Calgary Rental AirBnB Rules

Calgary has a robust rental market, and the niche of AirBnB rentals within it, is even more lucrative and robust. But with great rental returns, comes a spectrum of hard work, headaches, and liabilities. Our Calgary Airbnb Management company can help you navigate this area with ease, doing all the work for you, at minikin commission

Since February 2020 Calgary has set out, and enforces AirBnB rules within its parameters. This made AirBnB property management more difficult in Calgary. These rules, and Calgary AirBnB licensing requirement are only within city limits, and areas like Okotoks, Airdrie, Chestemere, and Cochrane, do not have, or follow, these rules at all.

The city of Calgary now requires a Short Term Business License to be issues for each unit that is rented on AirBnB. Yes, that means if you have a legal basement suite, and are renting both the upper floor, and the legal basement suite on AirBnB, you will need 2 City of Calgary Short Term Business Licenses. These Licenses are as such:

Tier 1: 1 to 4 rooms offered for rent ( bedrooms)

Tier 2: 5 or more rooms offered for rent (bedrooms)

The Airbnb rules that apply to short-term rentals in the city of Calgary: With our AirBnB property management services, we ensure the following for you

1. Hosts are not able to rent out rooms that do not have a proper egress window in it. That means no using dens, or offices, as an AirBnB rental room within your home, unless it has a proper egress window

2. Only 2 adults are allowed per room. this will not include infants. This Means no stacking 4 bunk beds in a bedroom. This will be a violation, and a safety hazard

3. Hosts are not allowed rent out rooms to separate people, unless the reservation falls under one owner. This means you cannot use your rental as a boarding house

4. In your AirBnB listing, you must include your business license number. This is a good thing to do to keep bylaw away

5. In an easy to find area, you as the host, must post your licence, name, email, and phone number, for guests. This must be easily seen

6. You must keep a record of all guests that have stayed. It must be in English, and easy to read, At any time, the city may request this information. The record must include the following

   • Full name and email address of a paid guest

   • Duration of their stay at your Calgary AirBnB

Tier one licenses are easier to obtain than their Their 2 counterparts. This is because for tier 2, as you have increased occupancy, you must have more safety code upgrades, and go through more inspections. For example, the City of Calgary fire department must inspect your home, prior to receiving a Teir 2 license. They will be looking at all sorts of safety violation, inducing, but not limited to, if you have enough smoke detectors, and if they re all wire together, so they can communicate to each other. This can be a costly upgrade in older homes in Calgary. They Will follow the  Alberta Safety Codes Act Fire Code Regulation.

Consult with a reputable AirBnB property management company in Calgary, to check with any legal and city hurdles you may face. We will consult at no cost, because we take AirBnB property management seriously.

Airbnb – what consumables you should stock up: Required Airbnb consumables

​A frequently asked question, by our clients who hire us to manage their AirBnB rentals in Calgary and Edmonton, is what they should supply for their Airbnb. From furnishings, to decor, to even consumables. Every Airbnb will be different. For example, a Calgary Airbnb management company will recommend that driveway salt is needed, as a mandatory consumable item. As opposed to a Las Angeles management company, will recommend things like like sunscreen. The consumable items you will need in your AirBnB will vary, but here are some recommended basics

Garbage bags – this item is a must, of course you want your guest to have the opportunity to keep your home clean. Garbage bags are an essential to keeping your AirBnB home in top shape for your current guest and, all future guests. Depending on the size of your home we recommend large garbage bags and small ones. Large garbage bags because if you allow long stays, better to have one large garbage bag being used then 10 small ones. Like previously stated, the AirBnB guest can keep your home neat and tidy. 3BNB in Calgary and Edmonton recommends small garbage bags for the bathrooms, to keep the area smelling nice and looking nice. We all know the garbage can get get pretty dirty very often when you don’t use preventative measures (garbage bags) to keep them tidy

Paper towel – This is another method of helping your guest help you. Most people offer dish towels and clothes only. This is not to say that those items are bad, and they sure reduce your costs for you, but you should offer both towels and paper towel. Paper towel prevents your towels from getting all stained etc. Most guests won’t clean the towel after wiping up a mess. The paper towel can be tossed in the garbage and not worried about later on. It’s one of the most widely used AirBnB consumable items we see. The best product we have used so far that lasts the longest is Bounty jumbo rolls. Bounty is thicker and more absorbent that the other brands out there. You can save money and buy no name or sponge brand however, these brands are thinner than Bounty, and they take more pieces to clean up a mess.

