Diana, I don't know what laws apply in Canada but this is what is going on in the UK/EU (leaving of course at the end of the month)
I added this post to another discussion on 'property type' so please excuse if it is not applicable but may help you pick out what airbnb might be doing it all depends on Canada's laws.
"I have raised this again with airbnb yesterday and you might be interested to know that I have accused them of putting conforming with EU commercial law before their considerations for ensuring that all b&bs in the UK conform with UK safety regulations (this won't/might apply in the Rep of Ireland) it will be interesting to see their reply. The two UK safety regulations which they are ignoring through their platform are:
1. You need a fire certificate if you have more than 6 bed places in a house (so if you have say 4 double bedrooms) and you are not allowed to let out rooms under the ground floor or higher than the 1st floor unless you are registered as a b&b with the local council. Fire risk assessments are also necessary for ALL b&b establishments even like mine where I let out one room, you might need to prove you have done that.
2. Secondly in the UK you need a Food Standards Agency certificate if you handle food - even opening a packet of croissants and putting one on a plate. If you simply buy packaged food and pass packaged food over then you don't need one (stocking a fridge with packaged food would not require a certificate). So all UK bed and breakfast property types (even one bedroom one's like mine) need a hygiene certificate.
To add your business details go to your account (click on your photo) from account > professional hosting tools > manage > edit your business details once entered it doesn't appear straight away on your listing but I found 24 hours later mine was there. Under additional information I wrote:
I am a sole trader providing bed and breakfast accommodation for one guest room, not earning more than £7,500 per annum so qualify for the UK government's exclusion of tax under rent a room scheme. Have been forced by airbnb to add information in the business details section to stop them changing my property type of 'bed and breakfast' or removing my listing.
Lastly I believe they have not emailed everyone. In my area (Leyburn) there are 84 listings with property type 'Bed and breakfast', 10 of them are pubs/inns/hotels and guest houses and are clearly businesses and some of them have been on airbnb a longtime before airbnb introduced 'property type' and business information and not one of them has business information listed (you see hosted by a business when viewing the listing). PLUS none of the other listings have business information and they have been on airbnb for years so why have I who only put my listing up in July been told I have one week to change my property type or have it changed/removed? "
