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

Do you own a place in Merritt, Canada and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that Merritt, a small city in the Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia, is one of the friendlier spots in the province to try it. Most of British Columbia now forces short-term rentals down to a host's own home, yet Merritt sits on the province's exempt land list, so that principal residence rule never bites here. You can legally run a whole second property as a short-term rental here. An owner in Kamloops, Chilliwack or Abbotsford can't do that anymore.

That freedom comes with paperwork, though, and it's the part people underestimate. Before a single guest checks in you'll need a City of Merritt business licence, a provincial registration number displayed on every listing, and zoning permission that, in most of Merritt's residential neighbourhoods, means applying for a discretionary use permit and hoping the city says yes. On top of that the province started enforcing all of this properly in 2025, so the days of quietly listing an unlicensed place and waiting to see what happens are over.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this the right way: how the zoning bylaw decides where a rental is even allowed, what the city licence and the provincial registration each cost, the taxes that attach to a stay, how hard any of it gets enforced, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from the City of Merritt's or British Columbia's own pages, checked in July 2026, and where something genuinely moves I've said so. If you're comparing Merritt against another market, run the numbers through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Merritt, Canada?

Three separate layers of rules stack on top of each other here, and keeping them apart is what saves people from nasty surprises. Merritt controls where a rental can operate through its zoning bylaw and whether you're licensed through its business licence bylaw, while British Columbia controls registration and the big-picture rules from above. Clear all three and you're legal. Miss any one and you're not, no matter how tidy the other two look.

Start with the definition, because it's narrower than most owners expect. Merritt's Zoning Bylaw No. 2284, 2020, consolidated to July 2024, says a short-term rental is any building or part of one rented "for any period less than 30 consecutive days and 90 days in a calendar year." Anything longer than a month falls out of this regime and into ordinary tenancy law instead. That 90-day figure matters, and it's worth reading carefully, since section 4.34.10 caps "the maximum length of stay for any guest" at 30 consecutive days and 90 days in a calendar year. The bylaw's wording is per guest, though several secondary write-ups online describe it as a flat annual cap on the property. Make sure you confirm which reading Merritt's planners apply to your address before you build a calendar around it.

Now the layer that makes Merritt unusual. British Columbia's Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act imposes a principal residence requirement across most of the province, which limits legal rentals to a host's own home plus at most one extra suite. Merritt is exempt from that. Schedule 1 of the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Regulation, last amended on June 1, 2026, lists the "City of Merritt" among the municipalities where the rule does not apply, which the province also confirms on its principal residence requirement page. In plain terms, you don't have to live in the property you rent out. A dedicated investment unit is still on the table in Merritt in a way it just isn't in the larger cities down the highway.

Being exempt from the provincial cap doesn't hand you a free pass on the local rules, though, because section 4.34.2 of the zoning bylaw still requires a valid business licence and payment of all applicable fees and taxes, section 4.34.3 requires written permission from the strata council if your unit sits in a strata, and section 4.34.4 says the licence has to be displayed on-site. So the honest one-line summary is this: Merritt says yes to whole-unit short-term rentals, but only in the right zone, only with a licence, and only after the province has registered you.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Merritt

Since the province stays out of Merritt's way here, the zoning map then becomes the real gatekeeper, and it's still where most plans either clear or stall. The zoning bylaw permits a short-term rental outright in only five zones: AR1 (Agricultural), C2 (Tourist Commercial), C3 (Regional Commercial), C4 (Corridor Commercial) and C6 (City Centre District). If your property already sits in one of those, you're in the easy lane, and you move straight to the licence.

Most homes don't sit there, and that's the catch worth knowing early. The R1, R3, R7, R8 and C5 zones cover the bulk of Merritt's actual housing, and in those a short-term rental is only a discretionary use, meaning it needs a permit the city can grant or refuse. In both the low-density R1 zone and the small-parcel R3 zone, in fact, a short-term rental is the sole discretionary use the bylaw lists at all. So for a typical Merritt house, running an Airbnb legally starts with an application, not a booking.

