Almost a year after legislation meant to force short-term rental platforms to take action against unauthorized tourist accommodations took effect, rental giant Airbnb has yet to incur any fines — despite the continued presence of illegal listings on its site.
Under changes to Quebec’s Tourist Accommodation Act in September 2023, the province has the power to fine digital platform operators up to $100,000 per illegal posting.
However, when contacted by Radio-Canada and informed of several clear infractions on the site, Revenu Québec confirmed that, to date, no fines have been imposed on Airbnb — even since the implementation of the Tourist Accommodation Act in September 2022.
Other industry players, however, have been sanctioned over the past three years for violating the act. According to inspection statistics from Revenu Québec, 3,600 fines totalling more than $15 million were handed down between March 2020 and March 2024.
Same registration number for 26 units
Under the current regulations, a single license number issued by the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec (CITQ) cannot be used for more than one civic address.
Still, multiple units are using the same registration number on Airbnb listings.
According to checks carried out by Radio-Canada, the registration number 314144, for example, was, as of July 31, being used by 15 hosts to rent out 26 units in six different municipalities across Quebec.
(Fun fact: 314144 is the fabricated registration number used by the Tourism Ministry and CITQ in their news releases to explain the rules in force.)
In June, the Tourism Ministry gave operators of digital accommodation platforms like Airbnb access to its newly developed application programming interface (API), intended to make it easier for them to verify licence numbers submitted by their hosts by performing an automated search of ministry data.
But almost two months later, the API has yet to help solve the problem of bogus license numbers on Airbnb.
Asked whether Airbnb had begun using the API, a spokesperson said the deployment of this interface was still new.
“The system is in its infancy and we are currently evaluating its functionality,” the spokesperson said by email, adding that Airbnb “[continues] to comply with its obligations and [follows] the system put in place by the Quebec government.”
But the company said no other municipality or province has such a cumbersome system.
Airbnb had previously proposed that the Quebec government itself check the validity of listings and have them removed if necessary using the company’s City Portal, arguing that hundreds of jurisdictions have already gone this route.
Quebec has repeatedly rejected this proposal.
Public registry expected this fall
Despite the ongoing issues, the situation is improving, according to Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx’s office.
In April, a study made public by the Tourism Ministry estimated that the compliance rate for listings published concurrently on Airbnb and VRBO, a commercial vacation rental site, was close to 90 per cent.
At the time, Proulx stated that her government would continue to take action to thwart the 10 per cent of actors who find ways to circumvent the law, and that other draft regulations could be adopted to counter their strategies if necessary.
A public registry of all CITQ registration numbers should also be launched this fall, the office said.