List Your Vacation Rental Property on Whistler.com

Whistler.com is the official information and reservation site for Whistler and is the official call to action for all of Tourism Whistler’s marketing and sales efforts. Through Whistler.com, guests can build well-rounded itineraries that include accommodation, activities, transportation, ski school, rentals and lift tickets, making the booking channel more appealing to visitors planning their Whistler vacations compared to other reservation sites. Finally, every booking through Whistler.com supports the Whistler tourism economy, as all Whistler.com profits are reinvested into marketing the resort as a whole.

The alluraDirect technology platform offers Tourism Whistler Members the option to list their units for rent on Whistler.com, Whistler’s official source for accommodation, activity bookings and information. Whistler.com is a secure booking channel backed by Tourism Whistler and is interfaced directly with alluraDirect’s existing inventory, simplifying inventory management and reducing administrative effort for owners. It is at the owner’s discretion as to whether to list also with alluraDirect to appear on www.alluradirect.com

alluraDirect is a locally owned and operated company based out of Vancouver, BC with over 20 years of industry experience. They support the long-term success of Whistler by having core values to ensure the local community is supported by legally zoned accommodation, and are a vocal advocate against illegal short-term rentals. They are one of the original rental-by-owner technology platforms made globally accessible on the internet.

Tourism Whistler Members can partner with a Property Management Company (PMC) to have their rental units listed and sold on Whistler.com, Whistler’s official source for accommodation, activity bookings and information. PMCs offer flexible management solutions including additional services such as cleaning and maintenance.

Property owners must be Tourism Whistler Members in good standing and must comply with all short-term rental legislation in Whistler, including being legally zoned for nightly rentals and in possession of a business licence from the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW).

Note: An individual vacation rental owner whose unit is marketed solely through a PMC is covered under the property manager’s licence. An owner solely utilizing the alluraDirect technology platform with an annual subscription is covered under alluraDirect’s business licence, as long as they are using the platform to list their property on Whistler.com and alluraDirect.com. Owners who wish to use the alluraDirect technology platform to list only on Whistler.com (i.e. they do not want their unit to also appear on alluraDirect.com) must obtain their own business licence from the RMOW.

If listing via the alluraDirect technology platform or working with a PMC, owners must also adhere to the terms and conditions of those organizations.

Since July 2017, any properties advertising short-term accommodation to tourists in Whistler must have a valid business licence from the RMOW. Properties are only given a business licence if they are properly zoned for tourist accommodation. Properties that offer tourist accommodation without a business licence will be ticketed and shut down, forcing owners to cancel bookings.

Note: An individual vacation rental owner whose unit is marketed solely through a PMC is covered under the property manager’s licence. An owner solely utilizing the alluraDirect technology platform with an annual subscription is covered under alluraDirect’s business licence, as long as they are using the platform to list their property on Whistler.com and alluraDirect.com. Owners who wish to use the alluraDirect technology platform to list only on Whistler.com (i.e. they do not want their unit to also appear on alluraDirect.com) must obtain their own business licence from the RMOW.

Owners conducting any advertising or rental activity independently are required to have a business licence and can apply for one at www.whistler.ca/TAbusinesslicence.

Effective October 1, 2018, the Provincial Government introduced new legislation that required all accommodation sellers in BC to start collecting and remitting PST and MRDT. Prior to that, some accommodation sellers were exempt (owners renting out three units or less) from collecting and remitting these taxes. This was a positive change as it levelled the playing field for all accommodation providers in the resort and across the province. MRDT is sometimes referred to as the ‘Hotel Tax’ and is paid by the guest. It was first introduced in BC in 1987 to raise revenue for local tourism marketing programs and projects.

Owners renting their units via a PMC or via the alluraDirect technology platform will have the PST and MRDT collected and remitted for them. Alternatively, Owners utilizing the alluraDirect technology platform who have their own PST numbers can set up their account so that alluraDirect will pass the taxes collected on to the owners to remit themselves.

Owners wishing to rent their units independently will have to collect and remit the taxes themselves.

Historically, Tourism Whistler Members with an inventory of 10 or more rental units could offer their properties for rent to visitors through Whistler.com. Under this policy, property owners with fewer than 10 units were not able to list on Whistler.com as the costs associated with the additional resourcing required to manage small numbers of units were prohibitive. Recognizing the inventory requirement created a challenge, Tourism Whistler explored a number of options that would make the Whistler.com sales channel more accessible to all Members, regardless of how many rental units they owned. The partnership with alluraDirect provided a solution for this long-standing issue and provides more value for Tourism Whistler Members who own accommodation eligible for nightly rental.

The inventory is self-managed by owners. By using the alluraDirect technology platform, owners are offered a calendar that synchs all their bookings from multiple websites removing the risk of overbookings.

To appear as an independent vacation owner on Whistler.com, there is no annual subscription fee. Owners do pay a credit card fee per booking. Similar to other sites and equitable to hotels, owners pay a 15% commission on total sales. This transaction is done using the alluraDirect software at time of booking.