Terrace, Canada Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Terrace, British Columbia and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, so long as it's the home you actually live in and you're the one running it. Terrace sits in the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, up in the province's northwest, and the two governments that matter to you here, the Province and the City, have arrived at more or less the same answer by two different routes.

The catch is that everything past a hosted stay has been closed off. The Province put Terrace inside its principal residence requirement, so a second condo bought to put on Airbnb can't legally be listed at all. Then the City went further, because Zoning Bylaw No. 2069-2014 picked up a definition of "short term rental" in its June 2024 amendment and never listed that use as permitted in a single zone, while section 3.1.3 of the same bylaw says a use not specifically permitted in a zone is prohibited from it. What the bylaw does leave open is a bed and breakfast, which it treats as a Level 2 home occupation inside your own principal dwelling, and that's a smaller business than most people arrive expecting.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly: which zones allow a bed and breakfast at all, what the Province charges to register you, the three separate taxes that attach to a night's stay, what happens when a neighbour complains, and who to phone in Terrace when something doesn't add up. Every figure below comes from the City's or the Province's own pages, checked in July 2026, and where a number is still moving I've said so. Before any of that, though, run the property through BNBCalc, because a hosted spare room in a town this size is a different business from the one most people picture.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Terrace, British Columbia?

That difference comes out of two rulebooks rather than one, and pulling them apart explains most of what confuses people about Terrace.

The provincial rulebook is the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, which defines a short-term rental accommodation service as accommodation provided to the public "for a period of time of less than 90 consecutive days". Section 14 of that Act then limits where you may provide one: in your principal residence, plus "not more than one secondary suite or other accessory dwelling unit" on the same property. That limit doesn't apply everywhere in B.C., mind you, but Terrace is named both on the Province's list of communities where the requirement applies and in Schedule 2 of the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Regulation, which lists the large municipalities the Act treats that way.

The city rulebook is the Zoning Bylaw, consolidated up to Bylaw No. 2345-2026, and it draws its line at 30 days instead of 90. Under its definition, a short term rental is "commercial accommodations in a residential dwelling unit provided to members of the public for a period of less than 30 consecutive days". That use appears nowhere in the permitted-use list of any Terrace zone, though, and section 3.1.1 says no land or building may be used for a use that isn't specifically listed under "Permitted Use" in its zone. So an unhosted whole-home listing isn't a grey area in Terrace. It simply isn't a use the bylaw recognises.

What the bylaw does recognise is a bed and breakfast, defined as "a Level 2 home occupation conducted as a short-term rental within the principal dwelling and operated by the occupying resident of the principal dwelling, providing temporary overnight accommodations and breakfast to guests." Read that definition slowly, because every clause in it is a condition you have to meet:

• You have to live there and be the operator. The occupying resident runs it. A management company or an absent owner doesn't fit the definition, so there's no version of this that runs itself.
• It happens inside the principal dwelling only. Section 7.1.9 is explicit that "a bed and breakfast shall operate only within the principal dwelling", which rules out the garage suite, the cabin out back and the laneway house.
• Four sleeping units, eight guests, maximum. The same section caps a bed and breakfast at four sleeping units "accommodating a maximum of 2 guests per sleeping unit".
• Your parcel has to be at least 550 m². That's the minimum for any Level 2 home occupation, along with a ceiling on floor area of 30% of the dwelling's gross floor area or 90 m², whichever is smaller.
• Parking is per room, not per business. The Level 2 rules ask for one additional off-street space, while Table 3 of the bylaw sets bed and breakfast parking at "1 per guest room", and section 2.1.1 resolves the conflict by saying the most stringent regulation applies. Four rooms means four spaces.

Zoning also decides whether you get to try at all, since a bed and breakfast is only possible where Level 2 home occupations are allowed. That covers the AR1 and AR2 rural zones, the RS1 rural suburban zone, the RB1 bare land strata zone, and R1, which is the low density residential zone most Terrace houses sit in. The R3 through R7 multi-family zones and the downtown commercial zones permit Level 1 home occupations only, and a Level 1 occupation "shall generate no client visits to the property", so a paying guest walking through the door is already a contravention. Do check your zone on the city's TerraMap before you plan anything around a specific address.

