Those looking to offer accommodations for a short-term rental – such as through websites like Airbnb – will soon need a business license to operate in the City of Guelph.
This comes from a unanimous decision by council on Tuesday to approve a plan to create a licensing program under the city’s business licensing bylaw to better regulate short-term rental accommodations.
Short-term rental means all or part of a dwelling unit that is used to provide sleeping accommodation for any rental period that is less than 30 consecutive days and does not include a hotel, motel, or bed and breakfast.
The city will be taking a reactive and proactive enforcement style – meaning complaint based would be reactive and proactive would be using a company to routinely provide the list of licenced operators.
Council will still need to approve an official licensing bylaw before the program can begin.
In January of this year, a city data provider, who has developed tools to quantify the number of short-term rental listings across multiple online host platforms, found 212 listings associated with 169 unique rental units in Guelph, the staff report says.