There are now more than 1000 short-stay homes in Margaret River region

The Augusta-Margaret River region was packed over the Easter weekend, but a glut of unregistered short-stay homes left many of the region’s accommodation providers short of their usual peak-season highs.

More than 50 new Margaret River premises have been added to vacation rental sites such as Airbnb since the State Government’s short stay accommodation inquiry began in November.

There are now more than 1000 active listings in the Shire according to data and analysis site AirDNA — nearly 15 per cent of total private dwellings in the area.

Over the Easter long weekend, more than 99 per cent of those houses were booked, but vacancy signs were up at most registered providers.

Registered Accommodation Providers Margaret River spokeswoman Debbie Noonan said the oversupply of short-stay accommodation was crippling professional tourism operators and choking up the town’s infrastructure.

“Easter overall was busy for the two days in the middle, but otherwise most properties had vacancies, which is definitely not normal,” she said.

“The roads coming in are certainly busier, the parking on the main street and at Prevelly is overflowing, you get all of that. They really need to do something sooner rather than later or you won’t have tourism accommodation professionals down here.”

Ms Noonan said self-catered accommodation users did not spend the money in town that those using traditional accommodation did.

The Shire of Augusta-Margaret River did not to respond to questions regarding short-stay accommodation compliance actions by time of print.

Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment.