Lack of postal code creating headaches for Big White

Photo: Colin Dacre

Big White during summer biking season.

Big White Ski Resort wants Canada Post to put it on the map.

The hill is one of the most popular mountain resorts on the continent and attracts travelers from all over. The community, however, doesn’t have a formal postal code, which has been creating problems as the tourism sector evolves.

“If you can't do it on your iPhone, in my world of tourism, it doesn't get done,” said Big White senior vice president Michael J Ballingall.

Right now, mail is delivered to about 40 PO boxes on the hill. But most of the digital economy—Airbnb, Rent by Owner, Google Maps, couriers—won’t interact with a PO box.

“They relate to a street address with a postal code,” Ballingall said.

That means Airbnb listings are typically forced to list their location as Beaverdell, which is a drive of just under an hour down Highway 33. When visitors post content to social media, it is often geo-tagged to Beaverdell or the Kootenays.

But most significantly, when short-term vacation rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO take a booking they also collect a three per cent MRDT (hotel) tax. That money is meant to promote tourism in the community where the booking was made, but the lack of a Big White postal code means the money has at times been going elsewhere.

“We alerted the finance department of one company that was submitting differently and we recovered just over $300,000,” Ballingall said.

Airbnb did not start collecting MRDT taxes in B.C. until 2018, meaning it was not an issue prior to that. Platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have also surged in popularity in recent years at Big White.

The number of short-term vacation rental listings at Big White have doubled in three years, Ballingall said, as more individual accommodation owners opt to operate their own units rather than work with larger property management firms.

Previously, Big White central reservations collected over 75% of the MRDT tax on the mountain.

“Now that Airbnb is so big, we have to make sure [the MRDT money] is going to the right place,” Ballingall said.

The resort also wants their visitors to be going to the right place. Ballingall says they occasionally get people showing up in Beaverdell wanting to check-in to their Airbnb or VRBO, because that is the listed location of their accommodation.

Getting businesses properly listed on Google Maps at Big White, and not in Beaverdell, can also be an ordeal. Couriers will not deliver to the resort in most cases.

In his discussions with Canada Post, Ballingall says they have been told they would have to open a post office to obtain a postal code, but there is no commercial space for an economically feasible post office.

Sun Peaks, for example, has a postal code without a post office. But that community is incorporated into a municipality.

Ballingall last week sent a letter to the resort's local elected representatives for all levels of government asking for help with the issue.

Castanet reached out to Canada Post for comment last week but has not received a response.