You’ve heard of Quebec language inspectors. Now, the province has B&B inspectors on the prowl. Quebec now has provincial tourism employees searching the Internet for unsuspecting members of the public who use online home-rental services such as Airbnb.com to make money by letting out a room or apartment for short periods.

Turns out that’s illegal – unless the person providing the space for rent has paid the annual $250 registration fee to Tourism Quebec. The registration is required for people who regularly advertise a room or apartment rental that will run for fewer than 32 days.

But the province is going to have a hard time putting this genie back in the bottle. Inspectors patrolling the Internet have started files on about 2,000 naughty Quebecers caught breaking the law – in some cases, after setting up fake reservations to nab transgressors in the act.

Quebec is taking its cue from jurisdictions such as New York City, which, in May, persuaded a court to impose a US$2,400 fine on a man who had rented out his East Village apartment via Airbnb. But New York seems only to be going after cases in which a neighbour has filed a complaint.

Quebec officials claim it’s a safety issue: they want to ensure that the person renting out the space has proper insurance, for example. The province also doesn’t want anyone running commercial enterprises in areas that are zoned residential.

The real reason may be the impact that online short-term accommodation services are having on hotels and government coffers. These services – popular ones include Airbnb, Homeaway.ca and VRBO.com (Vacation Rental By Owner) – are increasingly popular, with many tourists and even business and luxury travellers using them. Not all of the offered accommodations are cheap, no-frill alternatives to hotels. On Airbnb’s Montreal site, listings range from $10-per-night rooms in dodgy neighbourhoods to $1,800-per-night Old Montreal condos.

Hotels are hardly the first victims of the new, so-called “share economy.” Think of file-sharing for the music business and the rise of free online news sites, the nemeses of the newspaper business. Music companies adapted by offering digital music at affordable prices. Newspapers are looking to paywalls to help pay the bills and protect the value of their content.

Adapt or die rules will have to apply to the hotel business, too. They’ll have to improve what they’re selling. And governments will have to curb their appetite for taxes.

These new businesses are clearly experiencing growing pains at the moment. After the New York ruling, Airbnb started warning hosts to check their local city laws to ensure that rentals are legal. But Airbnb is counting on the sheer number of rentals and the public’s growing interest to quash any potential long-term trouble.

In 2012, Airbnb, which makes money from both hosts and guests, reportedly booked between 12 million and 15 million nights of accommodations, up from just 750,000 in 2010. Airbnb co-founder, Brian Chesky, was featured on the cover of Forbes in February. The headline: “Who wants to be a billionaire?”

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