March 4, 2020
Greg Atkinson, Planner
City of Windsor
350 City Hall Square
Windsor, ON N9A 6S1
Email: gatkinsone@cityofwindsor.ca
Re: City of Windsor Short Term Rentals (STR) Consultations
Dear Mr. Atkinson,
On behalf of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA), I am writingregarding the City of Windsor's short term rentals (STR). Unfortunately. I could not attend your open house today seeking input for STR policies. The ORHMA has been instrumental in shaping STR policies across Ontario. I encourage you to read our letter along with the attachments as you create such policies.
Short-term accommodations. also referred to as illegal hotel rooms are an ongoing concern for the hotel community in the Cily of Windsor. Municipalities across North America experience problems stemming from sharing unit rentals affecting housing availability, housing pricing and neighbourhood issues such as noise. parking and safety. Independent studies in the USA and most recently in Canada are showing that short term rentals are affecting hotel brand Investment deasions while negatively influencing hotel demand.
The City of Windsor must level the playing field for hotels with the short-term rental accommodations. These rentals are currently not paying commercial property taxes to your town and meeting other rules and regulations that hotels are required to meet. These Megal rooms are also not paying HST which contributes to funding health care, education, transit and infrastructure and other benefits that the City of Windsor and Ontario residences expect.
The ORHMA strongly support a regulatory framework which includes zoning by-laws which meet the same standards of developing a hotel that levels the playing field with the hotel Industry.
Competition should be encouraged. We welcome it. This Is how growth occurs in every aspect of the business and how we find new opportunities. Among each other the hotel industry is highly competitive business nonetheless respects government rules. We expect all those competing to play by these rules.
The STR sector is no longer an emerging concept as governments around the world have been implementing rules and regulations. Without rules short term rentals belong to the professional underground economy.
The key concern with the short-term acconimodations is that they are being commercialized with hosts operating multiple properties as a business. Even Airbnb reports support this theory by continually boosting that The vast majority of Airtintis Ontario hosts share their primary residences.' Regretfully this theory is not the practice.