Who's behind the smiling faces of some Airbnb hosts? Multimillion-dollar corporations
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/biggest-airbnb-hosts-canada-corporations-1.5116103
Who's behind the smiling faces of some Airbnb hosts? Multimillion-dollar corporations
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/biggest-airbnb-hosts-canada-corporations-1.5116103
This has to be fought, for reasons of equity and the fight against gentrification, but there is also the issue that the so-called hospitality industry does NOT provide consumers what they want. Many people - certainly anyone I know, travelling more for political and academic conferences, does NOT want to eath out three times a day, for example.
I’ve been renting short stay apartments when I travel long before AirBnB was a thing. I totally understand why there should be limits on those kinds of rentals, but they remain my preferred accommodation if I’m somewhere for a week as opposed to a few days. I was just in Toronto and we rented a place with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to share with a friend for 1/2 the cost of a single hotel room. The reason AirBnB thrives is that they’re offering a reasonable alternative.
My own personal experience has been good as well but problems abound.
'These guys are predators': Condo owner says home turned into Airbnb 'ghost hotel'
Impact on housing market
The CBC analysis shows up to 0.41 per cent of all Ottawa homes are listed on Airbnb.
Wachsmuth said if just one per cent or less of a city's housing is converted into short-term rentals, that can have a "really serious" impact on housing stocks.
"That one per cent number looks small when you compare it to the amount of housing in general, but if you compare it to the amount of housing that's available for new tenants or new homeowners, it actually is a much, much higher percentage," said Wachsmuth.
Ottawa's central neighbourhoods have the most listings. The ByWard Market tops the table, with 3.4 per cent of all private dwellings available to rent on Airbnb.
Airbnb has consistently said data gathered in this manner is unreliable and can have significant gaps because of the limited information available on its public web pages.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/condo-owner-violated-airbnb-ghost-hotel-1.5122219
Squeezing blood from a stone. I recently watched a doc on this problem, but in Venice. Residents were being displaced, almost like refugees, away from their birthplaces because, especially in tourist areas, cost of housing made it impossible to remain for the working class. Crushing the stone ever harder eventually must force something out between the fingers...
Thanks for sharing that