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Alberta hotel group slams Edmonton report on short‑term rental rules
Correction Sept. 17, 2025: An earlier version of this article stated the urban planning committee recommended against tighter short-term-rental rules and would focus on education. While administration recommended against new restrictions, councillors on Sept. 9 directed staff to return with regulatory options, including platform accountability, mandatory data-sharing and a three-strikes enforcement model.
The Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) has sharply criticized a City of Edmonton report on short-term rentals, saying the administration’s recommendation failed to account for the impact on housing and on legitimate tourism businesses.
According to CBC News, the report was presented to Edmonton’s urban planning committee and advised against tightening rules for operators such as Airbnb and Vrbo. City administration pointed to low levels of nuisance complaints and concerns about enforceability. Since May 2024, the number of licensed short-term rentals in Edmonton has risen by 70 per cent, but those units make up only 0.3 per cent of total bylaw complaints.
Councillor Michael Janz reportedly raised concerns about “ghost hotels” and pressed for stronger oversight. He suggested measures such as requiring hosts to live on-site and creating a three-strikes rule for problem operators.
The AHLA said the city failed to consult the tourism industry when preparing the report.
In an AHLA news release, Tracy Douglas-Blowers, CAE and president of the AHLA, pointed to lessons from Vancouver’s licensing system: “When Vancouver implemented a similar system … what they found was that there were incorrect or inaccurate, or frankly fraudulent licence numbers being used,” she said. “So without the ability for the city to separately validate that, it’s really up to the host to be accurate and honest in putting that information.”
Douglas-Blowers argued that without third-party validation of licence numbers, Edmonton’s model risks being undermined by fraudulent or misleading data.
