Written Comments to the Short Term Rental Licensing Bylaw Draft of Jan. 12, 2024
Jayne McCaw, President of Jayne's Cottages
February 6th, 2024
Overall Comments
There are definitely some issues with owners who are renting out their properties without properly assessing and managing the renters. I agree with the need to regulate how properties are rented in order to monitor who is licensed and ensure compliance. But by over-regulating the licensing system, the council is risking making STRs overly complicated and expensive which directly risks the Township’s continued economic success (in a market that absolutely depends on seasonal income). Instead, Council should encourage more responsible short term rental growth to further enjoy a growing sustainable economy, encouraging business growth and employment. The chart below shows the annual impact of tourism spending in Muskoka. What happens if we have fewer tourists staying overnight at vacation rentals – look at the trickling effect of the lost revenue to the local economy.
Jayne’s Cottages advocates and promotes responsible rental management, best practices and codes of conduct to provide an optimal experience for guests, owners, neighbours and communities. As the co-founder of the *The Ontario Cottage Rental Managers Association (OCRMA), this association now collectively represents over 2000 properties and $60M in tourism revenue. This is a professional association working for long term sustainability for vacation rentals with cottage rental agencies and professional host owners who adhere to our responsible rental practices.
Actual Complaints
From my 9 years of experience operating short term rentals, and communications with the various townships and bylaw officers in those areas, it is well known that there is a dozen or 2 complaints of problem rentals every year, perhaps 15-20 complaints reported. But drilling down one finds that these are repeat offenders from a small handful of negligent owners, usually about than 5 or 6 owners, who are usually self-hosted on AirBnB. These owners are the 99.9% of our problems as they rent to anyone who will pay without regard for the neighbours and community.
Need for Short Term Rentals for Tourism for Sustainable Economy
In Muskoka Lakes, and other Ontario lakefront areas, there is an abundance of tourism demand for “cottaging in Ontario cottage country”. Many of my owners will decide it is not worth it to rent their property due to the licensing fee and hassles of attaining a license. Having fewer rental properties for tourists to “cottage” at will drive tourists away to other lakefront areas and this reduced supply of cottages will result in shops closing and further reduced staff levels, fewer jobs for the local workers, exacerbating the labour shortage in rural areas. The vibrant community we enjoy in the summer, with amenities such as marinas, restaurants, shops and seasonal employment will most definitely decline by each owner who chooses now not to rent. Visitors staying overnight at accommodations in Muskoka is the best way to fuel tourism growth as ever $1 they spend on accommodations, they spend $2 on everything else, such as gas, restaurants, boat rentals, food, etc. Each owner that decides to withdraw their property from the rental market would result reduced economic spending of 2 times their nightly rate, as those guests will not spend on other things they would have bought locally – and they will go to another lakefront area to cottage and spend their money there. This will result in new amenities and services to develop in those new lakefront townships, raising property values there and lowering real estate values in Muskoka.
Township Monitoring and Bylaw Enforcement Required
Engaging in a licensing program is only going to work if the Township has processes in place to ensure criminal charges are being levied to the full extent to those negligent owners. While licensing offers us the means to prosecute problem owners, it has to be fully enacted by the Township with set processes (and using software to spot the un-registered rental properties) and more Bylaw officers, otherwise the current problem owners will still be an issue. For example in the Township of Blue Mountain in Aug 2022.
“I still see a lot of people flaunting the STA bylaw,” said Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon, estimating he could go online and find 50 unlicensed operations advertising themselves at any one time. Aug, 2022
In my 9 years of business I have had one (1) bylaw complaint (property on Lake of Bays) and that renter now owns property on Lake Joseph and continues to have loud parties. This fact has also been repeated by Bylaw Officers in the many townships that I operate in, that noise complaints are just as often from the owners of the property as they are from the renters.
Final Comments
The licensing system that the Township is proposing is too onerous and too expensive for many of my owners to want to participate in (which could result in high value rentals going underground only exacerbating the issue).