Two smaller provisions catch people out. Section 7.3.2 says a secondary suite "is not permitted in conjunction with the keeping of boarders or the operation of a bed and breakfast", so the suite you were counting on can't be part of the plan. And Vacation Accommodation, a separate use allowing up to six sleeping units with meals served in the principal dwelling, sounds like the answer until you check where it's permitted: the AR1 agricultural zone, and nowhere else in the city.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Terrace

Unfortunately for most people reading this, none of that adds up to an investment business. If the plan was to buy a house in Terrace, furnish it, hand it to a cleaner and let it run on nightly bookings, that plan is dead twice over: the Province won't register a property you don't live in, and the City's bylaw doesn't list the use anywhere in the first place.

The gap between the two governments isn't what you'd expect, either, because the Province allows your principal residence plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit, and calls its own requirement "the minimum requirement, or a 'floor'" that local governments are free to go past. Terrace has gone past it. Section 7.3.2 of the Zoning Bylaw bars a secondary suite operating alongside a bed and breakfast, so the extra unit the Province would let you register has nowhere to land under city zoning. Keep in mind that you need both governments to say yes, and the more restrictive one wins.

Three other doors turn out to be painted on:

• Temporary Use Permits don't reach you. Section 7.4.1 allows them only in agricultural, industrial and public zones plus the C3, GSC and ASC commercial zones, and section 7.4.2 limits them to a commercial or industrial use. No residential parcel qualifies, whatever the $1,000 permit fee might suggest.
• Rezoning is open in theory and a long shot in practice. A Zoning Bylaw amendment costs $1,200 under the Planning Fees Bylaw, and it buys an application, a public process and a council decision, not an outcome.
• Grandfathering is gone. Section 36 of the provincial Act removes legal non-conforming use protection for short-term rentals, so an operation that predates the 2024 definitions has no protected status to fall back on.

What remains is a hosted bed and breakfast in the house you live in, or a switch to longer stays. That second option is cleaner than it looks, since a booking of 30 consecutive days or more falls outside the city's short-term rental definition altogether and lands under ordinary tenancy rules instead. Just remember that the provincial registration requirement runs to 90 days rather than 30, so a six-week furnished let still needs a registration number even though the city has stopped calling it a short-term rental.

If a whole-unit listing is what you're after, the honest advice is to look at where the principal residence requirement doesn't apply. Both Hope and Merritt sit on the Province's exempt list, which changes the shape of what you can run in each. If you're comparing Terrace against the Lower Mainland instead, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Maple Ridge are all inside the same requirement Terrace is, so what differs between them is the municipal layer rather than the provincial one.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Terrace

Assuming your house clears the zoning test and you're still able to go ahead, you'll be collecting two separate numbers, from two separate governments, and your listing has to display both.

The provincial one comes first in practice. Hosts register through the B.C. short-term rental registry, and as of July 2026 it charges $100 a year where you live in the unit and $450 a year where you don't, plus a $1.50 service fee either way. The Province states plainly that fees "will not be refunded if an application is denied", so make sure the eligibility question is settled before you pay. You'll also need a BC Registries account, which runs off a BC Services Card if you hold Canadian ID and off a BCeID with a notarized identity affidavit if you don't, and that second route takes eight to ten days on its own.

Registration then renews annually. The window opens 40 days before your registration expires, with email reminders at 40 days, 14 days and one day out, and the Province can refuse a renewal outright where a host has failed to comply with a compliance order or to pay an administrative penalty. Changes to your registration information have to reach the registrar within 14 days.

The city's requirement is simpler, since it's a plain business licence and nothing more. Terrace requires one of "all commercial, home-based and/or mobile businesses" operating inside city limits, and section 7.1.5 of the Zoning Bylaw makes a licence mandatory for every home occupation, a bed and breakfast included. On the city's Business Licences page the licence year runs January 1 to December 31 with annual renewal, and fees "start at $68". That $68 is Table 5 of the Business Licence Bylaw No. 2112-2016, the rate for a home-based business, and it's the class a bed and breakfast most plausibly falls into.

