If you’re an Airbnb host in Montreal, you probably weren’t expecting this news. The city just announced they’re putting a hard limit on short-term rentals—you can only operate for three months out of the year now, from June 10th to September 10th. That’s it.
For years, if you had the right paperwork, you could rent out your place year-round and make decent money doing it. Now? The city’s basically saying “summer only” because they’re tired of locals getting priced out of their own neighborhoods.
You can imagine how Airbnb feels about this. They’re not exactly thrilled, pointing out that hosts depend on that rental income—especially when everything costs more these days. Plus, they’ve got the numbers to back up their argument: over 400,000 people stayed in Montreal Airbnbs just between last September and June. That’s a lot of travelers who clearly love the city.
But here’s the thing—Montreal isn’t the first city to get fed up with short-term rentals taking over. New York and Budapest have cracked down hard too, though Montreal’s “summer-only” approach is pretty unique.
The city’s tried to get a handle on Airbnb before, but let’s be honest—enforcement has been a mess. Get this: as of early this year, almost half the listings in the city didn’t even have proper permits. Half!
City officials are hoping this new three-month window will make their job easier. If someone’s renting outside of summer, boom—they’re breaking the rules. No gray areas.
They’re treating this summer as a test run, watching closely to see how it all plays out. And they’re already hinting that more changes might be coming, depending on what they learn. So if you’re in the short-term rental game in Montreal, this summer might be make-or-break time.
