Airbnb urges hosts to push back on B.C. legislation to limit short-term rentals

Short-term rental giant Airbnb isn’t taking B.C.’s proposed province-wide changes to rental rules lying down

The company is asking hosts to stand up and voice their opposition to legislation tabled last week, which aims to, in part, return STRs to the long-term market.

It started with an email from Airbnb to hosts encouraging them to reach out to their MLAs saying the rules go too far.

“The British Columbia government has introduced short-term rental (STR) legislation that may impact your ability to host,” the email begins.

“The changes include restricting STRs to primary residences only in most regions, requiring that platforms share your personal information and data with the province, and introducing a provincial registration system on top of any existing municipal licencing.

“Importantly, the government is classifying short-term rentals as any rental less than 90 days. This will impact hosts who share their homes on a more extended basis and will make it more difficult for those who travel for work, including healthcare, construction and contract workers, students, and those travelling to access healthcare to find a longer-term place to stay,” Airbnb’s correspondence to hosts continues.

“Join other Hosts in emailing BC legislators to share your story and ask them to protect your right to host.”

The email includes a link to let hosts easily send an email to policymakers and also invites them to an online information session.

Nathan Rotman with Airbnb tells CityNews the province needs to understand the implications the new short-term rental laws will have.

“Obviously hosts are very concerned and they’re interested in being heard by the province. The province hasn’t done public consultation on this at all with hosts,” he told CityNews, noting while the province has spoken with Airbnb, hosts have not been engaged.

“We’re encouraging hosts to reach out to the provincial government, let them know who they are, what they use this money for, why this is important to them, in an effort to ensure that the province understands the implications of this law much more broadly.”

The legislation, tabled on Oct. 16, is focusing on three key elements to crack down on short-term rentals, which the province says currently about 40 to 50 per cent of listings are “non-compliant.”

Those include increasing fines and strengthening tools for local governments; returning more short-term rentals into long-term homes for people; and establishing provincial rules and enforcement.

The goal, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said, is to address the housing crisis and availability — or lack thereof.

Kahlon remains firm on STR legislation

Despite the objections expressed by Airbnb, Kahlon maintains that the STR legislation will help with the province’s housing shortage.

“I’m not surprised. They’re in it to make a lot of profit and that’s their focus. Our goal is to ensure that people have housing in British Columbia,” the minister said when asked about Airbnb’s response.

“They’re going to do what they need to do to continue to make the profits they need, and we have to do what we need to do to ensure that housing is available for people.”

However, Rotman questions the B.C. government’s reasoning, saying “the legislation won’t alleviate the province’s long-standing housing problems.”

“Regular people, at a time of increased price pressures, cost of living pressures, and inflationary pressures, people are looking to make some extra income. Many of our hosts are operating out of their primary residence, or they are renting out their vacation property — the property they use on an occasional basis to go skiing or whatever, they use that Airbnb short-term-rental income to earn additional income to pay the mortgage for that property. We know that those properties aren’t going to change the housing market,” he said.

If anything, he believes the rules will only make life more unaffordable.

“What it will do is take money out of the pockets of regular British Columbians, make travel more unaffordable for people, and make it harder to visit beautiful parts of the province that a lot of local British Columbians like to travel to,” Rotman explained.

“The way that this law was written, it is extremely confusing and we’re looking forward over the next couple months to understanding better how the province plans to implement the most convoluted system of regulation that we’ve seen in Canada.”

The B.C. government has said changes will be phased in, with fines increasing immediately on royal assent. The principal residence requirement, along with the business license requirement will come in on May 1, with data sharing and the provincial registry coming after summer 2024.

Kahlon stresses the province must take steps to ensure more homes are available for those in need, and that the focus not be on investors and investments.

He says staff have spoken with Airbnb, but adds he has not directly been in communication with the company.

-With files from Kate Walker