I'd flag one honest gap there. Going through Bylaw No. 2112-2016 in full, there is no short-term rental, vacation rental or bed and breakfast classification anywhere in its fee schedule. The nearest neighbours are "Hotel or Motel", which requires at least three units, and "Apartment Building, rental lodging, boarding" at $28 for the first rental unit and $8 for each one after. So don't assume the counter will quote you $68 without asking. Make sure you confirm the classification with the licensing clerk before you budget, and expect a home inspection, which the city's own home occupations fact sheet says "may be required if clients are visiting the site or to verify the business activity complies with zoning regulations".

Two further limits sit on top. A dwelling unit may hold a maximum of two licensed home occupations, and only one of those may be Level 2 or Level 3, so a bed and breakfast uses up your single Level 2 slot. And once both numbers exist, they belong on the listing itself. Leaving the registration number off a listing draws an administrative penalty of up to $500 for a first contravention, $750 for a second and $1,000 for a third, and leaving off the business licence number carries exactly the same schedule under Schedule 4 of the provincial regulation.

Required Documents for Terrace Short-Term Rentals

Since neither fee comes back if you're refused, it's worth getting the paperwork right the first time. The provincial application is where nearly all of the document work sits, and the Province is specific enough that a reasonable-looking substitute will get your file returned.

• One piece of B.C. photo identification. A B.C. driver's licence, a BC Services Card, the combined card, or a B.C. Identification Card. Nothing else is on the list.
• At least two supporting documents proving principal residence. Acceptable items include a land title search, a Property Assessment Notice from BC Assessment, an ICBC Certificate of Insurance and Vehicle Licence, a home insurance summary, a property tax notice, a speculation and vacancy tax confirmation letter, a home owner grant confirmation, an affidavit, a banking statement or void cheque, or an official notice from a government agency. Watch out for one trap in particular: the Province says "screenshots or online look-ups from the BC Assessment website will not be accepted", so you need the mailed notice.
• A tenancy agreement or recent notice of rent increase, if you rent. Renters can register, and either document counts toward the two supporting documents above.
• A copy of your valid City of Terrace business licence, which the Province requires to be uploaded wherever the local government demands one. Terrace does.
• Your property details and personal identifiers. The address, the parcel identifier, the bedroom count, the ownership type, your date of birth and your social insurance number, plus co-host and property manager details where they apply.

If something's missing, you'll get a Notice of Consideration by email and eight days to supply it, which is a short window if the missing piece is a mailed assessment notice. Applications refused, cancelled or suspended can be taken to review within 14 days of the decision, on grounds the Province limits to new evidence, circumstances beyond your control, a technical error, or an issue the registrar failed to decide.

Terrace Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to take your first booking, there's still tax to sort out, and three separate charges can attach to a single night in Terrace.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
PST on accommodation	8%	B.C. Ministry of Finance
Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT)	2%	B.C. Ministry of Finance, for the Kermodei Tourism Society
GST	5%	Canada Revenue Agency

The 8% PST on accommodation is the base layer and applies to short-term accommodation across B.C. unless a specific exemption fits. The 2% MRDT is the local piece. Schedule 2 of the Designated Accommodation Area Tax Regulation designates "that part of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine consisting of the City of Terrace and Electoral Area E" at 2%, with the Kermodei Tourism Society as the recipient and a repeal date of September 1, 2030. Both apply to the total purchase price, and the Province defines that to include booking, cleaning, credit card processing, extra bed, guest, pet and resort fees, so a $40 cleaning fee is taxable alongside the room rate.

Who actually collects it depends on how you sell. If you list only through an online marketplace facilitator such as Airbnb, you don't register and the platform collects both taxes for you. Sell any other way as well, through your own site or a local listing, and you must register to collect and remit, at which point your PST number doubles as your MRDT number. Be aware that the exemption from registering isn't an exemption from liability: the Province says a host "remain[s] jointly and severally liable for any PST and MRDT not collected and remitted by the marketplace facilitator" on their accommodation.

A few exemptions are worth knowing, though two of them come with the same catch. Accommodation is exempt where your gross revenue is under $2,500 across the previous 12 months and reasonably estimated under $2,500 for the next 12, and it's exempt where the charge is $30 or less per day or $210 or less per week. Both of those disappear the moment the accommodation is listed on an online marketplace platform, which is to say the moment it goes on Airbnb. The exemption that does survive a platform listing is the long stay: PST and MRDT stop applying where the same person stays 27 consecutive days or more.