That application runs through section 4.5 of the zoning bylaw, where the Development Approving Officer weighs thirteen listed criteria before deciding. Those cover whether the use fits the zone's purpose, whether the site actually suits it, how well it sits with the neighbours, and the practical side of servicing, access and parking, with Council and public input folded in at the officer's discretion. The officer can attach conditions, has to give written reasons, and a refusal can be appealed to Council. There's no guarantee at the end of it, so don't sink money into furnishings before the permit clears.

Assuming you do need that permit, budget for the fee. Merritt's Fees and Charges Bylaw No. 2386, consolidated to December 2025, sets three discretionary-use tiers for 2026: a Minor permit at $61.35, a Major permit at $614.70, and a Special permit at $1,228.24. Nothing in the published bylaws spells out which tier a short-term rental falls into, so the city assigns it case by case, and you'll want to ask Planning where your application lands before you assume the cheapest number. A few zoning conditions apply on top of the permit. You can't run a short-term rental in a unit that already has an occupied secondary suite or an active bed and breakfast, except in the C6 zone, and in the AR1 and R1 zones you have to provide an off-street parking space for the rental in addition to the parking the dwelling already needs.

Merritt's exempt status is a real advantage over its neighbours, and it's the main reason the city is worth a second look. An owner in nearby Hope shares that exemption, but hosts in Chilliwack and Maple Ridge are locked into the principal residence rule and cannot run a standalone investment unit at all. Keep that contrast in mind if you're choosing between towns, because it's the single biggest lever on what your property can legally earn.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Merritt

So let's say your zone allows it, or your discretionary permit came through. The next step is the business licence, and there are really two licences to sort out here: the City of Merritt one, and the provincial registration that now sits behind it. You need both, mind you, and neither substitutes for the other.

The city licence runs on a calendar year, January to December, and the fees live in the Business Licence Bylaw No. 2268. You pay a $50 application fee up front, then $50 for each inspection the city needs (from the Building Inspector, Fire Prevention Officer or Cross-Connection Control Coordinator), with each inspection including one free follow-up if something needs fixing. Then the licence fee itself lands on a sliding scale depending on timing and term.

Business licence charge	Fee	When it applies
Regular annual licence	$150	Standard full-year licence
Early renewal (before expiry)	$135	10% discount for renewing on time
Late renewal (after March 1, still operating)	$180	20% penalty for renewing late
Six-month short-term licence	$90	Seasonal or partial-year operation
Three-month short-term licence	$55	Short seasonal operation
Application fee (all applicants)	$50	Paid at application, non-refundable
Inspection fee	$50 each	Up to three inspections typical

The city says the whole process takes roughly four to six weeks, so don't leave it to the week before you want to go live. Remember too that the application fee doesn't come back if you're refused, which is one more reason to confirm your zoning first rather than after.

Sitting behind the city licence is the provincial piece, and it's mandatory everywhere in British Columbia now, exempt land included. You register through the provincial short-term rental registry, and as of July 2026 the annual fee is $100 where you live in the unit or $450 where you don't, plus a $1.50 service charge either way. Because Merritt is exempt from the principal residence rule, plenty of hosts here will be paying the $450 non-resident rate on a dedicated rental, so factor that in. The registration number the province issues has to appear on every listing you post, and the platforms are required to validate it before your listing can take bookings.

Required Documents for Merritt Short-Term Rentals

Since you're now feeding two separate systems, it helps to gather the paperwork for both before you start either application. The city and the province each want their own set, and a missing document is the most common reason either one stalls.

For the City of Merritt business licence, be ready with:

• Proof that any non-municipal approvals are in hand first (the city asks you to sort out things like provincial health or safety permits before it issues the licence).
• Your completed application plus the $50 application fee.
• Access for the required inspections, at $50 each, so the Building Inspector and Fire Prevention Officer can sign off before the Licence Inspector issues anything.
• Written strata council permission, if your unit is in a strata development.
• If your zone needs it, your approved discretionary use permit.

