airbnb: Latest News

Airbnb.Vancouver resident Jamie Gladman booked a place on the Sunshine Coast in March for her 30th birthday and she needed a place that could accommodate a large group.“It had about 15 (reviews), but it was really good ratings,” she told Global News. “So I just figured it’s a newer place, but like it has good reviews, good ratings.

short-term rentals are renewing scrutiny on the role platforms such as Airbnb play in making housing less affordable for some Canadians.Experts who spoke to Global News say there’s a clear correlation between the prominence of short-term rentals in a city and the affordability of rents and home prices, while a spokesperson for Airbnb says there’s no proof that the platform is making housing more expensive for local residents.Pushes to regulate the short-term rental market like new legislation passed this week in Quebec, however, are showing promise to experts who monitor the impact of Airbnb and others on improving housing affordability in Canada.Quebec’s new regulations and the conversation about housing affordability in Canada come as Airbnb itself is projecting a “much larger return to summer travel.”Nathan Rotman, Airbnb’s regional lead in Canada and the northeastern United States, says much of the travel demand in Canada observed by the platform comes from budget-conscious Canadians who are travelling domestically but nonetheless want to get out of the house this summer after years of pandemic disruptions.“We’re definitely seeing people return to urban centres in a way that they hadn’t at the height of the pandemic, when they were looking to reconnect with family and friends and book something much more rural and remote,” he tells Global News.Bram Gallagher is an economist with AirDNA, a third-party site that scrapes data from Airbnb and Expedia-owned competitor VRBO to track the short-term rental market for investors and the platform’s hosts.Gallagher confirms Rotman’s read on the short-term rental market: “demand is up,” he tells Global News.April, for example, saw 1.4 million short-term rental stays in Canada, up

Airbnb customers are showing their solidarity with the Ukrainian people by booking reservations that they don’t plan on using.

Airbnb received complaints or learned of listings violating the company policy on parties and events.Airbnb said the properties have been suspended or removed from its platform. The company would not release the property locations “out of respect for the privacy of the hosts and homeowners.”Airbnb banned house parties worldwide in order to comply with coronavirus-related limits on social gatherings.

Airbnb says more than 40 listings were taken down across Ontario in a “crackdown on party houses” that violated its policies amid the coronavirus pandemic.The short-term rental company made the announcement on Monday and said it looked at listings that received complaints or violated rules and suspended those hosts from Airbnb.“The vast majority of hosts in Ontario contribute positively to their neighbourhoods and economy, and they also take important steps to prevent unauthorized parties — like establishing clear house rules, quiet hours, and communicating in advance with their guests,” an Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement.

Airbnb is taking legal action against a guest for violating its ban on unauthorized parties.The San Francisco-based home sharing company said Wednesday it is initiating legal proceedings against a guest who held an unauthorized party at a home in Sacramento County, California, last weekend. Three people were shot and wounded at the party.

short-term rental registry is off to a slow start as the province says it is focusing on education rather than implementing fines.The registry is the tool that Nova Scotia was going to use to regulate a booming short-term rental industry that’s been conducted through services like Airbnb or HomeAway.Data from Statistics Canada indicate that in 2018, the year with the latest available data, private short-term rentals in the province generated an estimated $70.85 million in revenue.

Short-term letting company Airbnb is to provide free emergency accommodation to victims of domestic violence in Ireland.

This is the 11th in a series of stories looking at the new reality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Maritimes.

The Ontario government announced that beginning Friday, short-term rentals will be allowed to operate once again during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister of Tourism Caroline Proulx and the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks Pierre Dufour announced the government’s first phase of deconfinment in the tourism sector on Wednesday.

A B.C. woman says she was shocked when Airbnb charged her a service fee despite the fact her host waived the cancellation policy and offered a full refund due to the global pandemic.

While the coronavirus pandemic has frozen global travel and hit the travel industry hard, data from home-sharing startup Airbnb Inc shows the number of domestic bookings in China for the first half of April were up more than 200 per cent compared with the same period in March.

Data on Canada’s housing market have yet to reveal the full impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Robbie Williams believes he battled coronavirus while holed up in an Airbnb down the road from his family’s mansion in Los Angeles.

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing Toronto condo owners to list fewer properties as short-term rentals using services like Airbnb.

Airbnb said on Monday it was allocating $250 million to help offset losses by hosts around the world whose guests have canceled bookings in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, following its announcement earlier this month that guests could get full refunds for certain reservations.