Hotel Association of Canada releases guidelines that aim to help cities regulate Airbnb

Nearly half of Canadians want some sort of regulations for short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. With those Canadians in mind, the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) released guidelines for best practices when regulating Airbnb.

The HAC based their proposed regulatory tools on best practices seen in other cities worldwide.

“Today, the short-term rental industry operates with limited regulation,” said Alana Baker, HAC’s director of government relations.

“Online platforms are being used to operate commercial accommodation businesses, resulting in unintended consequences including lost taxes, less housing, community nuisances and even criminal activity. There is an acute need for federal, provincial, and municipal governments to put in place a modern regulatory framework that will address these consequences, promote fairness and protect communities.”

The HAC’s issue is that people no longer use short-term rental platforms for true home sharing. According to HAC, people are utilizing platforms like Airbnb in order to become commercial operators. For example, the HAC says the commercial side of Airbnb has grown 108 percent in the last two years. It defines this act as people renting multi-unit entire homes.

However, the association defines true home sharing as the owner being present during the guest’s stay. Essentially, if someone purchases a property solely to rent via platforms like Airbnb, that’s a problem.

According to data prepared for the HAC by the CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm, entire-home rentals like that made up 83 percent of total Airbnb revenues in Canada during 2016/17.

To see the full guidelines proposed by the HAC, along with other research, check out their website here.

It’s also worth noting that both Toronto and British Columbia have instated regulations related to Airbnb. Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Nova Scotia have also announced plans to conduct regulatory reviews.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Airbnb for comment regarding the guidelines and will update the story with a response.

Source: Hotel Association of Canada

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