For the provincial registration, the registry asks for more personal detail, so keep these to hand:

• The property address, its Parcel Identifier (PID), and the number of bedrooms you'll rent.
• Ownership type and your host contact details.
• Your Social Insurance Number and date of birth (the province uses these to confirm identity).
• A copy of your City of Merritt business licence, since the province checks that local requirement.
• Co-host or property manager details, including a GST number, if someone else runs the place for you.

Here's one bit of good news on the provincial side: because Merritt is exempt land, you're not asked to prove a principal residence or a principal residence exemption the way a host in Kamloops would be. That removes a whole category of documents, such as driver's licences and property tax notices, that trip up hosts elsewhere. Do check the registry's own list before you submit, though, since the province adjusted its documentation rules for 2026.

Merritt Short-Term Rental Taxes

Once the licences and registration are done, the last recurring obligation is tax, and there's still a fair bit of it even in a small city like Merritt. The upside is that Merritt is lighter on the accommodation-tax front than most tourist towns, because it charges no municipal accommodation tax and falls outside the province's regional hotel tax. What's left is two layers: federal GST and provincial PST.

Tax	Rate	Who collects it
GST (federal)	5%	The host if GST-registered, otherwise the platform
PST on accommodation (provincial)	8%	The host, or the platform as marketplace facilitator
Municipal / regional accommodation tax (MRDT)	None in Merritt	Not applicable

The 8% provincial sales tax on accommodation is the one most Merritt hosts will actually collect. The province's Municipal and Regional District Tax, worth up to 3% in tourist areas, does not apply in Merritt. I checked the Designated Accommodation Area Tax Regulation name by name, and Merritt appears nowhere in it, while Kamloops and Sun Peaks up the highway both do. So a guest booking in Merritt pays GST and PST, but not the extra resort tax they'd see at a ski hill.

Who hands that tax to the government depends on how you take bookings. Where you sell only through a marketplace like Airbnb, the platform registers as a facilitator and collects the PST for you. Sell through a platform and by any other route, such as direct bookings, and you have to register and collect PST yourself. Be aware that you stay personally liable for PST a platform fails to remit, so keep the records even when the platform is doing the collecting. A few PST exemptions can take a very small operation out of it entirely. You're off the hook if your gross accommodation revenue stayed under $2,500 in the past 12 months and you aren't listed on an online marketplace, if you charge $30 or less per day, or if a single stay runs 27 consecutive days or more.

On the federal side, GST of 5% applies to accommodation of less than a month that costs more than $20 a night. If you're a registered GST vendor you charge and collect it yourself, including on platform bookings, and if you're not, the platform collects and remits it for you. Registration generally becomes mandatory once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, the small-supplier threshold, so a busy whole-unit rental in Merritt can cross it faster than a spare-room host would.

Tax Deductions for STR Operators

Assuming you've stayed compliant, the deduction side is where being licensed pays you back. Ottawa tightened this in a way that ties your tax bill directly to your local paperwork: section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies deductions for a "non-compliant short-term rental," meaning one operating where STRs aren't permitted or without the required registration, licence and permits. The denied share is your expenses multiplied by non-compliant days over total rental days. In practice that means a Merritt host without a business licence or provincial registration can lose the right to write off mortgage interest, utilities, cleaning and the rest, which turns a licensing shortcut into a genuinely expensive one. Keep in mind that the usual deductions do apply once you're compliant, though renting only part of your home means apportioning most expenses by the space and time rented.

British Columbia Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That federal deduction rule leans on provincial compliance, which brings the wider British Columbia framework into focus, since it's the layer doing most of the enforcement now. The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act came into force in stages through 2024 and 2025, and it reshaped the market in three ways that reach Merritt even though the principal residence rule does not.

First, registration is mandatory and visible. Every host across the province had to be registered by May 1, 2025, with the registration number displayed on the listing and validated by the platform before a booking can go through. Second, the old shield of legal non-conforming use no longer protects a short-term rental, so a grandfathered use that predated the bylaw can't be leaned on anymore. Third, the penalties got sharper across the board. Municipal ticketing rose to a maximum of $3,000 per infraction per day, regional district bylaw fines can now reach $50,000, and the province's own administrative penalties run to $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 for repeated failures to register.

