City of Vancouver ordered to disclose Airbnb data

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 1 in 5 Vancouver Airbnb listings non-compliant

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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Airbnb quietly drops licence requirements for Vancouver listings

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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City of Vancouver MOU lets Airbnb off the hook

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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