As they try to open up more rentals in Kamloops, city staff say there isn’t a problem with short-term rentals like in other B.C. cities.

Community planner Carmin Mizzotta says there is only about 150 short-term rentals in the city. Meanwhile, he says Kelowna has about 2,000 short-term rentals, and says that many has led to a long-term strain on the city’s housing stock.

As for local hotels in the Tournament Capital, Mizzotta says they are concerned more about having rental units for their staff than about short-term rental competition.

“From the business perspective, there isn’t a lot of concern right now. What we’ve proposed is to continue to monitor short term rentals, and apply lessons learned from Kelowna, Tofino, Nelson, Vancouver, Victoria, and apply those lessons to potential future strategy, and potentially develop regulations in the future around short term rentals specifically.”

A public hearing on proposed new rental rules in Kamloops will happen next month.