AirBnB needs to be more regulated, WA hotels spokesperson claims. Credit:Bloomberg

Mr Woods said untaxed, unregulated short-term accommodation operating in the same market as heavily-regulated, heavily-taxed hotels damaged the reputation of the hotel industry.



"The effect is that it undermines and damages employment investment and the professional standards of tourism accommodation in Perth and Western Australia," he said.

But Mr Woods was hopeful hotels would survive because the two markets attracted different kinds of customers.



"People who specifically want all service such as room service and breakfast and such will choose hotels, while those who don't care about these services will choose the short-term lettings."

Mr Strawczynski said the issue for the taxi industry was licensing rather than regulatory requirements.



"It's not so much the rules and regulations that Uber doesn't need to comply with, they actually have, in many instances, much higher rules and regulations than the taxi industry," he said.



"Where the taxis are getting a real rough run-around is they've had to pay the government a huge sum of money for their licence.



"A licence costs around half a million dollars‑ whereas your Uber driver's just got his car and away he goes."

Mr Strawczynski said Uber could coexist with the taxi industry as long as a bipartisan effort was made between government and business.



"That's where we'll start to look at the US system where it's become so popular," he said.



"You can order a taxi off of your Uber app if you can see there's no Ubers around, and that's the best possible outcome.