The province's Compliance and Enforcement Unit backs this with investigations, compliance orders filable with the B.C. Supreme Court, and administrative penalties, while platforms must share listing data monthly and pull listings a local government flags for missing a business licence. This is the machinery Merritt's single bylaw officer never had, and it's why the provincial layer, not the city, is what actually keeps hosts honest here.

One caveat on the exemption that's worth watching closely. Merritt's exempt status is set by regulation, and the province adjusts that list every year. A municipality can ask to have the principal residence rule applied to it, with opt-out and opt-in changes landing on fixed annual dates. Nothing suggests Merritt plans to opt in, but since I last reviewed the list it had already been amended several times province-wide, so treat the exemption as current-but-reviewable rather than permanent, and check the province's page before you commit to a multi-year plan. Merritt also sits outside the speculation and vacancy tax, which applies in Kamloops but not here, so that particular provincial cost doesn't reach you.

Does Merritt Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given that the province now carries the enforcement weight, the honest answer splits in two: the city itself is light-touch, while British Columbia is not. Merritt's bylaw compliance page is candid about its own limits, admitting the department "is limited in [its] efforts by the size of the city, limited resources and number of bylaws." The whole function runs through a single Bylaw Services Officer, and the city won't act on anonymous complaints, so a neighbour has to give their name, address and phone number before anything moves.

The penalties on the books are still real, even if the city rarely reaches for them. A zoning bylaw offence carries a fine of up to $10,000 plus prosecution costs, and a business licence offence up to $2,000, with each day counted as a separate offence in both cases. Watch out for that per-day multiplier, because it's how a modest fine turns into a large one over a busy season rather than a single flat penalty.

The bigger point is that local enforcement is no longer the thing to worry about. The province enforces at the listing itself: no valid registration number means the platform can't display your listing or process a booking, so a non-compliant Merritt rental doesn't get quietly ignored the way it might've in 2023. It simply can't take reservations. That's a far harder wall to get around than a complaint-driven bylaw officer, and it applies whether or not anyone in town ever notices your property.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Merritt

Knowing that the province checks your registration at the point of booking, the order of these steps matters, because doing them out of sequence tends to waste both time and non-refundable fees. Here's the sequence that keeps you out of trouble:

1. Check your zone first. Confirm whether your property is in a zone where a short-term rental is permitted outright (AR1, C2, C3, C4, C6) or only as a discretionary use (R1, R3, R7, R8, C5). Call Planning at 250-378-8615 if you're unsure.
2. Apply for a discretionary use permit if your zone needs one. Budget for the 2026 fee (from $61.35 to $1,228.24 depending on tier) and expect the Development Approving Officer to weigh the site, the neighbours and parking before deciding.
3. Get strata permission in writing, if your unit is in a strata development, since the bylaw requires it.
4. Apply for the City of Merritt business licence. Pay the $50 application fee, pass the inspections at $50 each, and pay the licence fee. Allow four to six weeks.
5. Register with the province. Pay $100 if you live in the unit or $450 if you don't, plus the $1.50 service fee, and collect your registration number.
6. Put the registration number on every listing. Airbnb, Vrbo and the rest validate it before your listing can take a booking.
7. Sort out tax before your first guest. Register for PST if you take any direct bookings, watch the $30,000 GST threshold, and keep records even where the platform collects.

Work through those in order and the later steps confirm whether the earlier ones were worth it. Skip ahead, and you risk paying for a licence you can't use because the zoning never cleared.

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

Whichever step you get stuck on, knowing which office owns your question saves a lot of time on hold. The City of Merritt sits at 2185 Voght Street (PO Box 189), Merritt, B.C. V1K 1B8, with a main line at 250-378-4224 and office hours Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, closed for lunch between noon and 1:15 pm.

