City hunting Airbnb hosts
The City of Penticton is turning up the pressure on unlicensed short-term vacation rentals operating in the community.
City council voted Tuesday to hire a private company to hunt down properties offering accommodation without a business license on websites like Airbnb and VRBO.
Homeowners that rent out their property more than 14 days a year are required to register and pay an annual fee, but just 130 of an estimated 343 unique units listed online in the city have done so.
Because most online listings hide their addresses until a booking is made, tracking non-compliant properties isn’t feasible for city staff. The city will now spend between $8,000 and $18,000 to hire an outside firm to find the unlicensed rentals.
If those more than 150 short-term rentals are forced into compliance, the city will generate over $25,000 in annual additional licence revenue as well as $30,000 in tourism fees.
The city will be pressuring homeowners to register with more severe penalties, also approved Tuesday. The fine for operating without a business license has now been jacked up to $450 a day, climbing to $500 if the fine isn’t paid quickly.
Some councillors wanted to hit the unlicensed operators harder, but the provincial government caps individual bylaw fines at $500.
“People flaunt the bylaw, they really do — they just do it anyway, and they are making money,” Judy Sentes said. “This is a lucrative business, as we can assume some 300 properties are already engaging in this.”
The private company that gathers information about the unlicensed short-term rentals will need to store the data on a Canadian server. It will then be handed over to city staff, who will manage contacting homeowners to ensure compliance.
A recent report from AirBnb said their Okanagan hosts made a combined $16,732,025 in 2017 as they served nearly 126,000 visitors.