The mayor of one of the province’s tourism hot spots is applauding government’s decision to beef up regulations for short term rentals as seen on platforms like Airbnb.
Bonavista mayor John Norman says lack of regulation for such accommodations has been an issue for years. The town took matters into its own hands and brought in its own legislation a couple of years ago.
Norman says when the short term rental market began to heat up, things in the town quickly started to get out of control with council realizing regulations were needed.
He says BnB’s began popping up everywhere and began to eat up a big chunk of an already sparse rental market. There were also issues with parking, reduced laneways, and increased traffic late in the night.