Vancouver Sun – Vancouver to vote on regulating short-term rentals

Vancouver Sun – Vancouver to vote on regulating short-term rentals

Vancouver city council will vote Tuesday on how to regulate short-term vacation rentals listed on websites like Airbnb and Expedia.

The city wants to regulate the thousands of short-term rental units in Vancouver in a bid to ease the rental housing crunch.

Under the proposed rules, rental operators would be required to purchase a $49 annual business licence.

Short-term rentals would only be allowed in the operator’s principal residence; rentals of secondary suites would be prohibited. That law is aimed at cracking down on commercial operators.

Some of the other regulations include no more than two adults in each rental bedroom, no rentals in vehicles (such as camper vans) and no more than one booking in each room at a time. 

Vancouver has 5,100 Airbnb hosts, 80 per cent of whom rent out their primary homes, according to Airbnb.

The city has said the new measures would legalize up to 70 per cent of existing “entire-unit” listings and virtually all “private-room” listings in Vancouver.