City of Vancouver appoints scofflaw Airbnb host to monitor short-term rental regulations

The City of Vancouver has appointed a scofflaw Airbnb host to the the City’s Short-Term Rental Working Group set up to “monitor the effectiveness and impact” of the City’s short-term rental regulations.

The City today published the names of the 14 volunteers selected to participate in the group for the next year following a selection process that generated controversy for leaving out community advocates who are knowledgeable about the topic^[1]https://shapeyourcity.ca/str-working-group.

One appointee is Aihua Ji, who runs three Airbnb units, including an entire suite, with an expired licence 19-163368.^[2]https://www.airbnb.ca/users/show/79403774, which goes against the City of Vancouver’s short-term rental regulations.

And Aihua Ji does not appear to take kindly to negative reviews.

“This Crazy woman who promised me would go quieter after 11:30 pm , 12:30 am again in a weekday outside the porch but after 1 am she was still laughing like hyena non-stop!,” Aihua Ji writes of a guest who did not give her a five-star review.

The City of Vancouver has selected seven short-term rental operators and non-operators for the group, which is being chaired by Maria Stanborough, an external facilitator.

“For the success of the Community Working Group, we felt it was important to have an independent and objective external mediator review all applications, select members and facilitate meetings,” the City says on the Working Group web page.

The terms of reference for the group include a gag clause prohibiting members from criticizing the Vancouver City Council or City of Vancouver staff.

Update

“We want to ensure all Vancouver residents, communities and neighborhoods are represented in our working group and future meetings,“ Chief Licence Inspector Kathryn Kolbuch Holm responded to our request for comment. “We worked with an independent and objective external facilitator to ensure a balance of voices and experiences in regards to short-term rentals were represented, which we feel has been achieved with the current membership“