Chris Zahn thinks back fondly on his 10-day vacation in Kelowna, B.C., this past summer, which included renting a boat, golfing and wine tastings at a number of local wineries.
“Kelowna was just such a big hit, ” Zahn told Global News. “We really enjoyed the lake community and we were definitely going to be back.”
The Calgary man, his wife Chelsea and three children along with another family rented a home through a short-term rental platform.
“There were nine of us. We had a large, comfortable place in the Lower Mission near the beach,” Zahn said.
“There’s a pool in the backyard, nice big garage for us to unload all of our supplies and goods.”
The two families were planning to do it all over again next summer, hoping to rent the same house, but proposed provincial legislation that would ban these kinds of short-term rentals may change where they vacation.
“We had something really reliable that we were going to go to next year again,” Zahn said. “But now … we’re going to have to look, we’re going to have to expand our horizons, strongly consider other locations.”
It’s the kind of potential hit Tourism Kelowna says it will be watching closely.
“We’re going to be closely monitoring. What are our guests asking for? Are they looking for short-term rentals? Is anyone being scared away by the uncertainty,” said Lisanne Ballantyne, Tourism Kelowna president and CEO.
Ballantyne said the organization supports the province putting in measures to create more badly-needed long-term housing.
“One of the number one obstacles that we’re facing as a tourism destination is staff housing and also having the service levels that people expect to get when they come to a beautiful resort destination like this,” Ballantyne said.
“And to have some short-term rentals now moving into hopefully the long-term rental market, we see that as a positive thing.”
But Ballantyne hopes lawmakers can strike a balance between long-term and short-term accommodation.
“What we would ask is a continuing discussion around exemptions and that means if you’re a legally-operating short-term rental operator, can that not be grandfathered in,” she said.
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“Can we continue with the tourist zones that you see in destinations like Kelowna and grandfather in some of those agreements?”
City staff have brought forward a policy for council to consider, allowing short-term rentals in a handful of designated areas across the city, but whether that will be allowed all depends on the provincial government.
That’s because even if the city gives the designated zones the thumbs up, the new provincial legislation, once tabled, could override that and make it illegal.
“We’re hoping we are somehow, as a community, going to come up with that fine balance,” Ballantyne said. “We do need to offer those types of configurations when those vacations, as multi-family vacationers are coming. We do need to offer that and there’s got to be a way we can do that within a legally operating short-term rental environment.”
The new legislation targeting short-term rentals is slated to go into effect in May.
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