Running short-term rentals in Banff and Canmore, two towns in the same valley with very different rules
If you manage or clean short-term rentals in the Bow Valley, the park boundary changes what is possible. In Banff, inside the national park, Parks Canada says a leasehold home cannot be a secondary or vacation home, and the town allows guest rooms only in a single detached home where the owner lives and is present. In Canmore, existing tourist homes can still rent by the night, but since March 11, 2025 no new ones can be created, and each unit needs its own business licence. Upbridge's AI operations assistant, Cleo, works over WhatsApp with vacation rental operators and cleaning companies and organizes the cleanings and the inventory for each place.
The rules here
Parks Canada, the two towns and the province each set part of it. We read every page on October 24, 2026, and amounts are in Canadian dollars.
| Topic | What it says | Status | Since | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living in the park | Anyone living in a leasehold property in Banff National Park must be an eligible resident, and leasehold properties cannot be used as secondary homes or vacation homes. Running a bed and breakfast does not make the owner an eligible resident. | In force | Page modified June 22, 2026 | Parks Canada |
| Banff guest rooms | An accessory guest accommodation must be run by a live-in owner who is present while guests are there, sit in a single detached home in a zone that permits it, cause no net loss of long-term dwellings and not be near another one. It needs one parking stall per guest bedroom, may use no more than 40% of the floor area for guests, and is capped at 4 guests for one room up to 10 guests for four rooms. | In force | Town page not dated | Town of Banff |
| Banff application | The application fee is $1,500 plus $100 per guest room, and applicants need written confirmation from Parks Canada that they are eligible residents. Applications for the current allocation closed on August 29, 2025, with a lottery if there were more applications than licences. | In force | Town page not dated | Town of Banff |
| Canmore tourist homes | A tourist home is a property with a development permit for that use, and only tourist homes may be rented short term in residential areas. The Land Use Bylaw was amended on March 11, 2025 to remove tourist homes as a permitted use, so existing ones remain but new ones cannot be built or converted. From 2025 owners can no longer declare personal use, and the tourist home tax rate is about three times the residential rate. | In force | March 11, 2025 | Town of Canmore |
| Canmore licence | Each tourist home or visitor accommodation unit needs its own business licence, printed and displayed on the property, and its number must appear in every online advertisement. A property not displaying a valid number can be fined. | In force | Business Registry Bylaw change of 2025 | Town of Canmore, tourist homes page |
| Alberta tourism levy | The levy rose from 4% to 6% for accommodation booked on or after April 1, 2026. Residential unit hosts count as operators, and lodging occupied by the same person for 28 days or more is exempt. | In force | April 1, 2026 | Government of Alberta, tourism levy page |
Neither town's page gives a fine amount, so we left fines out. This is not legal or tax advice, and Upbridge does not file anything for you: no registrations and no tax returns.
How it works on the ground
So the whole-home nightly rentals in the valley are in Canmore. In Banff the owner lives in the house and is there while guests stay, so if you work for a Banff host, the job is cleaning and restocking guest rooms around a household that keeps running.
Canmore's number of tourist homes is not going to grow much from here. CTV reported on November 5, 2024 that the town was taking steps to make owning a vacation home there more expensive, and the conversion fee for turning a tourist home back into a residence is waived until December 31, 2026. When an owner you manage for converts, that unit leaves your calendar for good, so it is worth knowing early which owners are thinking about it.
The levy changed in the middle of the booking cycle: a stay booked in March 2026 for the summer pays 4%, and the same stay booked in April pays 6%. Check what your channels charged on bookings made around that date.
Where Upbridge fits
A mountain unit between two stays needs ski-room mud cleaned up, wet towels out and the licence still on the wall. Upbridge turns each checkout from Guesty, Hostaway, Lodgify, Uplisting or an iCal link into a cleaning task with a room-by-room photo checklist, and in Canmore you can make the printed licence one of the photos, since the town wants it displayed on the property.
Inventory per property deducts what every stay used, so a unit that went through all its firewood and dish soap over a long weekend is flagged before the next arrival. Guests driving in from Calgary open the guest guide on their phone with the unit number, the parking stall and how to get in.
If you run a cleaning company in Banff or Canmore
Your clients are likely a mix of Canmore tourist home managers and Banff hosts who live on site. The cleaning company account collects the bookings of each of them into a single dated list, so a crew can do Canmore in the morning and Banff in the afternoon, and each client stays with you.
Questions about short-term rentals in Banff and Canmore
Can I rent out a whole house in Banff on Airbnb?
Parks Canada says leasehold properties in Banff National Park cannot be used as secondary or vacation homes, and the Town of Banff allows guest rooms only as an accessory guest accommodation in a single detached home run by a live-in owner who is present while guests stay.
Can I still get a new tourist home in Canmore?
The town amended its Land Use Bylaw on March 11, 2025 to remove tourist homes as a permitted use. Existing tourist homes remain, but the option to build new ones or convert a residential property has been eliminated, with possible exceptions.
Does each Canmore rental unit need its own business licence?
Yes. Since the 2025 change to the Business Registry Bylaw, each tourist home or visitor accommodation unit needs a licence, displayed on the property, and the licence number has to appear in all online advertising.
More questions
What is the Alberta tourism levy on short-term rentals in 2026?
6% on accommodation booked on or after April 1, 2026, up from 4%. Stays booked before that date keep the 4% rate, and a stay of 28 days or more by the same person is exempt.
Sources
Checked on October 24, 2026
- Parks Canada, “Eligible residency, Banff National Park”, modified June 22, 2026.
- Town of Banff, “Accessory Guest Accommodations”, undated, read October 24, 2026.
- Town of Canmore, “Tourist Homes”, undated, read October 24, 2026.
- Town of Canmore, “Business Licences”, undated, read October 24, 2026.
- Government of Alberta, “Tourism levy”, undated, read October 24, 2026.
- Government of Alberta, “Tourism Levy Act special notice vol. 7 no. 21: tourism levy rate increase effective April 1, 2026”, updated March 23, 2026.
- Teri Fikowski, CTV News Calgary, “'We need to take bold action': Canmore introduces new taxes for tourist homes”, November 5, 2024.