The Town of Hinton has lowered its cap on short-term tourism suites following pushback from the community and the hotel industry.

Council approved an amended bylaw on July 7 reducing the maximum number of Airbnb-style rentals where the owner does not live on site from 130 to 70.

Council passed the amended bylaw on July 7 after three months of debate and a public hearing. Mayor Brian LaBerge agreed that this was the most contentious issue this council has faced since being elected last October.

“There are just divergent views on what’s right and what’s wrong and we wanted to get to that balance,” LaBerge said. “What we wanted to do was to allow enough access to support tourism here but to respect the views of citizens.”

While proponents argued short-term rentals encourage tourism, provide homeowners with an additional source of income and give visitors more accommodation options, critics raised concerns about disruptive guests, reduced housing availability for long-term residents and lost business for local hotels.

LaBerge said one resident described seeing guests at a neighbouring short-term rental drinking around a fire at 5 a.m.

“If it’s your next-door neighbour, you can go and have a conversation with them,” he said. “But if it’s a business, it’s a little more complicated.”

As of July 13, Hinton had 57 approved non-principal short-term rentals and 12 applications. The following day, that number rose to 58 approved units. Because the town remains below the new cap, LaBerge said no existing operators will lose their licences.

Hinton also had 50 principal-residence short-term rentals and two pending applications. Those properties, where the owner lives on site, are exempt from the cap. Together, all short-term rentals account for just over two per cent of the town’s housing stock.

In addition to the new cap, the Town will maintain a waitlist, once the cap has been reached. While Town staff suggested licenses be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, council opted for a lottery system. Either way, an applicant is only allowed one property on the waitlist.

During a June 2 meeting, Coun. Dewly Nelson argued that the lottery system would prevent applicants from fruitlessly investing in properties and allow council greater flexibility to amend the bylaw if needed. LaBerge countered that buying a property while on a waitlist for a license was a bad investment.

Council also rejected exempting new builds from the cap, citing concerns that new neighbourhoods could become dominated by short-term rentals rather than permanent housing.

The mayor acknowledged that he often looked for short-term rentals when he travelled and that this kind of accommodation can often be more affordable for larger groups.

“There’s a part of the tourism market that looks to that, and we don’t want Hinton to lose out necessarily,” he said.

Tracy Douglas, president and CEO of the Alberta Hotel and Lodging Association, said the association had heard concerns from Hinton hotel operators about the issue and that the short-term rental market has grown significantly in Alberta over the last few years.

“We’re not concerned, as an industry, about people who are renting a room in their own home,” Douglas said. “But we are concerned about housing being turned into ghost hotels, which has impacts on the community and on the tourism industry.”

Although the association would have also liked a principal-residence requirement, it supported the most recent amendments.

“We feel that limiting non-owner-occupied short-term rentals to 70 protects Hinton’s housing stock, and it keeps it for people who live and work in the community,” Douglas said.

Douglas noted that hotels were subject to significant regulations that short-term-rental operators were exempt from, such as occupational health and safety, employment standards, housing requirements and swimming pool regulations.

She added how platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo need to ensure their hosts adhere to local regulations and provide data to prove these rules are being followed.

“Given that short-term rentals are a competitor in the accommodation space, they should be subject to the same kinds of regulations that keep hotel staff and guests safe,” she said.

Roxanne Jahnke, a Hinton realtor who operates a short-term rental, said the bylaw unfairly restricts competition with the hotel industry and limits homeowners’ ability to use their property as they choose. She opposed the recent bylaw amendments, taking specific issue with new builds not being exempt. She noted how she couldn’t get a license ahead of time for a proposed development.

“How does squashing new development protect the existing housing of Hinton?” she asked. “They can’t have it both ways.”

Jahnke added that Hinton currently had 58 house listings, an increase from the 30 listings in 2024 when council settled on a cap of 130.

“It’s not justifiable that they would relook at it and cut that number in half,” she said.

Operating an Airbnb allows Jahnke to keep her parents’ house, and she couldn’t share it with family if a long-term tenant was there. She also argued a long-term lease didn’t generate as much revenue, and owners were locked in with tenants.

“I just think people should have the right to make their choices,” she said.

Peter Shokeir, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter // info@thejasperlocal.com