Newfoundland's hospitality association calling for crack down on Airbnb
Hospitality NL wants to see tax money come into the province through the short term rental service
Hospitality NL is asking the government for a crackdown on services such as Airbnb.
The organization is asking for a limit to be put on days per year someone can rent their property. It also wants to see safety inspections as well as Airbnb operators registering with the government for tax purposes.
"Some of these recommendations that we're suggesting came from areas like Paris, France," Larry Laite, chair of Hospitality NL, told CBC News.
"Because they will not allow an operator to go on unless they have a business number."
Hospitality NL is suggesting the provincial government is losing out on tax money, saying in 2017 alone Airbnb could have brought in $1 million in HST revenue.
Airbnb's competition echoes Hospitality NL's sentiments.
"There's a big loss to the municipalities and, in general, on taxation, and municipalities here in Newfoundland and Labrador they need every cent they can get," John Steele of Steele Hotels said.
There won't be much of a fight from Airbnb, as the short-term property rental service agrees owners should be chipping in.
"We think as a platform our hosts should pay taxes. I know people get shocked when we say that, but we do. We think we should be contributing," Alex Dagg, Airbnb's public policy manager in Canada, told The Canadian Press.
Short-term rental problems
Laite says he has seen people purchase several homes with the idea of making fairly easy money by renting a property through a website.
"There's owners that I know that have purchased seven and eight homes in the downtown area with the intention of putting them on Airbnb," he said, adding neighbourhoods in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have been affected by operators who have bought up several homes to rent them out.
Laite says owners should be allowed to rent a room or two while they're there, but shouldn't be able to rent out an entire house.
"You can't host somebody in your house if you're renting out the entire house," he said.
"I wouldn't want it in my neighbourhood if your neighbour is renting out the entire house all summer long. Because people on vacation are just here to have a good time. They're going to be having their sociables, late nights, that sort of thing, and it could disrupt neighbourhoods."
But, some Airbnb operators, such as Brandon Copeland who rents a guest suite out of his own home, say these problems don't exist in St. John's.
"A lot of these [suggestions], really, in my view, are trying to address problems that don't exist in our city. They're more Vancouver and Toronto problems," he said.
While Copeland is not against regulations, he would like for Airbnb operators to be consulted before any changes go through.
"This is definitely an advocacy group that sees a change and is trying to perhaps lessen the blow through a lot of levies, taxes, regulations."
Airbnb's proposal in Ottawa on Thursday again expressed a mutual interest in the taxation of its hosts, but asked that the federal Liberals not enforce outdated rules meant for hotels on their service.
With files from Kate Mcgillivray and Canadian Press