On December 16, the Quebec government launched its Registered Tourist Accommodation Establishments Directory, the final tool in the province’s Bill 25 aimed at fighting illegal short-term rentals.
The directory, which is publicly available, allows guests to search for a short-term rental within Quebec and confirm its validity. The directory provides information on the rental’s category (whether it’s a principal residence or an accommodation outside of the owner’s principal residence), the property’s registration number, the expiry date of its registration certificate, and the property’s address.
Guests can search the directory using the short-term rental’s registration number, postal code, city, tourism region, or by the category of the establishment. All short-term rentals—meaning any property rented for 31 days or less—are registered on the directory, regardless of whether it’s a cottage, a condo, or a house.
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The directory is intended to provide more transparency to guests while keeping short-term rental owners as well as third-party sites, such as Airbnb and VRBO, in compliance with Quebec’s Tourism Accommodation Act.
Through the act, which was implemented in September 2022, the province has been tightening regulations around short-term rentals. This is partially to combat the country’s housing crisis but also in response to a deadly fire that occurred in March 2023 at an illegal Airbnb in Montreal, killing seven people.
Under the act, all short-term rentals must now be issued a registration number from the province. To receive a registration number, the short-term-rental owner must receive approval from their local municipality, show proof of at least $2 million in liability insurance, and then submit an application to Quebec’s tourism industry corporation (CITQ). To apply, owners must pay $53 to register a principal-residence rental and $153 for a non-principal-residence rental.
The province sends the owner a registration certificate that’s valid for 12 months. The certificate must be visibly displayed at the property, and the registration number and its expiry date must be included in all of the short-term rental’s listings and advertisements.
Previously, some owners were skirting these rules by using the same registration number for all their properties rather than registering each one. To clamp down on this, the province introduced hefty fines on September 1, 2023.
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The province can now fine any non-compliant owners up to $50,000. And it can fine any third-party sites, such as Airbnb or VRBO, up to $100,000 for allowing a Quebec short-term rental to list without a valid registration number. This has forced the responsibility of policing listings on the third-party sites.
Since introducing the fines, the province says it has seen a significant difference. In January and February 2024, Quebec had a 90 per cent compliance rate with its regulations on Airbnb and VRBO. A marked difference from August 2023, which had a 58 per cent compliance rate.
Between September 1, 2023 and March 1, 2024, Quebec saw a 67 per cent increase in short-term rental registrations. This was likely due to the threat of fines. Between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, the province imposed $5 million in fines to short-term rental owners across the province.
There has been some pushback to the province’s new regulations from owners and third-party sites, particularly around the directory. They’ve voiced concerns over the ability to search for a short-term rental’s address. For security reasons, companies such as Airbnb and VRBO typically don’t release a short-term rental’s address until after the booking has been approved.
The province, however, is convinced that firm regulations need to be in place to stay on top of the industry.
“In a context where the use of transactional digital accommodation platforms is well established throughout the world, it is essential to regulate their practices here in Quebec to ensure greater fairness between the various stakeholders in tourist accommodation and to strengthen compliance with the law,” said Caroline Proulx, the minister of tourism, in a statement. “We have established the new legislative and regulatory sandbox, and we are giving ourselves rapid means of action to follow the evolution of this business model.”
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