Airbnb’s ban on party houses extends to Canada

Thestar.com
November 5, 2019
Tess Kalinowski

Airbnb’s ban on house parties extends to Canada and around the world, the company said on Monday. The ban was announced Saturday after a shooting last week in California killed five people.

“We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” Airbnb’s San Francisco-based co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky wrote on Twitter.

The company will review and develop new safety initiatives within 10 days, he said. Among the plans he briefly sketched on social media were additional vetting of problematic reservations and a “dedicated party house rapid response team.”

An Airbnb official offered no further details on Monday but said the company will take steps to address the issue by acting when guests disobey the no-party rules. Airbnb hosts, who have previously had the choice of using their properties for events, will no longer have that option, she said.

Toronto resident Eric West said Airbnb is doing the right thing but it isn’t enough because it won’t stop landlords from using other online rental platforms such as VRBO, Expedia and FlipKey to advertise party rentals. The North York father of two says the peaceful life his family has enjoyed for the last eight years has been shattered by a short-term rental next door.

On weekends, West says the Danville Drive house, which is often vacant on weeknights, rocks with loud parties late into the night. He alleges that cars overflow the driveway, guests leave beer bottles on the lawn and sometime urinate in the bushes.

“I just want it to stop. My wife and I have two young kids, 11 and 9. We just want our old life back. I don’t want any money, I don’t want any apologies, I just want my old life back. The old life was great -- nice and quiet, beautiful,” he said.

West has collected a petition with 21 names of neighbours on his street and those whose properties backed on to the rental house owned by a short-term rental landlord, Maged Girgis, who uses the name Mark on the Airbnb website.

Girgis repeatedly refused to answer questions about his property. But in a text message to the Star, he wrote: “It’s all lies.”

Toronto Police did not respond to a request for more information. West said police officers advised him to stop video recording the activities at the rental house.

Airbnb said a late party at the property on Halloween was not booked through its site.

The four-bedroom house that accommodates up to eight guests is listed on Airbnb’s site for $260 a night. The reviews posted on the site are positive, including one that says the place “was great for a party.”

Toronto has approved regulations that would likely get rid of party houses in short-term rentals because they would restrict the rentals to the landlord’s principal residence, said Thorben Wieditz of Fairbnb, a coalition of tenant advocates, academics, community groups and residents.

The rules have not been enforced, however, because they are awaiting the outcome of a landlords’ appeal at a provincial tribunal. The landlords say the regulations would interfere with their property rights.

If the tribunal allows the city’s rules to move ahead, the regulations would apply to all short-term rental platforms, not just Airbnb, Wieditz said.

He called Airbnb’s party house ban “a turnaround” from its previous stance that the party house phenomenon was being overblown.

Last week, Burlington city council directed its staff to recommend a short-term rental licensing bylaw by May following complaints from residents about traffic, noise and other issues emanating from the rental of a Lakeshore Road mansion that neighbours said was operating as an event venue.

The Town of Newmarket is also looking at regulating short-term rentals after a shooting there left a man dead and a woman injured.