Quebec Registration - Airbnb Not Accepting Certificat d'Établissement

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi!

I'm at a loss for what to do. I have tried 5 times over 12 days to upload my current registration and Airbnb fails to validate it every time. I have checked with both the Ministère du Tourisme and Camping Quebec but both say we are up to date and our latest certificate was delivered in September 2025 and is valid until October 31st, 2026.

We have tried reaching out, in french and english, to Airbnb for answers, but keep getting the same generic responses, and we are unable to contact the team that validates Quebec certificates in order to ask why ours keeps getting refused.

Lastly, we have bookings coming up in less than a week, and Airbnb won't allow us to cancel the bookings, but won't pay us out until our certification has been approved by their team.... essentially they won't pay us. 

Has anyone had any experiences like this? I'm tired, losing sleep and money with every passing day. Please Help!

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

Not familiar with Canada and registration, but did the registration expire and then you renewed it?

The CITQ says the registration with Airbnb must match the certificate EXACTLY:

"...IMPORTANT! When posting an accommodation offer on a transactional digital platform (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, etc.), ensure you transmit the identical information as on the registration certificate; address, postal code, name of the establishment, number of units, expiration date (in the format required by the platform)...

You can ask about this in the Montreal Host Club and see if anyone can advise:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Local-Host-Clubs/ct-p/en_clubs

Tagging @Dave-and-Deb0 to see if they have some advice?

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi!

Yes it's super complicated in Québec, there are 3 governing bodies that can issue registration certificates, CITQ, Camping Québec and one other. We fall under Camping Québec because we are considered a "glamping" experience. I have called CITQ who can't give me more info, and Camping Quebec AND the Ministry of Tourisme have confirmed my registration is valid. They can't offer me any more help than that, and say that Airbnb is the cause of the issue. Airbnb tells me to check with CITQ, so you can understand how I'm chasing my tail and can't get any further ahead.

I don't know what more to do, and sadly will not be able to continue and seek another platform which actually values human contact and not letting hosts have to fight their way to what should be a super simple renewal process.

13 days and counting...

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

I wasn't able to see your listing as I'm assuming it has been removed by Airbnb, but now with the info you provided it does sound complicated.

Did you let the registration expire and then tried to renew?

Was your initial registration with Camping Quebec?

Where is the listing located in Quebec?

Did you verify all the registration details match EXACTLY?

What is your property type in Airbnb? Tent? Dome?

Have you posted in the Montreal Host Club to see if anyone has had similar issues?

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi Joan

We have always been with Camping Québec because our cabins have no doors on the bedroom and it's an "open studio".

The registration was valid unti lthe 31st of October 2025, and we tried to upload our new certificate on the 17th of October, thus removing our profile for the "few days" necessary to validate our registration (reminder this is the 3rd time we renew, and we have never had any issues). This year same process, but this time we are on our 6th attempt. I have triple checked everything, and, if it is a human that verifies and not AI like the customer support people suggest, there should really be no issues.

So so frustrating, and I'm so ready to give up

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

Wow...I would not consider a cabin studio listing as "camping" just because there is not a separate bedroom with walls and a door, but if that is how they view it??

Since you renewed so close to the deadline, the system "removed your listing for a few days" - this is most likely causing the problem. You won't be able to re-register automatically as you have in the past. Someone at Airbnb (a human) will have to override this for you.

If you already hold a registration for your campground and/or ready-to-camp establishment, you must renew it before its expiry date. All certificates expire on October 31 of each year. The Tourist Accommodation Act and its Regulation provide that a renewal application must be submitted within the 60 days preceding this date.

• Renew your registration.
• Make the payment of the $153 registration fee set out in the Regulation.
• Update the tourism-related information of your establishment.

Renewal is done exclusively online; no postal mail will be sent.

Contact Airbnb CS 

I would contact Airbnb CS and explain all this. I would find your current listing and get a screen shot shot of your active registration from the Tourist Accomodation site and a image of your current registration and upload that to the Airbnb CS chat.

https://repertoire.hebergement.tourisme.gouv.qc.ca/

Try Changing Min Stay to 32 days

I would try changing the min stay to 32 days for now while you are working on getting this corrected. This might at least allow your listing to be visible in searches.

List on Other Platforms

I always recommend clients list on other platforms besides Airbnb, so hope you have already done that.

