B.C. Airbnb reservations at risk as government’s deadline looms

Airbnb owners in B.C. say they are concerned they may have to cancel reservations for the busy upcoming summer season due to technical challenges with the province’s registration system.

Alex Howell, Airbnb Canada’s policy lead, told Global News that the B.C. government needs to pause the implementation of its new registration system before Monday.

“There is a lot of frustration on both sides, especially with the busy tourism season coming,” she said.

Airbnb and other rental home services are required to cancel any listing not compliant in the system by June 23, but compliant hosts keep failing the validation process due to technical challenges.

“It has significant problems,” Howell said.

“They are being enforced, they are catching typos and missing spaces, we are working to troubleshoot through those issues.”

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Airbnb estimated that 650 listings are currently having technical error issues and they are trying to help those hosts, the company said.

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It added it is also working with guests to rebook them but sometimes that is a higher price point due to the demand.

“We are not asking the province to change the legislation at this point, we just want them to address the system they built that isn’t working,” Howell added.

The validation step is the final one in the overhaul of short-term rental policy in the province that severely restricts which properties can be rented out on sites like Airbnb.

This was put in place to help return properties to the rental market.

However, the province said it has given the hosts plenty of time to comply and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told Global News there are only three properties in the system that are experiencing issues.

Airbnb said there are many more than just three properties that could be cancelled on Monday and they are warning visitors to some of B.C.’s most popular destinations that they may still have their reservation cancelled.