Ty Speer, president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, hopes that the city can strike a balance between allowing visitors a choice by permitting home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb and also making sure that there was affordable rental stock in the city. Photo Dan Toulgoet
麻豆传媒映画is an expensive city for people who want to live here.
But it鈥檚 also not cheap for people who want to visit.
One of the speakers at Tuesday night鈥檚 public hearing about the City of Vancouver鈥檚 proposed rules for short-term rentals such as Airbnb was Ty Speer.
Speer is the president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver.
He said that during peak seasons, the occupancy rate at 麻豆传媒映画hotels is 90 per cent; this past September it was 92 per cent, and the annualized rate is 80 per cent.
With so many people clamouring to visit Vancouver, and no new major hotel developments on the horizon, the average hotel room rate is $260 a night.
The average Airbnb rate in 麻豆传媒映画is $150 a night, says Alex Dagg, a policy manager for Airbnb who also spoke at the hearing.
Speer said that Tourism Vancouver鈥檚 hope is that the city can strike a balance between allowing visitors a choice by permitting home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb and also making sure that there was affordable rental stock in the city. "Our visitors want and need choice but I have to be mindful of businesses that need staff and staff need a place to live."
Answering questions from councillors, Speer said the availability of Airbnb rentals does not appear to have a negative effect on hotels鈥� ability to compete on price.
鈥淭he growth [in tourism] has spread the wealth for everyone,鈥� he said. 鈥淗otels and platforms are both doing well鈥�
鈥淲e are going to face some challenges with the availability of lower priced visitor accommodation whether it鈥檚 short-term rentals or hotels. All our rates are on an upwards trajectory. It鈥檚 a success problem, not a failure problem.鈥�
He added, 鈥淗ome sharing has a lot to add the economy if done well. It does require strong compliance and platforms and hosts taking on the responsibility of being good neighbours.鈥�
Octavian Cadabeschi of UniteHere! Local 40, which represents hospitality workers throughout B.C., said that allowing home owners to offer short-term accommodation takes secondary suites out of the rental housing market. Some of the union鈥檚 members have had to move out of the city to find affordable rent. The union wants unoccupied secondary suites to be put into the rental stock.
Unregulated 鈥済host hotels鈥� 鈥� multi-unit property owners who market exclusively on sharing platforms 鈥� threaten workers鈥� job hours by taking away business from hotels, Cadabeschi said.
He wondered how the city could force owners to comply with the rules and provide accurate information.
鈥淭he housing shortage demands bold actions,鈥� he told councillors.
The city鈥檚 proposed policy does not allow people to offer secondary and basement suites as short-term rentals. Only principal residences may be offered as long as home owners pay an annual $49 fee, comply with building and fire safety regulations and meet good-neighbour requirements. Enforcement would be complaint-based as well as through random audits.
A staff report says that if people were not allowed to offer secondary and bedroom suites as short-term rentals, it would put 400 to 1,600 units into the rental housing stock.
NPA Coun. George Affleck asked Speer whether visitors would go to other cities in search of more affordable accommodation if those units were taken out of the home-sharing rental stock,
鈥淚鈥檓 not convinced that solely short-term rentals would affect that,鈥� Speer said. 鈥淚t wouldn鈥檛 be correct to assume all short-term rentals are cheaper than a hotel.鈥�
Vision 麻豆传媒映画Coun. Tim Stevenson took on Affleck鈥檚 concern. 鈥淚f I鈥檓 going to Paris [and find it鈥檚 very expensive], I don鈥檛 say, 鈥極h, I鈥檒l go to Berlin.鈥� I鈥檓 not sure how many people would go to Saskatoon instead [of Vancouver].鈥�
鈥淲e like our chances against Saskatoon most days,鈥� Speer responded before adding there are people who are price sensitive when it comes to choosing travel destinations.鈥�
NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball asked if the proposed policy, which would require Airbnb hosts to get licences, would have an effect on people who open their homes during major events such as the Olympics.
Speer said home-sharing platforms are much more effective at making that possible. 鈥淭hey are very powerful machines and some of the biggest brands in travel. You鈥檇 go straight to the platform.鈥�
Speer was, however, unequivocal in his opposition to the proposal to ask Airbnb guests to voluntarily pay a three per cent fee to help the city cover its costs of enforcing licensing rules.
鈥淭hat three per cent levy is a tax on consumers and we don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 right for our visitors to be charged a fee. We don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 the right message for people who want to experience our great city and pay for people who are not compliant,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 understand the need to fund the compliance regime. Our view is that it should not be the burden of the visitor. The customer has done nothing other than take advantage of a service. It鈥檚 a connection that doesn鈥檛 make sense.鈥�
Speer said Tourism 麻豆传媒映画was in favour of the province imposing a tax system on home-sharing operators.
All of the Airbnb operators who spoke at the hearing said they were willing to pay a three per cent tax. Airbnb said it was possible to incorporate the tax on its platform if the tax was province-wide but it could not ask customers to pay a voluntary fee.