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Unfortunately it isn't possible to renew more than 60 days ahead, we received our new certificate mid September, but waited for a lull in our bookings before renewing because we knew it would shut our calendar while we waited for the registration to be confirmed. I have contacted Airbnb 6 times, spoken to several different agents and been transferred to a "specialized team" twice, but both times have been dead ends. The last message was this :

Hi Terre & Neige,

Thank you for contacting Airbnb.

Our department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive issues and written documentation of our communication is required.

We have sent you a test email to the email address provided on your account to continue this correspondence over email. Kindly note that the email might have been mistakenly filtered into your spam folder.

If you need to make changes to the email address associated with your Airbnb account, you can find more information in our Help Center:

airbnb.com/help/article/362

Once your email address is confirmed or updated, please confirm this with us so we can continue the communication via email.

Best,
Patrick B

Unfortunately we never received an email and the support closed the feed while sending this. They clearly do not want our business. The fact that they won't pay out until they accept our registration is raqueteering and theft, and clearly this mega giant of a business preys or profits off of small micro businesses like mine. We live on the land and offer high quality stays, and having a diverse revenue stream that makes our business profitable is essential. But they clearly have no intent on helping me through this, I have "fallen through the cracks" of this automated industry.

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

Airbnb has started a new confirm email verification. This sounds like you simply have not confirmed your email with Airbnb? They need you to confirm your email BEFORE they can send you an email with further details to update/renew your registration:

"...Our department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive issues and written documentation of our communication is required."

Go to:

Account Settings/Confirm Email

Then contact Airbnb and advise you have confirmed your email and have them re-send email to you. Be sure to check your spam folder as well after you have confirmed your email and they resend the email to you.

[Terre-and-Neige0]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. I have gone to setting but don't have an option to confirm my email. But I have always received airbnb emails and never had an issue.

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

If you don't see the confirm email at the top of account settings, check your spam folder. Verify the email address in your account settings is correct.

If you don't find any emails in the spam folder, contact Airbnb CS and advise them you did not receive an email from them and to please resend the email.

They will have to send you an email for you to upload the registration documents. You will not be able to do the registration yourself as in the past apparently.

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi again.

Okay I will try this and let you know. 

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

Just noticed....are you a Co Host on the listing or Co Host acting as Primary Host (Not Owner)?  The name referenced in the reviews is for a Will & Julia as Hosts?

Not sure but I believe the email to register the listing would go to the Owner of the listing - not a Co Host?

The Owner (if not you) would need to check their Account Settings for the confirm email message and/or check their spam folder for the email from Airbnb.

Not sure, but Airbnb may require the actual Owner to upload the documents under their email address and not a Co Host. 

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi.

no it’s on a solo account (Julia) but we both run the business from this account. Terre & Neige is our business and all emails go to our ****. 

It’s wild because if Airbnb checks (and not some AI system) and googles Terre & Neige or even checks the Bonjour Quebec website you can see we are registered. It involves thinking outside the box but since there is clearly a glitch on their end I’m at a loss for what to do. I’ve even provided them the contact details for both the Ministry of Tourism Quebec and Camping Québec and no one from Airbnb has reached out. It’s pretty wild and disappointing that we are at 13 days and counting and the issue has not been resolved. 

[Joan2709]

@Terre-and-Neige0 

You'll have to get the email from Airbnb to upload the documents. Start there. They will send the email to whomever is shown as Owner on the listing.

If the listing owner name on your Airbnb profile is different than what is on the registration certificate, you might have issues with that.

[Terre-and-Neige0]

Hi Joan,

I have received the email and am exchanging with them. 

This is my third year renewing and I have never had an issue with my certificate until now. For whatever reason it is not working this year, and they are asking me to give them two weeks to sort it out. Quite scary that I am being asked to host guests who have booked before I tried to upload my new certificate without any confirmation that I will get my payout and if something happens I will be covered by Aircover. Scarier still is that it is impossible to get timely answers as they “look into things”, meaning my small business and only source of revenue is not visible on the biggest online platform for what could be 28days (I am still waiting on my registration confirmation from them and today marks 16 days since my first of 7 attempts).

To say I’m stressed and disappointed at how we are being treated is an understatement. I can’t believe how difficult they are making it to get things back online.