Richmond has come out on top for growth in Airbnb bookings this fall, beating out Toronto, Kamloops and Lions Bay.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad things depends very much on who you talk to.
The list was compiled by looking at nights booked in a city or town year over year for cities with a minimum of 50 nights booked in 2021, explained Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama.
“Richmond was by far the number one,” he said, adding that bookings for the city had more than tripled over the same time last year.
McNama said one major reason behind Richmond, and Toronto’s, popularity is the proximity to Canada’s two biggest airports. He credits the growth to the travel rebound as travel restrictions from around the world are being eased.
Bookings at Airbnbs have also gotten longer since the COVID-19 pandemic, said McNama, which could be because people are afforded more freedom with remote work, and they “really want to go travel.”
“Globally, 20 per cent of our bookings are for more than two weeks. And that’s the first time that’s happened,” he said.
Complaints about Airbnbs and short-term listings
Despite the city’s popularity with travellers and remote workers, short-term rentals such as Airbnbs remain a contentious issue with many Richmondites.
In a previous interview with the Richmond News, Vancouver housing advocate Rohana Rezel had warned that unregulated short-term rental listings could pose a threat to rental housing availability in Richmond.
“Housing that could have provided shelter for the family is being used as short-term hotels,” Rezel had said.
“And it has a really negative impact on the neighbourhood. You have people having parties, committing crimes, and Airbnb brings all of this.”
According to the City of Richmond’s bylaws, short-term rentals of fewer than 30 days, such as those listed on Airbnb, require one of two types of permits: bed and breakfast or boarding and lodging. And short-term rentals of entire houses or residential units are “not permitted under any circumstance.”
As of now, Richmond has 61 licensed bed and breakfasts, 17 boarding and lodging licenses and two pending licence applications. But according to a search by the News, there are hundreds of listings for various types of homes on Airbnb, including entire apartments and homes.
As of this August, the city has received 40 complaints about short-term rentals and issued eight tickets for violations.
The number of complaints has remained consistent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 36 in 2021 and 43 in 2020. Eleven tickets were issued back in 2021.
However, the city is anticipating an increase in complaints as travel resumes, said city spokesperson Clay Adams.
Back in 2019, the City of Richmond told the News that its staff regularly review listings across various platforms to identify illegal operations, and progress was made in reducing the supply despite challenges.
However, locating such operations is not easy, explained Adams, as listings don’t usually provide addresses until the booking has been completed. Some cities have artificial intelligence software to identify locations from photos, but Richmond currently does not have access to it.
And even when the city manages to locate a suspected unlicenced operation, it still must go through the “labour intensive” process of monitoring it and catching the infraction.
Tickets are issued as a last resort for bylaw violations, added Adams.
