The Airbnb phenomenon has hit Tumbler Ridge.
Airbnb, for those of you who have practicing ascetics for the last decade, is a form of short-term accommodations where a person will rent out either a room in their home or the whole property while they are away.
Travelers can rent this space—often for less than the cost of a hotel—for a day or two, or for a month or two, depending on the property.
While the idea seems fairly innocuous, the idea has caused headaches for governments, property owners, strata organizations and created far reaching, and not always good, social change.
Recently, the town received a business licence application for an Airbnb property in Tumbler Ridge to provide short term rentals in a residential zone. However, this type of business is currently not permitted in residential zones.
There are currently three properties listed on the Airbnb site, two in a residential area of town and in violation of the district bylaws, and one for the Tumbler Ridge Inn.
Because of the on-line nature of Airbnb and other home sharing sites, they are often unregulated, either by municipalities not able to move fast enough to regulate them, or by people listing their properties without any concern for any regulations that might already be in place.
The District is hoping to move towards regulating these type of accommodations, but what form that would take is a matter of some discussion. Currently, people applying for business licences to operate Airbnb and other short term rentals cannot be issued a business licence until a bylaw is in place.
A letter has been sent to the property owner who applied for a business licence to notify them their current licence cannot be approved, and, while council has instructed staff to move forward with coming up with ways to regulate short term rentals, at least two councilors are opposed to the idea.
Councilor Howe says this is once again the District catering to tourism, and not to the people who live in town. “I think there’s enough hotels and accommodations,” he says. “I don’t understand why we need more accommodations in residential areas,” he says, pointing out that the house next to his is rented to mine workers. “The trucks are in and out, there’s coal dust, there’s overweight vehicles parked in front of it, there’s garbage out on days that aren’t garbage days….I don’t think people blowing in one weekend, staying at the house next to mine, then blowing out is what we need in Tumbler Ridge. I don’t think our residents want this around their homes—I know I don’t—and I don’t see why we’d make it harder on our local hotels to get to full occupancy.”
Mayor Bertrand says short term rentals have the potential to be beneficial for tourism, and this is coming in line with the times, but says wants to see rules in place. “I’d like to see guidelines and a cap on it, as it could get to the point where it is competing with local hotels,” he says. “From what I understand we have three operating at the moment. At this level, I don’t think it’s directly affecting our local hotels, but if the trend continues, I can see it starting to compete.
Despite the BnB in the name, many—if not most—Airbnbs do not, in fact, offer breakfasts. According to a report submitted to council, in addition to not complying with zoning regulations, the bylaw defines a Bed and Breakfast as “a single family dwelling containing individual sleeping units used for temporary overnight accommodation and where breakfast is provided by the resident of the single family dwelling.”
Short term rentals, says the report, have led to both positive and negative impacts on communities. “These rentals are often cheaper, more amenity-rich, personalized and localized than traditional hotels. For residents, the ability to easily and relatively safely commodify an existing asset (a home) can be a means of income supplementation.”
However, in some locations, Airbnbs eat into the long-term rental market. A property owner who can rent out a room for $100/night (which works out to $3000/month if the property is completely full) will be less willing to rent the same space for, say, $1000/month to a long term tenant. In some places, people are renting an apartment or a house, then turning around and sub-letting the space illegally, without the knowledge of the actual owner of the property.
Some people are also concerned about public safety with strangers wandering in and out of a neighbourhood.
More concerning, especially to Councillor Krakowka, is the unfair advantage that these types of rentals have over traditional accommodation providers, including lack of taxes. “One of the hotel operators sits on the Tourism Advisory Committee,” he says. “She is concerned about the fill rates. I talked to another hotel and they’re not even at 20 percent [occupancy rate]. Whether there are ten or twelve or nine or eight, it takes away from these people who are paying property taxes.”
Councillor Norbury asks if this means council is against renting out space to mine workers as well. “That’s absolutely for our residents,” he says. “They are using this as a form of income.”
This is, the mayor points out, just the first step in the process, and Council will have the ability to make sure these properties are appropriately regulated.
This is not an issue unique to Tumbler Ridge, with Airbnbs springing up all around the world, from New York to New Zealand, with people being able to spend the night in a treehouse, or even rent their own island.
Short term rentals were discussed at the most recent meeting of the Tourism Advisory Council (TAC). “The committee was supportive of small-scale, highly regulated growth of short-term accommodation in Tumbler Ridge,” says the report. “The main concern was to protect the interests of existing hoteliers who may lose business as a result of this alternative type of accommodation provider.”
TAC also recommended that the number of licences issued be capped, to prevent the community from being over-run with short term rentals. “As well, TAC asked that measures be put in place to restrict individuals from owning multiple short-term lets in Tumbler Ridge, especially if they are absentee landlords that require property managers to oversee them. TAC recommended that business licences for this type of business should be set at a higher level that helps to balance the playing field with other types of commercial accommodation providers in terms of taxation.”
