SOURCES: BC HOTEL ASSOCIATION; AIRDNA; CBRE HOTELS, jUNE 2017 jULY/AUGUST 2018 BCBusiness 105
Okanagan Tourism Association. Jarrett also promotes
the region's culinary and agricultural tourism and is
vice-chair of Slow Food in Canada.
"You're advocating and working with municipali-
ties, and you're raising the pro‰le of tourism so that
people understand what it contributes to the com-
munity, whether it's high-school or part-time jobs,
or full-time, year-round great professional jobs," she
observes. "Those businesses don't do any of that
because it's all under the table."
ŒJarrett emphasizes that everyone oŽering tourist
accommodation should be subject to the same rules
and responsibilities. These include taxation,
health and safety standards, business licences,
insurance and accessibility. "Not only will this
achieve fairness and a level playing ‰eld," she
notes, "it will ensure that travellers are kept
safe and communities are preserved."
Besides failing to contribute to communi-
ties, short-term rentals remove aŽordable hous-
ing for local workers. "Accommodation was short ‰ve
years ago, and now it's critically short—there just isn't
any," Jarrett exclaims. "So we rent houses and apart-
ments for an eight-month period, and then we use that
for staŽ accommodation." Longer term, she's looking
into building staŽ housing through a joint venture
with the Osoyoos Indian Band.
ΠGovernments are starting to take action.
Municipalities such as Nelson, Richmond, To‰no,
Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler now have business
licensing requirements for tourist accommodation
operators, and as of February, AirbnbŒis collecting
provincial and municipal taxes from its B.C. hosts.
The provincial government, which estimates that
Airbnb will remit some $16 million through the
PST
and an additional $5 million through the MRDT, plans
to look at similar arrangements with other short-term
lodging websites. –F.S.
80,000
Rooms in BC Hotel
Association
member hotels
61%
vICtoRIa
Growth in Airbnb units
managed by multi-unit
hosts, 2015/16–2016/17
69%
vanCouveR
Growth in Airbnb units
managed by multi-unit
hosts, 2015/16–2016/17
AIRBNB RENTAL UNITS COmPARED TO TOTAL ACCOmmODATION INVENTORY IN 2016
Vancouver hotel rooms: 23,475
Vancouver Airbnb units: 14,424
Airbnb percentage of total inventory: 38%
Victoria hotel rooms: 5,941
Victoria Airbnb units: 2,185
Airbnb percentage of total inventory: 27%
HOusING sHOCk
Home-based tourist
quarters compete
with hotels but aren't
held to the same
standards
