104 BCBusiness jULY/AUGUST 2018 ISTOCK
T
ravellers love short-term lodging like
Airbnb—the U.S.-based company has more
than 18,000 hosts in B.C. alone.
Members of the hotel industry? Not so
much. Ingrid Jarrett, GM and VP business development
of the Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos, explains
why. What started as true home sharing where the
owner is present during the guest's stay has expanded
into using Airbnb and similar services to become com-
mercial operators, she says. "EŒectively, [short-term
rental hosts] are repurposing residential homes for
commercial use and are running underground hotels."
Jarrett points out that not only do Watermark
and other hotels pay commercial and income tax,
commercial insurance,
PST and MRDT (munici-
pal and regional district tax, which raises rev-
enue for local tourism marketing and programs),
their owners and managers also help develop
and promote local tourism experiences. She
herself has a long involvement with numerous
industry organizations, including as a current
member of Destination BC's tourism marketing com-
mittee, past president of the British Columbia Hotel
Association and former chair of the Thompson
A C C O M M O D AT I O N
Lodging
Complaints
The hotel industry's biggest beef is short-term rental operations