Toilet paper – this item is a necessity. Of course your AirBnB guests will need to go to the bathroom, like anyone. And if you are a good AirBnB manager, or AirBnB management company, you need to ensure you never run out of toilet paper when managing a AirBnB. A lot of people want to save money when renting through AirBnB, and think getting cheaper products will in turn save them this money. This is only partially true. Buying the cheaper toilet paper in the end makes the guest use more of the toilet paper. When you buy the more expensive consumable brands ie. Charmin, this lasts longer due to it being a thicker material. We normally only buy this brand when it is set a a cost effective price. Purex is another great brand that lasts long as well.

Laundry soap – This consumable is not a entire requirement, however most guests using airbnb are traveling around. This usually means they have dirty clothes and saving their limited suitcase space, they may want to reuse their clothing. Laundry soap also gives the guest the option to help you out and start the laundry for you before they check out of your home. If you don’t provide it consumable AirBnB items for the guests, you will still need to provide it for your maids, and they need to launder the linens for a great AirBnB guest experience. For a consumable like laundry soap, we receding just using the store Brand, no name items. Some AirBnB guests will message our Airbnb management staff in Calgary and Edmonton and request scent free detergent, as they are allergic. Taking care of items like this for AirBnB guests, ensured you end up a AirBnB Superhost! We typically use tide as this brand proves well in removing stains, and we all know with airbnb there are always stains.

Dishwasher tabs – we use tabs for the dishwasher, instead of a liquid soap, to have efficiency and not to waste any consumables.These tabs help the guest to put all their dishes in the dishwasher before leaving. This gives them yet another opportunity to help you out with the cleaning of your home. Our team uses a couple brands as both perform exceptionally well and are equal. We use Cascade and Finish, they both have the best value per pod and come in large quantities. Calgary and Edmonton have calcium in their water, so you may need to clean some items out in the dishwasher from time to time

Dish Soap – This AirBnB consumable item is not a necessity however, this item helps with bigger groups or guests having people over during their stay. If the dishwasher is too full or some guests enjoy doing dishes by hand, this soap helps them achieve that task. Even though most of our Calgary and Edmonton AirBnB rental units units have a dishwasher, we go through quite a bit of dish soap as well as dish pods. We buy the Palmolive brand that comes in a pack of 3 bottle for $5. This brings the price down if you buy in bulk. Buying AirBnB consumables in bulk can be done for all the consumables in this article and this prevents you from wasting time when managing the AirBnB, and driving to the rental units inefficiently and too frequently

Shampoo, conditioner, body wash– typically travelers bring their own toiletries, however, most AirBnB users do not bring toiletries. Mostly it is hotel stayers as they know the products the hotels have aren’t always effective products. Supplying your own ensures the AirBnB guests you manage, know you care about them, as a super host. We buy in bulk by buying larger bottles, to keep things efficient. We buy between 900ml and 2L bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. For each we have a preferred brand; shampoo, conditioner , and body wash we use Equate brand. This brand very similar to Treseme brand for hair and ivory body wash. They do the same task and work just as well.

Like any AirBnB management company in Calgary, we want to do the best job possible for all AirBnB guests. Whether we co host a home, manage an AirBnB, or it’s our own private apartments we rent out short term, providing consumable items is key for having a great experience, and generating a great income from AirBnB rentals

What's the catch with the AirBnB gold rush? Is it as lucrative as everyone makes it out to be?!

I rent out and run a business that helps customers optimize their Airbnb listings to help them generate maximum ROI on their properties

Airbnb can be quite lucrative, but can also be difficult to manage and operate, and can cause operational headaches. This is why you need a short term property management company to help you achieve maximum ROI

I won't get into the profitability or how to achieve the highest ROI possible using Airbnb as that is for another post, but the “danger” is this: (please note this mainly pertains to condo buildings, or when you rent out Airbnb to compete against hotels). This is why we understand management of AirBnB

Airbnb is still in the grey area of regulation, for both municipalities, cities, condo building boards, and insurance companies (that cover the buildings themselves)

Depending what condo building you are in, and what city, you are basically rolling the dice on operating it. At any given time, you can be shut down and forced to cease operations by condo board. If you don't comply, they will force you to sell the unit. Even if the condo board approves the operations, nothing prevents a new election and subsequent board from changing their minds on it. Isn’t co hosting AirBnB hard?

So picture yourself buying a unit, operating it as a Airbnb and getting a higher ROI, just to have this happen

1.      Building Catches on and make you stop

2.      City regulations change, and you have to stop

3.      Condo board changed their bylaws

You are forced to convert the unit into a regular long term rental then, (and the economics may make no sense as an investment anymore) or you need to sell it, losing on realtor, and closing fees. Do not let this happen. As the best AirBnB management company around, we know the short term rental landscape, and regulation

To learn more about short term rentals and to get your property listed on AirBnB, and turn your rental property into a top performer, check get in contact with us, and see the steps we take yo ensure you are running a compliant, cash flow positive, stress free AirBnB