I fully support licensing to increase the professionalization of our industry, but to protect vibrant economy we enjoy and to maintain cottage inventory, I believe that for Phase 1, the Township exempts those owners whom are currently renting with accredited OCRMA cottage rental agencies. If there are complaints with OCRMA accredited agencies, then implement Phase 2, requiring all owners to license.
In the end, the Township’s goal should be to protect strong tourism economy and support those owners and agencies that have been renting responsibly for years or generations.
The following are my specific comments on the Draft Licensing, Jan. 12, 2024:
1. Under 2.0 Applications:
(a) All existing Short Term Rental Accommodations that have operated for at least one (1) year prior to the passing of this By-law are required to apply for a license within 90 days of this By-law coming into effect.
Many owners want to get a license after they get a rental. Paying the $1000 registration fee and going to the effort of licensing and not getting a rental was not well received in some neighbouring townships such as Gravenhurst, Lake of Bays and Huntsville.
1. Under 3.0 Prohibitions:
3.5 No Person shall market, operate, or provide a Short Term Rental Accommodation:
(a) For less than seven (7) consecutive nights per stay within the time period of the Friday preceding the Victoria Day long weekend to the Friday proceeding the Labour Day long weekend of each year; and
The period from Victoria Day to the Canada Day weekend, school children are still in school and there are very very few rentals. Demand is low as Muskoka is a family place and kids are playing soccer, baseball and going to birthday parties in the city. There is no demand for week rentals. There are very few neighbour complaints during this time and demand is low, I think 2 day rentals should be allowed from Victoria Day to the weekend before Canada Day long weekend.
(b) For less than three (3) consecutive nights per stay within the time period of the Friday proceeding the Labour Day long weekend to the Friday preceding the Victoria Day long weekend of the following year.
No one rents for 3 days unless it is a long weekend. There are many times families want to get away for a couples weekend, ski doo weekend, Bala Cranberry Marsh weekend – but people will not take a day off work to stay a 3rd night. As there are not any complaints in the off-season, I think the community should welcome the off-season tourists to our region.
3. 5.0 Under Licensing Application Requirements:
(k) A Site Map identifying all buildings, structures, dimensions and surfacing of the parking area, all components of sewage systems, wells and landscaping features located at the Premise;
(l) Floor plans drawn to scale and fully dimensioned of the Short Term Rental Accommodation depicting each room and its intended use;
Not necessary for OCRMA/Tico Licensed Cottage rental agencies.
(p) Proof of sewage disposal system maintenance, inspections and pumpout servicing within the last three years;
(q) All websites or advertising methods upon which the Short Term Rental Accommodation will be marketed;
Many owners agencies market on many sites, including Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, VRBO, Airbnb, Booking.com, One Fine Stay, Pet-Friendly, Booking.com, Travel Agencies websites and other OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) etc. Many owners and agencies are testing online platforms all the time and many new platforms are being launched everyday, ie. Lake.com. I don’t think that this is possible to list all the online advertising that we are doing.
4. Schedule B – Demerit Points
To market, operate, permit to operate without a license or while license is under suspension should have a significant fine.
This is the case in Township of Blue Mountains who charges $2500 for operating without a license. These owners are the ones that create a negative perception of the entire STR market.
“I still see a lot of people flaunting the STA bylaw,” said Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon, estimating he could go online and find 50 unlicensed operations advertising themselves at any one time. Aug, 2022
5.0 Licensing Fees
$1000 License Application
$500 Inspection Fee
I think that the $1000 Fee is completely unreasonable. It looks like a money-grab and the perception is that the Township has a negative view of owners who rent their properties. In the real sense, the Township should be praising owner who rent when they can’t be at their cottage as it brings in incremental local economy revenue. I think $250 is a reasonable license fee. I want to ensure that there is not a mandatory inspection fee. The price of this is very high and should only be levied upon owners who are negligent in some regard.
