Hotels should be upgraded and charge fair rates

Dear Editor:

This letter is written in response to the recent article in the Osoyoos Times about Town of Osoyoos council voting to write letters to support the Osoyoos Hotel and Motel Association and their concerns over rentals of single-family residences in Osoyoos.

Can we please call them affordable vacation options instead. Those on town council who support writing letters to oppose VRBO and AirBnB operating in our township as competing unfairly with local hotels are grossly shortsighted. Instead they should be focused on updating our mostly dilapidated and outdated hotels and charging rates that are affordable to regular people.

Many people want to vacation here In Osoyoos comfortably, not just rich families from Alberta and the Lower Mainland. With the gradual demise of camping sites and other more affordable options in the area, the free market forces are naturally correcting the imbalance by filling that gap. It’s simply Economics 101 … supply and demand.

Kent Steiner,

Osoyoos, B.C.