Should Vancouver relax short-term rental rules during World Cup to counter soaring hotel rates?

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There are already strong legal protections to prevent landlords from kicking out tenants to turn homes into short-term rentals, she said. Relaxing the regulations — and licensing costs — for a few weeks during the Cup would allow people who have extra space, such as a bedroom, basement suite or laneway house, to make it available to visitors.

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“The city has all the levers it needs to address this,” she said.

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A file photo shows tourists outside a Vancouver hotel. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10110777A

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Vancouver could follow the lead of other Cup host cities and suburbs, including those in Kansas, Mo., and New Jersey, or the province could take its cue from Kansas, where the state government has prohibited local government from limiting the number of short-term rentals from mid-May to mid-July.

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The B.C. government recently showed its willingness to relax short-term rental regulations in Kelowna because its rental vacancy rates have been above three per cent for two consecutive years and the city has several major events planned this summer.

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But in a statement, B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle said the province has no plans to relax or suspend provincial short-term rental requirements in Vancouver during the Cup.

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“This means the province is not exempting hosts from either the registration requirement or the principal residence rules,” she said. “To be clear, short-term rentals are not banned. Visitors will still be able to stay in Airbnbs and other short‑term accommodations during the World Cup and other major events, and local residents are able to register as short-term rental hosts if they wish to rent out their principal residences — as long as they follow local and provincial rules.”

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The rules are part of the reason Vancouver’s hotel room rates have risen above those in New York and other major American cities on peak game days, according to a report recently published on Hospitality Net. At one point, the average room price in Vancouver was more than six times that of Houston, Tex., the most affordable host city, where the average room price was $225.

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The report, which was written by a content creator with Lighthouse, a data and analytics platform for the hospitality industry, found that, on average, hotel prices across all 16 host cities jumped 31.4 per cent when a game was in town. The spike was even more dramatic in Vancouver, when fans are expected to pay a $513 premium to stay on game day.

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It went on to blame a “perfect storm” for Vancouver’s hotel room rates, particularly supply stagnation.

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“Between 2002 and 2022, Vancouver saw a net loss of hotel rooms,” said the report. “Approximately 550 rooms were lost during the pandemic alone as the city and province purchased hotels (like the Days Inn and Howard Johnson) to convert them into supportive housing.”

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At the same time, high land costs and zoning laws led to the construction of residential condos rather than hotels because they offered quicker returns for developers.

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The report also blamed government short-term rental regulations for removing thousands of units from the market, citing a report commissioned by Airbnb that found a hotel price spike of up to 20 per cent in the first year of enforcement.

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Labour costs, including some of the highest hospitality wages in the country, and the cruise ship industry were also mentioned in the report.

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According to AirDNA, a data analytics platform that tracks short-term rental properties on Airbnb and Vrbo, Vancouver has the third-highest occupancy rates across hotels and short-term rentals on match days at 43 per cent. But Vancouver is seeing more one- or two-night stays compared with three-night-plus or five-night-plus stays in cities like Mexico City, N.Y., Los Angeles, Miami and Toronto.