It starts with whether you live there. In Vancouver, a short-term rental licence is only for your principal residence, so a home you don't live in cannot be hosted for short stays. A long-term let means a tenant, a tenancy under BC's Residential Tenancy Act and, in Vancouver, a long-term rental business licence, unless it is one or two tenants living with you in your home.
Two different ways to use a home
Short stays bring guests for days at a time, and the home stays yours between them. A long-term let hands the home to one tenant, on a tenancy. Which one fits depends on where you live, how often you want the home back and how much of the work you want to keep.
How we help you decide
- We look at your home and your plans. At the free review: whether it can be hosted where it is, what it needs first and what we would charge.
- We tell you straight. If short stays won't work for this home, we say so at the review, not after the listing is built, and point to what else it could do where we can.
- When short stays fit, we take the work. Listing, pricing, guests, cleaning, keys and repairs, with our legal team having looked at the home first.
- You keep the say. How the home is used, who it suits and what guests may use is agreed with you before the first booking.
What stays with you
- The choice. It's your home and your call. We give you a straight answer, not a forecast.
- Living there, for short stays in Vancouver. The City requires it, and a manager cannot stand in for you.
Questions owners ask
Which one earns more? We do not promise an amount, and we won't guess at a comparison without seeing your home. At the review we tell you straight what we think it can do as a short-term rental.
Checked on 11 November 2026: City of Vancouver, short-term rental business licence.
