In 2017 the Hotel Association of Canada released a study in partnership with the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA) which spotlighted 11 key markets across Canada and examined the short-term rental market in comparison to Canada's hotel sector. Specifically. the study had a key focus on Airbnb as the most widely used digital home-sharing platform in Canada. Results demonstrated that commercial operators are growing exponentially, far outpacing actual home sharing activity. Approximately 7-in-every-10 units on the Airbnb distribution platform are entire-home rentals. with guests having complete and sole access of the entire unit during their stay. Over the last two years. the commercial side of Airbnb's business - those renting multi-unit entire homes - grew by 108%. Entire home rentals as a whole. Including multi-listing hosts, generated 83% of Airbnb's revenues. Multi-unit hosts account for over 30% of all revenue generated on Airbnb in Canada.
Further, a 2017 study conducted by McGill University entitled Short-term cities: Airbntfs Impact on Canadian Housing Markets found that Airbnb alone has removed as many as 13,700 units of housing from rental markets in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. In 2019. Fairbnb reported that in Toronto alone, Airbnb has taken 6.500 long-term rentals off the market. According to the Ontario Mars report "Fundamentally. home sharing is about sharing your own home. your primary residence. If it is a secondary residence or a commercial property being rented. it is no longer considered home sharing. Related to this is the maximum number of nights per year that a space is rented our
ORHMA OWNERSHIP RECOMMENDATIONS:
- The rental unit must be the principal residence.
- The owners must reside in the unit.
- There must be only one hating per household.
- No host should be allowed to list multiple units.
- Define the cap on maximum number of rooms sold annually.
- Hosts cannot rent out their property for stays of less than 30 days unless they are registered as a hotel or a BAB as it is the case of a 88EI where a resident must be present.
As well in order to address short-term rentals there is a need for enforcement to work effectively and easier. In order for your city to enforce such by-laws their needs to be accountability. We recommend a licence registration process to be included with penalty fees and holding the platform accountable.
ORHMA ENFORCEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
- Require registration for rental platform such as Airbnb at a set fee and the platform to include the rental unit's registration number on its listings.
- Hold rental platform such as Airbnb responsible for compliance of set rules and policies designed by the City of Windsor.
- Require registration of rental unit operations at a set lee with the City of Windsor and the registration number is to be posted on all advertisements including on line listing platforms.
- Require registration for rental platform such as Airbnb at a set fee and the platform to include the rental unit's registration number on its listings.
- Hold rental platform such as Alrbnb responsible for compliance of set rules and policies designed by the City of Windsor.
- Develop penalty fees within the city's enforcement policies for not meeting your rules to both the rental units and the rental platform.