Then there's GST at 5%, which the CRA applies to accommodation occupied for less than one month costing more than $20 a night. A host who's registered for GST charges and collects it themselves, including on platform bookings; where the host isn't registered, the platform operator must collect and remit instead. Registration becomes mandatory once your taxable supplies pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, which a four-room bed and breakfast can reach faster than a spare bedroom will.

One last piece of arithmetic trips people up, because three different governments use three different cut-offs for what counts as a short stay and they don't line up: 27 days for PST and MRDT, 30 days for the city's zoning definition, and 90 days for provincial registration. So a 45-night booking sits outside the city's short-term rental definition, exempt from PST and MRDT, and still inside the registration requirement. Count the nights against the right rule rather than against a general sense of what "long-term" means.

Tax Deductions and Write-Offs

Your rental income is ordinary taxable income, and the usual deductions apply, but there's a federal rule here that turns local compliance into a tax problem. Section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies deductions for a "non-compliant short-term rental", meaning one in a place that doesn't permit short-term rentals or one that doesn't meet all registration, licensing and permit requirements. The denied share is your expenses multiplied by non-compliant days over total short-term rental days, and it applies to tax years after 2023.

Read that against the zoning rules and the stakes get clearer. Running an unhosted listing in a Terrace residential zone doesn't just expose you to a city ticket, it can strip the deductions off the income the listing earned. And the CRA isn't relying on you to volunteer it either, because Part XX of the Income Tax Act makes rental of immovable property a reportable activity, so platforms hand host and property data to the CRA directly. Running a bed and breakfast inside your own home also means apportioning almost every expense between business and personal use, which is fiddlier on a real return than it looks on a spreadsheet.

British Columbia Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Since that federal rule hangs off provincial and municipal compliance, the provincial framework is the layer that decides whether your whole tax position even holds up, and it arrived fast.

Three provincial rules took effect on 1 May 2024: short-term rentals limited to a host's principal residence plus one additional unit, the end of legal non-conforming use protection, and a duty to display a local business licence number on listings. The registry itself followed, and every host, platform and strata hotel platform operating in B.C. had to be registered with a number displayed on all online listings by May 1, 2025. Enforcement against listings came in two steps after that: from 2 June 2025 platforms had to stop advertising unregistered listings, and from 23 June 2025 they had to cancel their future bookings.

That last piece is the part that changed the game, because it moved enforcement off the inspector's clipboard and into the booking flow. A platform now validates your registration number before your listing stays up, and where a listing doesn't comply with a local business licence requirement, the platform must remove it at the local government's request. Platforms also hand listing data to local governments monthly, so a city the size of Terrace no longer has to find you.

The Province also handed local governments sharper tools. The maximum municipal ticketing fine rose from $1,000 to $3,000 per infraction, per day, and the maximum fine a regional district can seek on prosecution went from $2,000 to $50,000. Terrace hasn't taken its own tickets anywhere near that ceiling, which I'll come back to.

Which communities the requirement covers isn't fixed either, and that's the part I'd keep an eye on. A local government with a rental vacancy rate of 3% or more for two consecutive years can resolve to opt out, submitted to the Province by February 28 and effective June 1 of the same year, and smaller communities can opt in on the same annual cycle. Kelowna, for one, came off the list effective 1 June 2026. Terrace was still on it as of June 1, 2026, so nothing changes for this year, though the list is republished annually and it's worth checking each spring rather than assuming.

Does Terrace Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Coming back to those tickets, the answer splits in two, because the city and the Province enforce this very differently.

Terrace's own enforcement is complaint-driven and, by the numbers in its bylaws, fairly gentle. The city's Bylaw Department says outright that "much bylaw enforcement is carried out based on complaints received", and complaints arrive by online form, PDF or phone. Under the Ticket Information Utilization Bylaw No. 1827-2005, using land or a building in contravention of the Zoning Bylaw draws a $500 ticket and operating without a business licence draws another $500, while failing to comply with an order, direction or notice runs to $1,000. Those sit well under the $3,000 daily maximum the Province now allows.

