The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a funny thing happen to those who ran illegal Airbnb units in Burnaby.
With tourism shut down, those folks who had borrowed heavily to buy one or more of these units to run as mini-hotels were panicking at the loss of income and so they reluctantly tried to rent them out on a long-term basis – often for absurd amounts of money.
Many found those absurd asks going unfulfilled as renters saw through the ruse. But now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted, tourism is back in full swing with cruise ships now arriving in Vancouver and plenty of people flying into our region.
That’s meant illegal short-term rentals are back in action on apps like Airbnb, leading to headaches for some of their neighbours.
Burnaby resident Terry Phillips said one of his neighbours rents out multiple rooms in a house they don’t actually live in.
“It’s like a mini-hotel,” Phillips said. “It started up very recently and it’s been a big hassle. People arrive at all hours and leave garbage in the yard and hog the street parking. The problem is that the owner isn’t usually around to take care of things.”
Phillips is preparing a case to file a complaint with the City of Burnaby to hopefully shut it down.
“It’s not just annoying because these are places that could be rented out long-term to people who need them,” he said.
In summer 2021, I detailed the police raiding an illegal Airbnb unit searching for a suspect.
Another person named Marnee wrote to me about all of the “ridiculous” noise issues.
“I live beside bed and breakfast; she has no foot access to her house - on her website it says 'free parking' - she meant in front of my house. Never asked and now I have to put up with visitors at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 a.m., banging and slamming doors, rolling luggage over her rock walkway – ridiculous. She called the cops one night. A two-and-a-half-hour conversation at 11 p.m. on the sidewalk with her, my husband and myself. I get up for my construction job at 4 a.m. - she did not believe cops’ version of bylaws.”
Expect more of these disruptions as the weather gets nicer and more people travel here.
Follow Chris Campbell at Twitter.com/shinebox44.
