BURST
For longtime Vancouver Airbnb host Anne Talbot-Kelly, the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings an opportunity to generate extra revenue through something she would be doing anyways.
Talbot-Kelly has rented out a spare bedroom in her westside home since 2010. It’s already almost fully booked during the Cup dates in June and July, including guests from Texas, Idaho, South Carolina, New York, Saskatchewan and Germany.
She usually rents the suite, which has its own private bathroom, for around $175 per night. During the Cup dates, she’s increasing that to $225.
“It’s a little bit higher than I usually do,” she says, “but I don’t like gouging people.”
A recent scan of Airbnb listings shows some Vancouver units listed for rent during the tournament dates at four and five times the current rates.
Meanwhile, data suggests many local residents are exploring the possibility of opening part of their homes to strangers, or vacating their property and renting out the whole place, for the first time.
There are about 23,000 legal short-term rental listings across B.C., the province says, a number that remained roughly stable over the second half of last year. The City of Vancouver, which like many cities has its own municipal licensing regime for short-term rentals, issued 3,576 licences last year, which was only a slight increase over 2024.
But in the early part of this year, the city has seen an uptick in interest, receiving 257 new short-term rental applications in January 2026, a 130 per cent increase over the same period the previous year.
Airbnb, the largest short-term rental platform and an official “tournament supporter” of the Cup, hopes a new incentive program offering cash to new hosts will make the venture worthwhile for more homeowners.
For British Columbians considering becoming professional hosts for the first time, they must navigate a new and somewhat complex — and, in Vancouver, particularly expensive — regulatory regime, before listing their space for rent.
Here’s what to know about renting your home out during the World Cup.
What are the rules?
B.C.’s short-term rental regulations , which came into effect in May 2024 and apply to communities with a population of more than 10,000, restrict short-term rentals to principal residences, or to a secondary suite or “accessory dwelling unit,” such as a laneway house.
The requirement means that one person who owns multiple condos or houses can’t legally use them all for short-term rentals. However, if a homeowner is going to be out of their home, they can make the property available for short-term rental. A homeowner can also rent out a spare bedroom in a larger house where they live.
The rules are intended to ensure that vacation rentals don’t adversely impact the availability of housing for long-term residents, while still balancing the needs of tourism.
B.C.’s rules allow hosts to list one secondary suite or an accessory unit for short-term rentals, if it’s on the same property as the host’s primary residence.
However, some municipalities, including Vancouver, don’t allow this. In Vancouver, if you live in a house with a vacant basement suite, you can rent the unit to a long-term tenant, but not short-term. You may only list a secondary suite for short-term rental if that specific unit is your home.
If you’re a renter, you may be able to list your home for short-term rental, but only with your landlord’s written approval.
If your home is part of a multi-unit property, such as a condo building, you will need your strata corporation’s approval before applying for a licence. Many strata prohibit short-term rentals.
How does a host get licensed and how much is it?
If you want to rent out a residential property to short-term guests — defined as periods of less than 90 days — you will need to register with the B.C. government and, depending on location, with your municipal government. Applicants can usually expect to receive a registration number from the province within 10 days of applying, the B.C. Housing Ministry said in late February.
Registering your short-term rental with the province costs $100 per year and information about the process is available online . The additional fees charged by municipalities vary greatly.
The City of Vancouver has enforced its own regulations around short-term rentals since 2018. The rules require hosts to be licensed, which in 2018 cost $49 annually along with a one-time $54 activation fee.
Fees increased incrementally over the next few years, but in 2023, Vancouver’s current city council, citing concerns about short-term rentals’ impact on the housing market and ineffective enforcement, hiked the fee by more than 800 per cent , to $1,108 per year.
Several other B.C. cities have their own licensing requirements, but Vancouver’s fees seem to stand out as the highest. A short-term rental licence in Surrey costs $350 annually. In West Vancouver, it costs $450 for the first year, and $350 per year after that.
But for those without a current licence who are only interested in cashing in during the Cup, Vancouver’s high fees and the requirement to register with two levels of government could be a barrier to entry. That’s why Airbnb has been lobbying since last year for special event hosting rules.
But the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government both say they’re not planning to relax or suspend the rules during the Cup. The province cited a need to protect long-term housing stock for people who live and work here.
How much could a host earn?
A study commissioned by Airbnb and completed by Deloitte estimated that Vancouver hosts could earn an average of $4,200 by renting their space during the tournament, compared with an average of $2,700 in Toronto, which is also hosting Cup games.
Of course, if a Vancouver resident only wants to do short-term rentals during the Cup, the nearly $1,300 in municipal and provincial fees would eat into those earnings.
Airbnb hopes a newly announced incentive program might help make hosting more appealing for those on the fence. On Feb. 18, the company announced what it described as its largest incentive program for new hosts, as it seeks to add more properties to its platform to meet “surging demand for stays” during the Cup. Under the offer, new hosts who list their entire home in any of the 16 Cup cities and welcome their first guests before July 31 are eligible to receive roughly $1,000, or US$750.