The number underneath matters more, though. Section 1.5.1 of the Zoning Bylaw says "each day's continuance of an offence under Section 1.4 constitutes a new and distinct offense", and section 1.5.3 exposes you on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 plus the costs of prosecution, while the Business Licence Bylaw carries its own range of $100 to $10,000 at section 27.6. So a single ticket is cheap, yet a summer of them is not, and that's exactly where owners get hurt.

Provincial enforcement, meanwhile, runs on a different scale of money, since the Compliance and Enforcement Unit can investigate, issue compliance orders that get filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia and then enforced as court orders, and levy administrative penalties under Schedule 4 of the regulation. Failing to register carries up to $5,000 for a first contravention, $7,500 for a second and $10,000 for a third or later one, and contravening the principal residence requirement carries the same ladder. Since section 27(2) of the Act lets separate penalties be imposed for each day a contravention continues, that ladder climbs quickly, and any penalty is payable within 60 days with 30 days to ask for a review.

Now, how much of that has actually landed? Less than the size of the numbers suggests. The Province publishes its compliance decisions, and as of that page's April 1, 2026 update the published list contains exactly one enforcement action, against a single named party in March 2025. I couldn't find a council report, staff report or news release about short-term rental enforcement in Terrace specifically either, so I'm not going to tell you the city runs an aggressive program when nothing in the public record says it does.

None of that is the comfort it sounds like, though, because the binding constraint in Terrace isn't the fine, it's the listing. Platforms validate registration numbers before a listing goes live, and a registration needs a principal residence declaration the Province checks against documents. Enforcement doesn't arrive as an inspector at the door. It arrives as a listing that won't publish.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Terrace

Given how much of that turns on whether your address qualifies in the first place, the order below saves the most money, since the early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth paying for.

1. Check your zone before anything else. Look your address up on the city's TerraMap or phone Development Services at 250-615-4022. A bed and breakfast is only possible where Level 2 home occupations are permitted, which means AR1, AR2, RS1, RB1 or R1. In R3 through R7 or downtown, stop here.
2. Measure your parcel. Level 2 home occupations need at least 550 m², and under that the answer is no regardless of how the house is laid out.
3. Confirm the house is your principal residence, since the Province won't register anything else in Terrace and the city's bylaw narrows it further to the principal dwelling.
4. Design the stay to fit the definition. Four sleeping units maximum, two guests per unit, breakfast provided, you living in and running the house, one off-street parking space per guest room, and no secondary suite alongside it.
5. Apply for the City of Terrace business licence. Contact Building & Business Licences on 250-615-4000 and confirm the classification and fee before you budget. Expect a possible home inspection.
6. Register with the provincial registry and pay the fee. $100 a year for a rental in the home you live in, plus the $1.50 service fee, with your ID, two proofs of principal residence and a copy of the business licence uploaded. Don't forget that the fee isn't refundable if the application is refused.
7. Put both numbers on every listing, alongside an address that exactly matches your registration, since platforms validate the match rather than the intention.
8. Sort the tax out before the first guest. If you're selling only through a platform, PST and MRDT are collected for you; if you sell any other way as well, register with the Province. Watch the $30,000 GST threshold as bookings build.
9. Diarize the two renewals. The business licence runs January 1 to December 31, and the provincial registration renews on its own annual date with a window that opens 40 days early.

Once the rules are clear, the harder question is whether the numbers work at this scale, and that's worth answering with data rather than optimism. The Canada market numbers are worth a look at what hosted stays clear nationally before you commit to furnishing four rooms in a northwest B.C. town.

Who to Contact in Terrace about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever step you get stuck on, three offices handle almost all of it between them, and knowing which one owns your question saves a detour.

Zoning, permitted uses and your specific address

Development Services handles planning, zoning and development applications, so it's the first call about whether your parcel and zone allow a bed and breakfast.

• Address: 5003 Graham Avenue, Terrace, BC V8G 1B3
• Phone: 250-615-4022
• Email: [email protected]
• Director of Development Services: David Block, 250-615-4028, [email protected]

Business licences and inspections

Building & Business Licences, part of the same department, issues the licence and arranges any inspection.

• Building/Licensing Clerk: Mary Waite, 250-615-4000, [email protected]
• Building/Licensing Officials: Leo Francisco, 250-615-4027, [email protected]; Nathan Brooks, 250-615-4023, [email protected]
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Complaints, tickets and enforcement

The Bylaw Department issues the tickets and takes the complaints, so this line is worth knowing in both directions.

