Certification required?

[yveskleinsky]

When a business is online, does proper certification still hold? For example, if I were to sell cars online (more than 50 a year) would I need a dealer's license? If someone takes bookings online (hotels.com) do they need a real estate license, as bookings are a part of property mgmt? ...Any thoughts on where I would go to find out for sure?

 

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[Jorge]

At least in Argentina, hotel booking sites are almost always managed by a travel agency

 

[Z5 FILMS]

When a business is online, does proper certification still hold? For example, if I were to sell cars online (more than 50 a year) would I need a dealer's license? If someone takes bookings online (hotels.com) do they need a real estate license, as bookings are a part of property mgmt? ...Any thoughts on where I would go to find out for sure?

Online or not does not matter. You're still a car dealer operating in State XYZ. You're going to need proper permits in that State, just like you were a B&M business.

 

[yveskleinsky]

Thanks for the info guys, however I am still hitting walls with figuring out if we need a cert/license for anything.

What we are wanting to do is a hybrid between travel agent and property manager (kinda like hotels.com, but only deal with reservations). We just want to take reservations and accept payment on behalf of our owners, then transfer the funds to them (minus our fee). We wouldn't cross the line of property manager, as the owners vouch for the properties, and the owner is still responsible for all guest activity, cleaning and maintanence.

We are more of a travel agent, except that we don't book airfare or "travel" part of the vacation- just the place to stay.
I have looked up and spoken with various travel agents, and what I gather is a certification for travel agents is for booking airline flight. ...We aren't doing property mgmt, (trying to get out of it) as all we are wanting to do is take reservations and payment.

Who do I ask to see if there is a special cert/license for what we are wanting to do?
The other sites out there that are doing what we want to do have the reservations booked by the owner (even if they are "automated").

Any ideas on where we should go next to find out about cert/license?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

When a business is online, does proper certification still hold? For example, if I were to sell cars online (more than 50 a year) would I need a dealer's license? If someone takes bookings online (hotels.com) do they need a real estate license, as bookings are a part of property mgmt? ...Any thoughts on where I would go to find out for sure?

It think it depends if you are holding inventory. I owned an online advertising directory for vehicles -- I didn't need any license as I was classified as an publisher, much like AutoTrader.com.

 

[yveskleinsky]

We wouldn't be holding any tangible inventory, we would be pairing up guests who want to reserve properties and owners who want to rent them. ...Where I'm thinking the confusing/challenging part is, is in actually taking the money for the owners then depositing it into their acct. There has got to be a reason, (that I'm missing) that other sites aren't taking money for the owners.

 

[yveskleinsky]

I didn't need any license as I was classified as an publisher, much like AutoTrader.com.

Cool. ...How did you know that you needed to be classified as a publisher?

 

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