Thousands of short-term rentals in Vancouver are still without a valid license, just days before the deadline

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Thousands of short-term rentals in Vancouver are still without a valid licence, and after Friday, Airbnb hosts could soon be facing a hefty fine.

Hosts have had months to apply for licenses, but with just days to go until the deadline, Data Analyst Jens Von Bergmann tells City News it doesn’t look like there’s been much of a “pick up” in the number of people trying to do so.

“I think it’s hard for people that depend on income from Airbnb for whatever choices they’ve made in the past to make those changes and accept that that’s happening. I think there’s a fair amount of delusion on sides of some operators out there that don’t quite realize what the new rules entail and how they will be enforced.”

However, sometimes it’s not so innocent. Von Bergmann has been analyzing data from the City of Vancouver as well as Airbnb, and has found many of their license numbers don’t add up.

Nearly 200 claim they are exempt, some even using old or expired license numbers. Meantime, it looks like others are maybe even trying to thwart the system by using made up codes.

“Just the amount of missing licenses plus also problematic behaviour on some of the ones that do have licenses that seem evident in the data,” Von Bergmann says. “Just the sheer amount of it seems quite a bit. So there’s probably two, three thousand listings right now on Airbnb that are quite problematic.”

In a statement, the City of Vancouver says “As part of our landmark agreement with Airbnb, after August 31st, the online platform will deactivate all listings that do not have a City of Vancouver short-term rentals business license included in the listing. The City will be providing a status and enforcement update on the short-term rentals program next week.”

The program was aimed at cooling the city’s red-hot housing market, by freeing up rental space. If this is truly to work, Von Bergmann says fines need to be enforced and both the city and Airbnb need to work together.

“The data-sharing agreement with Airbnb will be a big step. It means that starting the week after next the city will get data from Airbnb about addresses, names, and license numbers of people advertising on Airbnb, which makes it a lot easier to enforce those things.”

Households have until Friday to apply for the license. Fines can be up to $1,000.