Science, technology, politics and dance
We won! The City of Vancouver has been ordered to disclose the Airbnb licence database. This is a major victory for the residents of Vancouver adversely impacted by Airbnb operations in the city. The City of Vancouver publishes business licences data for all businesses operating in Vancouver. But until now, the City of Vancouver has […]
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Nearly one in five Airbnb listings are non-compliant, according to a platform scan I completed last night. Out of the 4428 active units my scan picked up, 818 units are non-compliant for one or more of the following reasons: Hosts with multiple entire home/apartment listings 620 Licences used for multiple home/apartment listings 238 Dubious Exemptions […]
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A Vancouver woman who allegedly slipped in the bathtub of a Salt Spring Island Airbnb and fractured her neck is suing the platform and the hosts for negligence1)LEE, Kathleen v AIRBNB INC. VLC-S-S-186478. But the hosts and the company are arguing that they cannot be held liable as per Section 16 of Airbnb Terms, which […]
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The agreement between City of Vancouver and Airbnb requires the platform to make the licence field mandatory for all listings. Airbnb deactivated all unlicensed listings last fall and for a while enforced this rule. But our latest scan of Airbnb data show that Airbnb has quietly dropped this requirement. As a result we have seen […]
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Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced last week with much fanfare that the City of Vancouver has signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbnb to help the city crackdown on illegal short term rentals. I got a hold of the full text of the MOU1)https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fhQagqnZxXHX2DGmAysApgO5xYN0OSaa/view?usp=sharing through a Freedom of Information request. Buried inside the five pages […]
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A UCLA study has found that “that a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents.”. Short term rentals have been illegal in Vancouver until April 18, 2018, but Airbnb listings have grown by over 270% between 2013 and 2018. Applying the UCLA model, Airbnb has lead to a 4.87% rent […]
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Would attempts by a multi-billion dollar corporation to influence city administration be considered a matter of public interest? City of Vancouver does not think so. On November 3, 2017, I sent the following freedom of information request to the Freedom of Information office of the City of Vancouver by email: Copies of all documents, including […]
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Dear Mayor and Council, Today, you will be voting on a new set of proposed bylaws, which, if passed, would make Airbnb and other short term rentals legal in Vancouver. The move to legalize short term rentals in the city have been spearheaded by Kaye Krishna, General manager of Development, Buildings, and Licensing. Ms. Krishna […]
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