Why Banning Vacation Rentals is Such a Bad Idea …Especially This Summer.

From Elvis to Airbnb: when popular movements clash with legacy power.

When good ideas get stomped on by deep pockets

May 20, 2025:

In the 1920s when radio stations started playing songs, record companies protested. They wanted business to continue as they designed it, where you had to buy the song from them if you wanted to hear it. So they tried to stop the radio stations. What they didn’t foresee was how radio would catapult their artists into the spotlight, offering massive free promotion. The result? The birth of the modern music industry.

This pattern is familiar. Every time a new technology or service that people love disrupts an existing industry, the incumbents fight back. And too often, lawmakers, out of step with innovation, fall for it, without seeing the greater benefits.

That’s exactly what’s happening with vacation rentals.

Governments, often unprepared for change, become easy targets for lobbying by entrenched interests. In the case of vacation rentals by owner, the losers are both travellers and homeowners. Millions have now experienced what it’s like to travel in a way that feels more human: staying in a home, with a kitchen, with their whole family under one roof, immersed in a real neighbourhood. It’s authentic, affordable, and flexible. The hotel industry’s response? “Not on our watch.”

But the genie is out of the bottle, people want this.

The hotel industry with its deep pockets has been waging war on this new way of travel, funding skewed studies and lobbying governments to paint platforms like Airbnb or VRBO as culprits in the housing crisis. Banning vacation rentals will not fix Canada’s housing crisis. It’s a convenient scapegoat. 

British Columbia offers a particularly clear case study. Public records from the BC Hotel Association reveal a coordinated effort to eliminate short-term rentals. Government lobbying, media messaging, and funded studies — all trace back to a single motive: wiping out the competition.

And now the costs are becoming clear.

Hotel room prices are skyrocketing. Tourism operators are scrambling to house visitors. Travellers are frustrated. Entire communities, especially those that had already licensed and regulated short-term rentals in designated tourism zones, are being penalized — and tourism is taking the hit.

Citizens who believe the future of travel is worth fighting for are now asking their leaders to reconsider.

BC’s law comes as domestic tourism heats up 

Tourism operators are expecting this summer to be scorching hot for domestic travel. Yet, the actions of the BC government stifle what could be a record summer for tourism and tourism spending. Instead of welcoming visitors in every corner of the province, tourists will now be clustered in expensive hotel rooms in hotel zones – leaving many communities and small businesses without the tourism spending they rely on. 

No one is calling for a free-for-all. Fair rules, taxes, and oversight make sense. But a blanket ban punishes responsible homeowners, limits choice, and undermines local economies. So the question stands:

Will lawmakers side with corporate hotel chains or their own communities?