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Short-term rental platforms are being given more time to comply with B.C. government legislation on short-term rental registration.

UPDATE 2:05 p.m.

Airbnb has responded to the extension of the deadline to comply with the province’s new short-term rental registration legislation.

"Airbnb remains committed to working with the government as they implement their new system, and while we’re glad they recognized the need for a delay, we're concerned about the broader impact this law will have on peak summer tourism — especially at a time when more Canadians are travelling domestically,” said Alex Howell, policy leader for Airbnb in Canada.

He adds that the new rules will make travel in B.C. more expensive, “In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis” and “hurt local hosts trying to make ends meet."

ORIGINAL 11:47 a.m.

Airbnb, VRBO and other listing platforms will have more time to comply with B.C.’s new registration rules for short-term rentals.

While the deadline for short-term rental owners to apply for a registration number is not changing, the government is granting rental platforms more time to complete technical work on their validation systems to meet the legal requirement to validate provincial registration numbers and automatically remove illegal listings.

As of June 2, if a short-term rental listing does not have a valid registration number, platforms must stop advertising the listing and prevent new bookings from that host or face a possible investigation and potential monetary penalty. This date was previously May 1.

As of June 23, platforms must cancel all future bookings from hosts without a valid provincial registration number or face a possible investigation and potential monetary penalty. This date was previously June 1.

Despite ongoing complaints about the complicated application process and the long wait to be approved for registration numbers, the province is not giving a similar break to STR hosts.

The ministry says that by tomorrow (May 1) all short-term rental hosts in B.C. should have registered their listings and received a provincial registration number.

So far, more than 20,000 listings have been registered. It’s unclear what percentage of units that represents but when the STR legislation was introduced in 2023, there were an estimated 28,000 individual STR listings in the province.

The government says that since the legislation was introduced to restrict short-term rentals, asking rates for long-term rentals are down 6.1% throughout B.C., including an 11.4% decrease in Vancouver, according to Rentals.ca.

In addition, annual CMHC data shows provincewide vacancy rates are up from 1.2% in 2023 to 1.9% in 2024.

For more information on the STR registry click here.