Airbnb data published on 5 October 2026 shows that Canadian farm stay hosts earned close to CAD $15 million across nearly 1,000 listings in 2025, placing Canada sixth globally by farm stay host earnings. Host earnings have grown approximately 400 percent since 2018, far outpacing the roughly 50 percent growth in listing numbers over the same period. The figures form part of a policy brief Airbnb released to support its position that short-term rental regulations should be calibrated to encourage rather than restrict on-farm hosting.

The Canadian Numbers in Detail

The median Canadian farm stay host earned approximately CAD $8,400 in 2025, equivalent to roughly one booking every two to three weeks. Survey data for 2024 shows Airbnb income accounted for an average of 26 percent of household income for Canadian farm stay hosts, which Airbnb describes as one of the highest shares of any country it has surveyed globally.

Ontario and British Columbia together accounted for nearly 70 percent of Canada’s farm stay listings and host earnings in 2025. Beyond the farm gate, guests staying at Canadian farm stays spent an estimated additional CAD $15 million at surrounding local businesses in 2025. Total farm stay activity was estimated to have contributed close to CAD $55 million to Canada’s GDP and to have supported approximately 500 jobs.

Airbnb’s methodology uses its own platform booking and earnings data, supplemented by guest spending surveys and IMPLAN input-output modelling using 2022 regional multipliers.

Demographic Patterns Operators Should Note

Two demographic findings in the report carry implications for how agritourism develops as a sector.

First, more than 70 percent of Canadian farm stay hosts on Airbnb are women, more than double women’s share of Canadian farm operators nationally (approximately 30 percent). The report does not offer a causal explanation, but the pattern is consistent with hosting roles that sit alongside existing farm management structures rather than replacing them.

Second, new farm stay hosts have been getting younger every year since 2019, according to Airbnb’s global farm stay host demographic data. The report frames this in the context of a Canadian farm succession crisis: more than 60 percent of Canadian farm operators were 55 or older at the 2021 Census of Agriculture, 40 percent are expected to retire by 2033, and 88 percent of Canadian farms have no formal succession plan. Airbnb’s argument is that hosting income can make it more financially viable for a younger generation to build a livelihood on inherited or purchased land, though the report is careful to note that hosting is not a substitute for a formal succession plan.

The Policy Argument Behind the Data

The report is explicitly a policy document, not a neutral industry census. Airbnb is using the economic contribution figures to argue against municipal and provincial short-term rental restrictions that it says are suppressing on-farm hosting activity. The company’s position is that rural and agricultural properties warrant different regulatory treatment from urban investment properties, which are the primary target of most Canadian short-term rental legislation.

Operators reading this data should note that the figures reflect only Airbnb-listed farm stays. The total agritourism accommodation market in Canada is larger; this dataset captures one platform’s share of it.

What This Means for WA Operators

The Canadian report is useful to WA agritourism operators on three levels: benchmarking, demographics, and the regulatory argument it models.

Income share as a benchmark. The figure that Airbnb income represented 26 percent of household income for Canadian farm stay hosts in 2024 gives WA operators a reference point for evaluating their own operation’s diversification. An agritourism income stream that covers roughly a quarter of household expenses materially changes a farm’s financial resilience during commodity price downturns or poor seasons. WA operators who have not modelled what share of household income their agritourism activity currently represents, or what share it would need to reach to justify further capital investment, have a concrete prompt to do so.

The earnings-to-listings ratio. Canadian farm stay earnings grew at roughly eight times the rate of listing growth between 2018 and 2025. This suggests the market rewarded operators who improved yield per booking (through better pricing, longer stays, or premium positioning) more than it rewarded simple volume growth. WA operators on established platforms should examine their average booking value and length-of-stay data against their listing costs and compliance overhead, rather than treating listing count as the primary growth metric.

The demographic pattern. The overrepresentation of women as farm stay hosts (70 percent of hosts versus 30 percent of farm operators nationally) is worth examining in a WA context. If a similar pattern holds here, it has implications for which family member is most likely to be driving agritourism development, and therefore which member most needs access to business training, mentorship, and peer networks. WAAA’s mentorship program and member forum are directly relevant here. If you are the person running the agritourism side of a mixed farming enterprise and you are not yet connected to those networks, that is the most immediate action available to you.

The regulatory argument. Airbnb is using sector-level economic data to push back against blanket short-term rental restrictions. WA operators face their own regulatory complexity, particularly around planning approvals for accommodation on rural-zoned land. The Canadian report demonstrates the value of having documented, platform-sourced earnings data available when engaging with local government or state planning bodies. WA does not yet have an equivalent dataset compiled specifically for WA agritourism operators. Building that evidence base is part of WAAA’s advocacy work, and it depends on operators being willing to share their activity data through member channels. The more operators who participate, the stronger the case that can be made to the relevant WA authorities.

The honest limit of the parallel is scale. Canada’s farm stay sector, at nearly 1,000 Airbnb listings alone, is substantially larger than WA’s agritourism accommodation market. The earnings benchmarks are not directly transferable, and the GDP contribution methodology relies on input-output models calibrated to a Canadian economy. Use the structural lessons; treat the dollar figures as Canadian context only.