• Address: 5003 Graham Avenue, Terrace, BC V8G 1B3
• Phone: 250-615-4037
• Email: [email protected], or [email protected] for Bylaw Compliance Officer Dwayne Sheppard
• Complaints: the online Bylaw Complaint Form, or a fillable PDF returned by email

City Hall and the provincial registry

City Hall itself sits at 3215 Eby Street, Terrace, BC V8G 2X8, on 250-635-6311, with a fax line on 250-638-4777 and office hours Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Anything about the registration itself belongs to the Province instead: ServiceBC on 1-833-828-2240 or [email protected], open Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, with changes to an existing registration going to [email protected].

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Terrace on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those numbers get used more than you'd think, because the written rules and the lived experience have drifted apart, and I want to be careful about how I characterise that. What follows is my own read of the recurring themes rather than a survey, and I haven't quoted a Terrace host directly, because I couldn't verify a single Terrace-specific thread against a source I was able to open and read.

• The 2024 and 2025 changes hit small operators harder than investors. The people most affected in a town like Terrace were rarely running portfolios. They were running a suite, or a cabin, or a second house bought years ago, and the principal residence requirement removed all three at once.
• Confusion about which rule applies is the most common complaint. With a 27-day tax line, a 30-day zoning line and a 90-day registration line, hosts reasonably assume that clearing one clears the others. It doesn't, and that mismatch causes more accidental non-compliance than defiance does.
• Nobody argues anymore that the registry is toothless. That debate ended when platforms started validating registration numbers and cancelling bookings on unregistered listings in June 2025. What people argue about now is whether a principal residence rule built for Vancouver makes sense in the northwest, which is a different conversation.
• Terrace's own bylaw is the piece most people haven't read. Attention went to the provincial rules, so the city zoning that never listed short term rental as a permitted use tends to come as a surprise at the licensing counter rather than beforehand.

Take that last point seriously, whatever you think of the rest. In a small city, the rule that stops you is usually not the famous one. It's the one buried in a consolidated bylaw nobody outside the planning department reads, and it's the reason two hours with the actual document beats a week of asking around.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Terrace, BC in 2026?

Only as a hosted bed and breakfast in the home you live in. Terrace falls inside British Columbia's principal residence requirement, so a property you don't live in can't be registered, and the City of Terrace Zoning Bylaw never lists "short term rental" as a permitted use in any zone, which under section 3.1.3 makes it prohibited. What the bylaw does permit is a bed and breakfast as a Level 2 home occupation, run by the occupying resident, capped at four sleeping units and two guests per unit.

How much does it cost to register a short-term rental in Terrace?

Two fees apply. British Columbia's provincial registry charges $100 a year for a short-term rental in the home you live in, or $450 a year where you don't live in it, plus a $1.50 service fee, and neither is refunded if the application is denied. The City of Terrace business licence runs on a January to December year with fees starting at $68 for a home-based business. Confirm your classification with the licensing clerk, since the fee schedule has no short-term rental category.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Terrace, BC?

Three. British Columbia charges 8% PST on accommodation, the Terrace area adds a 2% Municipal and Regional District Tax collected for the Kermodei Tourism Society, and the federal GST is 5%. PST and MRDT apply to the total price including cleaning and booking fees. If you sell only through a platform like Airbnb, the platform collects PST and MRDT for you, though you stay jointly liable if it fails to remit.

What happens if you rent a Terrace property without registering?

The City can ticket you $500 for using a building contrary to the Zoning Bylaw and another $500 for operating without a business licence, with each day counting as a separate offence and summary conviction fines reaching $10,000. Provincially, failing to register carries administrative penalties of up to $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 for a first, second and third contravention. In practice the listing usually fails first, since platforms validate registration numbers before publishing.

Can you rent a Terrace property for 30 days or more instead?

Yes, and it's the cleanest route for anyone holding a whole unit. A stay of 30 consecutive days or more falls outside the city's short-term rental definition and under ordinary tenancy rules, and PST and MRDT stop applying at 27 consecutive days with the same person. Provincial registration is the exception: it only drops away above 90 days per booking, so a 45-night furnished let still needs a registration number.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.