Vancouver Short Term Licence

[Cléo-and-Carl0]

Hi Airbnb Community!

We have looked everywhere on blogs and forums... And haven't found anyone who went through the whole process of getting a licence for short-term rental in Vancouver BC.

The city and Airbnb make it look easy, in couple clicks, but when you read the requirements, it's not that clear... 

Bed and breakfast licence allow only 2 bedrooms to be rented. And the short term one says "Allow only one confirmed reservation at a time", what does that mean? You can rent only one bedroom? Or you cannot double book one bedroom but you are allowed to rent more than one in the same house?

I'm seeing a lot of information, and often contradictory... Like the interconnected smoke alarms hardwired or not.. and in 5 years an automated sprinkler system? That's a lot to ask for a sharing economy!!

I need some feedback from people who went through the process of getting this licence.

Thanks for your time.

[Doan0]

I'm hosting in Delta - Surrey , bc and when i go to city asked  airbnb licence they said no airbnb licence in the city systerm . what i have to do ? airbnb require me provide bussinese licence if not payout have been pause .

[Mary810]

You only need a business licsense in Vancouver.  The city of Vancouver

[Cléo-and-Carl0]

As Mary said, you only need one for Vancouver, not Delta nor Surrey.

I'm surprised to see all those license numbers on listings which are not following the requirements asked by the city... Are inspection done in them? How come someone can have 20 listings with different license numbers and "be his primary residence"!?!

Smell like under table money and loophole scam this license things when I don't get any information from anyone on this platform....

Just doing long terms at this point, so don't really care.. but still bothering me to not have any answers to simple questions...

[Cléo-and-Carl0]

And for the payment being paused, they only ask your real name and address since they will report you to CRA for tax purposes. (They are starting to take taxes at the source, like that when you do your taxes you can indicate how much you already have paid, like for your salary)

[Edgar163]

Hi Cleo & Clark. I am trying to get my license, and have read your post, that are from a few months ago. May I ask you how is your experience? Have you got your license? I'd appreciate if you share your experience. Thank you!

[Cléo-and-Carl0]

Hi Edgar,

We haven't done any license since we are doing long term only. We tried to gather all information to do this license for the times we have little holes between our long terms, but nobody ever seams to explain the process they went through, like it's a big Taboo!!

This strange silence simply indicate to us that this is a scam, that everyone with this license number is fake, don't follow the actual lisence rules or simply paid someone under the table to get it! I would be happy to have someone contradicting us on that, still waiting for answers....

Please share your experiences if you end up getting a lisence 😉

[Marina833]

We are in Vancouver and you MUST have a liscence. The city of Vancouver has hired eople to check on the listings and fines are $1000 day.

If you qulify-the online process is easy and Airbnb deals with colecting/remitting taxes at source.

[Cléo-and-Carl0]

So... Firstly, try to reread yourself, you message is full of spelling mistakes...

Secondly, yes we know this short-term license is a must have in Vancouver; you are not teaching us anything on that!

And finally... Did you went through this process and can share what happened? Did an inspector came to your house checking your smoke detector? What is the limitation of number of bedrooms you can short term in your house? I'm seeing so much infraction to the rules of the license on Airbnb listings that I'm not sure what they are actually doing other than getting the money...