For the city-level questions:

• Planning & Development Services handles zoning, discretionary use permits and whether your property can host a rental at all: 250-378-8615, [email protected].
• Building & Safety Inspection handles the inspections behind your licence: 250-378-8615, [email protected].
• Bylaw Services handles complaints and enforcement: 250-378-8628, [email protected].
• Finance handles business licence billing: 250-378-8640, [email protected].

For the provincial layer, the short-term rental registry runs through Service BC at 1-833-828-2240 or [email protected], Monday to Friday, 7:30 am to 5:00 pm. For PST questions, the province's Consumer Taxation Branch is at 1-877-388-4440 or [email protected]. And for GST, that's a federal matter handled by the Canada Revenue Agency. Make sure you have your property's PID and your business licence number handy before you call the registry, since they'll ask for both.

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

Those provincial changes shape how hosts across British Columbia talk about the market, and the sentiment is worth reading before you commit. What follows is my read of the recurring themes in the wider British Columbia conversation rather than a survey of any specific Merritt thread, so do weigh it accordingly.

• Exempt communities are the quiet winners. In the broader discussion since the 2024 rules landed, the consistent point investors make is that the small exempt towns, Merritt among them, are where a whole-unit model still works, while the big cities have effectively closed to anyone who isn't renting a spare room in their own home.
• The registration step is the new baseline. Hosts across the province describe the provincial registry as the thing that changed everything, because it moved enforcement from an occasional bylaw complaint to a hard block at the platform. Nobody who's been through 2025 still argues the rules go unenforced.
• The zoning gate catches people out. The recurring frustration in exempt towns isn't the province, it's discovering that a residential-zone property needs a discretionary use permit the city can refuse. The advice that comes up again and again is to confirm zoning before buying, not after.
• Small-market economics get debated. Merritt is not a high-volume tourist destination, so the discussion tends to weigh the freedom to run a whole unit against thinner demand than a resort town would see. That's the trade-off to model honestly rather than assume away.

Take that last point seriously. The regulatory door being open is only half the question, and the other half is whether the numbers work in a market this size. If you want to pressure-test that, the Canada market data is the place to compare Merritt's likely returns against busier Canadian markets before you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you run an Airbnb in Merritt, Canada in 2026?

Yes. Merritt is exempt from British Columbia's principal residence requirement, so you can legally run a whole second property as a short-term rental, not just a room in your own home. You'll need zoning permission (a discretionary use permit in most residential zones), a City of Merritt business licence, and a provincial registration number displayed on every listing. Rentals are defined as stays under 30 consecutive days and 90 days in a calendar year.

Do you need a licence to run a short-term rental in Merritt?

Yes, two of them. You need a City of Merritt business licence, which costs a $50 application fee plus $50 per inspection and a $150 annual fee, and you need a provincial registration through British Columbia's short-term rental registry, which costs $100 a year if you live in the unit or $450 if you don't, plus a $1.50 service charge. The provincial registration number must appear on every listing.

Does British Columbia's principal residence rule apply in Merritt?

No. Merritt is named on the exempt land list in Schedule 1 of the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Regulation, most recently amended June 1, 2026. That means the rule limiting rentals to a host's principal residence, which applies in Kamloops, Chilliwack and most larger cities, does not apply in Merritt. The exemption is set by provincial regulation and reviewed annually, so confirm it's still current before making long-term plans.

What taxes do Merritt short-term rental hosts pay?

Two main taxes: federal GST at 5% and provincial PST on accommodation at 8%. Merritt charges no municipal accommodation tax and falls outside the province's regional hotel tax (MRDT), so guests don't pay the extra resort tax seen at ski towns. Platforms often collect both taxes as a marketplace facilitator, but if you take any direct bookings you must register and collect PST yourself, and you stay liable if a platform fails to remit.

What happens if you run an unlicensed short-term rental in Merritt?

The immediate consequence is commercial: without a valid provincial registration number, platforms can't display your listing or process bookings, so it can't earn. On top of that, a Merritt zoning offence carries a fine of up to $10,000 plus costs, a business licence offence up to $2,000, each day counted separately, and provincial administrative penalties run to $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 for repeated failures. Operating without a licence can also cost you your income tax deductions.

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