BC Government News Release: Province Moving Forward with Short-term Rental Registry

The Government of British Columbia is moving forward with the new Short-term Rental (STR) Registry and requirements for anyone operating a short-term rental in the province, and listing on platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and others, to register their listings by May 1, 2025.

Requirements for Short-Term Rental (STR) Hosts

The requirements, as announced in January 2025, will require hosts to register in order to receive a provincial registration number which must be displayed on all online listings. Hosts who do not comply and who do not have a provincial registration number will have their listings taken down starting in June 2025.

In response to requests from STR platforms to allow for additional time to implement these requirements on their platforms, the timeline for when platforms are legally required to validate provincial registration numbers and automatically remove illegal listings has been extended as follows:

• As of June 2, 2025, if a short-term rental listing does not have a valid registration number, platforms must stop advertising the listing and prevent new bookings from that host or face a possible investigation and potential monetary penalty. This date was previously May 1.
• As of June 23, 2025, platforms must cancel all future bookings from hosts without a valid provincial registration number or face a possible investigation and potential monetary penalty. This date was previously June 1.

Read the full news release: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025HMA0032-000389

Learn more about short-term rental rules and requirements for hosts: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/short-term-rentals/short-term-rental-legislation

Information for Short-Term Rental Guests

The responsibility to register and follow BC’s short-term rental rules falls on the host and booking platforms. Short-term rentals that have not registered will have all existing bookings cancelled as of June 1, 2025. Guests will not be responsible for cancelling trips.

To help make sure everything goes according to plan, guests can check with your short-term rental host directly to confirm they comply with provincial requirements, their local government bylaws, and are or will be registered with the provincial registry.

For more information, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/short-term-rentals/information/visitors