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CALL TO ACTION! PREVENT OVER-REGULATION OF AIRBNB IN LONDON ON

18 Reasons (And Counting) Why Over-Regulating Airbnb Is A Horrible Idea 

My most recent live video can be found here on Facebook, or found here on YouTube, I encourage everyone to get involved with talks about regulation to Airbnb!

  1. Airbnb promotes tourism in London
  2. There have not been any problems with any Airbnb’s thus far… why are you proposing to limit a business opportunity for hosts on the premise of something having the slight possibility of causing a problem
  3. Airbnb is not the same as a hotel, just like a taxi is not the same as uber
  4. People want the choice
  5. Hotels have had a monopoly on short term accommodations for a long time
  6. This is promoting good competition to bring prices down for consumers or give them their own choice.
  7. If you over-regulate it and limit it you’ll prevent more money coming into the city\
  8. Airbnb provides cheap accommodations for doctors on learning rotations and resident students who would otherwise be forced to stay in a hotel for a month or use a less safe service like Kijiji which doesn’t offer verifying of ID’s
  9. Contrary to some people’s belief, Airbnb is generating more taxable income – no matter how you look at it whether – rental – or capital gains – the government is ALREADY getting a cut
  10. Airbnb actually tracks all the money coming in and inform hosts they need to research their local laws and pay tax.
  11. Treating London like Toronto is not only wrong, it’s stupid. Last stats I saw put the number of listings between 3-400 and within a one year time Frame about 11,000 guests used it .
  12. In Toronto there are 12,000 LISTINGS that’s more than the number of guests using Airbnb in London for the entire year.
  13. Toronto has a lot more condos and I’ll tell you something right now, each condo has a condo board and they are more than capable of voting within their own buildings and deciding whether or not owners want that in the building or not. This is not the same as London.
  14. An argument I want to squash right now is about Airbnb causing rental rates to rise – There is no evidence of this at all, this is just something the hotel industry is putting out there. Where are the facts? Where is the data? Someone show me please! I’d love to see it
  15. Furthermore if rental rates rising and the cost of living are truly a problem for Londoners then the city should be responsible for implementing their own structures for affordable housing -since when is it a private landlords responsibility to make sure that tenants have cheap rent? In Ontario we have been dealing with Landlords getting screwed over because they can’t get tenants out that don’t pay for extended periods, we see articles about this – 6 months plus and there is no protection for them at all.
  16. The idea that landlords are just rich people that can house people who don’t pay rent or are somehow responsible to take on these financial burdens from irresponsible tenants needs to be squashed
  17. We should be embracing Airbnb as it provides a safe link between people willing to host and people who need short term place to stay. People from all over the world trust Airbnb and use it when deciding where to travel or finding a safe place to stay while they look for a rental when coming to Canada for school or work.
  18. The business model I’ve developed allows a student or low-income Londoner stay in the home and help out with hosting and cleaning responsibilities while maintaining a low-budget lease so people making minimum wage or less actually have the opportunity to live in a nice home where they wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise.
IN CONCLUSION;
Airbnb is bringing in tax money, tourism money, diversity & availability for short-term accommodations to London as well as allowing landlords autonomy over how they want to rent their homes. The City needs to get on board with this and support Airbnb with open-arms and not try to make it more difficult for people to host.
I ask you- the hosts and the guests of Airbnb, contact your city councillors as they spend time this fall debating on what their next steps are…

You can submit your comments about #Airbnb to members of the Community and Protective Services Committee:

Councillor M. Salih (Chair)- msalih@london.ca
Councillor B. Armstrong- barmstro@london.ca
Councillor M. Cassidy- mcassidy@london.ca
Councillor P. Squire- psquire@london.ca
Councillor H.L. Usher- husher@london.ca

These are the rest of city council, they don’t sit on the committee, but you can send a submission to them too:

Councillor M. van Holst- mvanholst@london.ca
Councillor J. Helmer- jhelmer@london.ca
Councillor J. Morgan- joshmorgan@london.ca
Councillor P. Hubert- phubert@london.ca
Councillor A. Hopkins- ahopkins@london.ca
Councillor V. Ridley- vridley@london.ca
Councillor S. Turner- sturner@london.ca
Councillor T. Park- tpark@london.ca
Councillor J. Zaifman- jzaifman@london.ca