Vancouver’s unofficial Airbnb watchdog says he’s found 100s of bylaw violations
Posted March 10, 2019 8:56 am.
Last Updated March 10, 2019 4:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Vancouver man says his attempts to help city hall deal with illegal Airbnb listings are being stonewalled.
Rohana Rezel is the city’s unofficial Airbnb watchdog, and has developed an artificial intelligence system which can figure out the exact addresses of Airbnb properties that violate city short-term rental bylaws.
He says he told the city about it, but they haven’t done anything.
“I’m hoping that the city would decide to use my tools so they can validate the data that they are getting from Airbnb to make sure its accurate,” he says.
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Last year, Rezel approached the city to let them know his system identified which listings had fake or duplicate business licence numbers.
Rezel doesn’t want to say exactly how his algorithm works so Airbnb doesn’t shut down the loophole.
“The fact that I handed them a list of 800 listings that are clearly in violation and they have done nothing about them for months, shows that either the city is incapable or they’re not interested in doing anything about the problem.”
He says there was no interest in his data because of what he calls a “weak” agreement between the city and the home-sharing company.
– With files from Lauren Boothby
