VANCOUVER—Three years ago, Sgt. Glenn Burchart rarely investigated Airbnb homes being rented by pimps and sex workers in downtown Vancouver. Now, roughly 70 per cent of cases he examines take place in condo suites.

The owners of these condos, he said, don’t even know.

Burchart, who’s part of the Vancouver Police Department’s counter exploitation unit, estimates he receives up to six referrals a month of suspicious activities in homes being used to facilitate sex work, the majority of which are “exclusively” entire Airbnb apartments, located close to transit hubs for convenience. They are also in high traffic areas where people going in and out of buildings won’t draw as much attention.

Apartments in the city’s business district along Howe Street and Hornby Street are particularly popular, he added.

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Airbnbs have changed the nature of these criminal cases. Pimps now travel from city to city with more anonymity than if they used hotels, Burchart said. When a place draws attention, such as from neighbours who call the police, the pimps quickly move on to another city.

“They all seem to be doing the loop: Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver. We’ve seen that several times here just repeating itself.”

As a result, officers are communicating weekly with Calgary and Edmonton police to share intelligence about these suspects. Police used to take a few months to gather intelligence but, “now we realize we have to gather that intel very quickly because if we don’t get it, they’ll be moving on. They’ll be out of that suite in two to three weeks,” Burchart said.

It is illegal to obtain sexual services for money regardless of where it’s taking place in Canada. Officers in the unit are “going after the pimps,” to stop exploitation of people in the sex trade, Burchart said.

Property managers and neighbours are the police’s best allies in identifying suspicious activity, he said. The officers are almost always in pedestrian clothes to establish trust and gather intelligence.

Usually, when he arrives on scene, the suspects have already left. But, Burchart said, police can tell it’s been used for sex work. “One time we found 15,000 unused condoms in boxes left behind.”

Mattresses taken off beds, sanitary wipes, along with used and unused condoms are the most obvious indicators, he said. Evidence of drug use, such as methamphetamine, are also commonly found.

Burchart advises hosts to be vigilant and ask for multiple identifications. The harder it is to rent a place, the less likely pimps are to rent them.

Laura Dilley, executive director of Pace Society, which promotes safer work environments for sex workers, said the ones she works with at Pace are sex workers who work independently. Sex workers are “discreet” and “professional,” she said, and the transaction is conducted between two consenting adults.

Using the rental space for sex work is no different than a couple renting it out, Dilley said.

She believes Airbnbs have made it safer for some sex workers to conduct their business. It gives them control of their environment by having the independence to rent their own suites at a location of their choosing, and helps them keep their home addresses anonymous.

Airbnb did not comment on what it’s doing in Vancouver to prevent pimps and sex workers from using Airbnbs for sexual transactions.

But Airbnb spokesperson Lindsey Scully said in a statement that the company is working with law enforcement and anti-trafficking advocates in Canada and globally to “prevent these horrible crimes” and “help hold criminals accountable.”

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Airbnb also provided background information that they “use technology and machine learning to assess the risk of each and every reservation before anything is confirmed, to try and prevent abhorrent behaviour such as this from happening in the first place.”

Correction: The story has been updated to reflect the change in Dilley’s comment from saying there are sex workers who work for pimps and others who don’t, to simply say the ones she works with work independently.

Correction - May 4, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that Laura Dilley of Pace Society works with sex workers who work independently, not, for any third party.

Jenny Peng is a Vancouver-based reporter covering business. Follow her on Twitter: @JennyPengNow

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