of this association, which should hold its founding assembly this week, because he believes that the association should be led by someone from the coast, since this segment of accommodation has the strongest tradition along the Adriatic coast and is most represented in Adriatic towns and cities.

"The goal is to have an association whose members will all be equal and that those from more remote areas will also get their vote. The association will have county committees that will deal with issues specific to their area, and everyone would have a voice in their county, while issues at the national level would be discussed at the assembly of the association,'' explained Prskalo.

The goal of this representative association for Croatian rental owners is to gather as much experience from the field and examples of projects as possible, as many of their project ideas have so far not been able to be realised due to lack of money for implementation.

''Thanks to the bringing together of a formal body, opportunities are opening up for some of these projects to apply for some of the EU tenders and secure co-financing, which has been impossible so far,'' Prskalo pointed out.

His opinion is that family accommodation and Croatian rental owners should be understood as small businesses, which is something which isn't often recognised in Croatia.

"Croatian rental owners generate significant revenue and make a very important contribution not only to tourist traffic in various destinations, but also to the local economy. Many suppliers of family accommodation, even down to the retailers of furniture and equipment for such apartments, have have weight on their shoulders during this crisis,'' added Prskalo, who advocates that private renters should finally be seen as entrepreneurs.

The association also plans to engage in the issue of minimum requirements for the categorisation of family accommodation, which still doesn't respect the laws of this segment of accommodation and mixes it with hotel requirements.

“For example, you can't get four stars in an apartment in the city centre if you don't change the towels every single day, and that's difficult now if have a guest who doesn't want to see you all week because of the worries surrounding passing on the coronavirus infection. Instead of that, other things should be turned to, for example, the obligation to install carbon monoxide detectors isn't prescribed anywhere, which is the very basis of security,'' explained Goran Prskalo, aware that there are still Croatian rental owners conducting this sort of business illegally, which the association also plans to fight against.

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ZAGREB, July 27, 2020 - Despite lower prices, tourist accommodation for families in Croatia is seeing a steep decline in bookings and most providers of such accommodation are facing financial losses of up to HRK 50,000, a survey on the coronacrisis impact on the business operations of family accommodation providers shows.

The survey, conducted by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on a sample of 2,100 people, revealed that as many as 95 percent of respondents reported a decline in the number of bookings compared with last year, despite the fact that three-quarters of them had cut prices, mostly by up to 30 percent.

Nearly a third of those interviewed, or 31 percent, recorded a drop in bookings of more than 80 percent, while 90 percent also reported cancellations of bookings. The share of cancelled bookings for July and August was mostly up to 60 percent.

"The financial damage suffered by most of the accommodation providers, 77 percent, reached up to HRK 50,000 in the first six months of the year, while the estimate for the next three months climbs to HRK 100,000," the HGK said on Monday, noting that only six percent of the respondents said they did not have any significant financial losses.

A third of those interviewed were pensioners, with 75 percent of them saying that their livelihood would be threatened without this income.

Due to poor controls, as many as 53 percent of those renting out private accommodation to tourists have consistently failed respect the law. Will new, more strict laws alter the situation?

At the end of the year, the economic effects of this year's tourism season will be known thanks to the implementation of a new method.

Even local tourist boards admit that the holiday home zone is a grey area where commercial activity is suspected.

HGK ŽK Split: A great interest was shown for the 3rd Regional Forum for Family Accommodation in Split-Dalmatia County.

The 3rd Regional Forum for Family Accommodation (FOS) in Split-Dalmatia County will be held within the framework of the Adriatic Gastro Show tomorrow, February 17 at 11am in the Spaladium Arena. The organizer of the Forum is the Chamber of Commerce in Split, and the forum is supported by the Tourist Board of Split and Split-Dalmatia County.