120 rule-breaking Airbnbs in Vancouver remain active: councillor
CBC
A Vancouver city councillor is calling for greater compliance from short-term rental platforms over listings without a valid business licence.
In an interview with CBC News, Coun. Lenny Zhou said the city "really values the partnership … with short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.
"But I think it's also very important to balance the housing needs of people who live and work in Vancouver."
Zhou called out Airbnb on X, previously Twitter, for about 120 non-compliant short-term rental listings that remained on the site despite what he described as the city's efforts to flag those listings for removal in October last year.
"During this housing crisis, every single unit counts. An illegal [short-term rental] takes away one unit from our residents," his post reads.
The booking platform, however, says the city is responsible for enforcing its own bylaws through fines.
According to Zhou, the city does not have the legal authority to order the removal of non-compliant listings from short-term rental platforms — but that it's something the province can do.
This means when B.C.'s new short-term rental regulations are enacted this summer, listings without the proper municipal business licences will be removed.
In the interview with CBC, Zhou acknowledged that when Vancouver first introduced its short-term rental regulations in 2018, Airbnb did remove unlicensed operators from the platform.
"Airbnb is the one actually managing all the listings on their platform," Zhou said.
"So the agreement with Airbnb is focused on partnership to achieve compliance by their host with our regulations."
Thomas Davidoff, a professor at the University of British Columbia, says it's unsurprising the non-compliant listings have not been removed.
"If Airbnb can slow roll ... they don't have an incentive to handle the problem. So I think the city is kind of delegating to Airbnb," Davidoff said.
"About 120 units is not important, but we have a problem where people who work for a living and pay taxes in Vancouver can't find homes readily, so it's reasonable for the government to prioritise [those people] over short-term rentals."
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