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 new unlicensed listings cropping up over the last couple of weeks.

Unit Name Host ID Min Nights 28734496 Incredible Yaletown Suite, Views +Parking 111217789 2 28912671 Million Dollar Views in Downtown Vancouver 61023666 3 28845287 Simply Amazing Executive Condo in Downtown 29271480 2 30592456 Sunny Spacious Luxury Downtown Free Parking 61023798 3 28582889 BRIGHT DOWNTOWN CITY LIVING, SPECTACULAR VIEWS 118772537 2 29235436 Fantastic 2 Bedroom includes Parking 111058741 2 24829213 Traditional Room, 2 Double Beds, Balcony 65186701 1 24829291 Traditional Room, 2 Double Beds, Accessible, Balcony 65186701 1 24828986 Traditional Room, 1 King Bed , Balcony 65186701 1 24829462 King Suite with Kitchenette 65186701 1 24829124 Traditional Room, 1 Queen Bed, Balcony 65186701 1 24829425 One Queen Bed Interior 65186701 1 24829349 Corner King with Fridge and Microwave 65186701 1 24829536 Two Queen Beds Without a View 65186701 1 24829257 Traditional Room, 2 Queen Beds, Balcony 65186701 1 29315160 Beautiful Bright, Downtown City Living 68584515 2 28736828 The Skyview Suite in Downtown 66356613 3 28580957 Sunny Spacious Downtown Pool Hot Tub Gym Netflix 49571302 2

To meaningfully protect our long term rental market from being decimated by Airbnb and other short term accommodation platforms, we must take the following steps:

To meaningfully protect our long term rental market from being decimated by Airbnb and other short term accommodation platforms, we must take the following steps:

Introduce licence auto-verification, so, we can nip unlicensed units and licence cheats in the bud Introduce a tough new bylaw and agreements that hold platforms accountable for the hosts’ actions Make Airbnb fines lienable, so that the city can place liens against egregious violators who refuse to pay the fines

At the same time, the City should use fines collected from short term rental violators to help the Airbnb’s greatest victims: the renters.