Today, people across Scotland go to the polls. Whoever emerges successful, whoever forms the next administration and whoever ends up making decisions about how this country is run for the next few years, I want to say something directly to them.

Scotland’s visitor economy is not a peripheral issue. It is not a footnote in a manifesto or a line item in a tourism strategy document. It is one of the most important engines this country has, and right now it needs people in power who actually understand how it works on the ground, not just in theory.

I run Masutes Group. We operate mySTAYINN, one of Scotland’s fastest growing property management companies, with properties across Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and now into England. We employ more than 80 people. We work with dozens of independent landlords, many of them small business owners who depend on us to help them compete in a market that has changed beyond recognition in the last decade. I am not writing this as a lobbyist or a critic. I am writing it as someone who is in the middle of all of this every single day.

Here is what I would ask whoever forms the next government to think about seriously.

Get regulation right, not just tougher.

The short-term let licensing system in Scotland has been one of the most confusing regulatory experiences I have encountered in over 18 years in business. And I come from a compliance background. I know how to navigate complex regulations. If I find it confusing, imagine what it feels like for a retired couple running a single guest house in Inverness who just want to run their business properly.

Licensing periods differ between councils. Edinburgh renews annually. Inverness operates on a three-year cycle. The rules have shifted repeatedly. Bodies responsible for oversight have lost cases in court. Third-party companies set up to help landlords navigate the process have charged significant fees and then failed to deliver. The result is that the operators who are genuinely trying to comply are being penalised by a system that was not designed with them in mind.

mySTAYINN has responded by creating a dedicated full-time role whose only purpose is licensing compliance across our entire portfolio. We offer that service to our landlords free of charge because we believe that if you are going to ask people to comply, the least you can do is make it possible for them to understand how.

What Scotland needs is a single, consistent national licensing framework. One set of rules. One renewal cycle. Clear guidance that applies the same way whether you are in Edinburgh, Inverness or anywhere in between. Not to reduce standards, but to make compliance achievable for the operators who are committed to it.

Take sustainability seriously as an economic argument, not just an environmental one.

Net zero tends to get talked about in hospitality as a cost and a burden. It does not have to be either of those things.

mySTAYINN has removed all printed materials from every property it manages. Every guest guidebook, every house manual, every local area recommendation is digital, mobile-first and accessible on any phone. The environmental benefit is real and measurable. But what makes this genuinely interesting is that it also reduces operational costs, saves staff time and generates additional revenue for landlords by making it easier for guests to book local experiences directly.

This is what practical sustainability looks like. Not gesture politics. Not a recycling bin and a note about towels. Technology that makes the environmental choice the operationally smarter choice at the same time.

The visitor economy should be part of Scotland’s net zero story. It is not there yet. Whoever takes power has an opportunity to change that.

Rethink what a hospitality career looks like.

The hospitality skills crisis is real. But the conversation around it tends to focus on the symptom rather than the cause. The sector has historically offered poor wages, unsociable hours and very little investment in the people doing the work. That is not a skills problem. That is an employment model problem.

mySTAYINN pays above the living wage as a baseline. We provide private health cover to our staff. We invest heavily in technology to make our people’s jobs more manageable and less stressful. We provide training, supervision and genuine career progression. And we combine a Scottish-based team, who understand the culture and the communities our guests are coming to experience, with specialist support from international teams for the functions that do not require a local presence.

This hybrid model works. It produces real careers in a sector that has too often been seen as a stopgap. Whoever forms the next government should be asking how to make this the norm rather than the exception, and what policy levers exist to support employers who are genuinely investing in their people.

Recognise what professional management does for small accommodation businesses.

Scotland’s bed and breakfast and guest house sector is over 200 years old. It is one of the most distinctive and authentic parts of what makes this country a genuinely special place to visit. It is also under enormous pressure from a market that increasingly rewards scale, digital sophistication and operational consistency that most small independent operators simply cannot deliver on their own.

Professional management companies, when they operate properly, are not extracting value from that sector. They are enabling it to survive. They are connecting independent properties to the platforms and audiences they would never reach alone, professionalising the guest experience without removing the personal character that makes those properties worth staying in, and supporting small business owners who have neither the time nor the expertise to do all of that themselves.

The incoming government should recognise that distinction in policy. Not all regulation affects all operators equally. A framework designed with the largest players in mind will often inadvertently harm the smallest ones. Getting that balance right matters, and it requires people in power who are willing to listen to the people actually running these businesses.

I am not asking for special treatment. I am not asking for less accountability. I am asking for clarity, consistency and a genuine willingness to engage with the people on the ground who understand this sector from the inside.

Scotland has an extraordinary opportunity in its visitor economy. The talent is here. The landscape is here. The appetite from visitors around the world is here. What it needs now is a government that helps responsible operators build something lasting rather than getting in their way.

To whoever emerges successful tomorrow, I hope you are ready to have that conversation.