Toronto convicts first Airbnb owner over zoning violation
I love Airbnb when it was small and largely just people who wanted to share a spare bedroom. Now, it&#x27;s just as commercial as any other listing website.<p>In Toronto, it&#x27;s not uncommon to see tons of lockboxes outside some condos which are largely for short term rentals, as well as have tenants deal with experiences like this (copy and pasted from Toronto&#x27;s subreddit):<p>&quot;Have you ever wanted to live in a hotel, without the actual service of living in a hotel? You can at the Ice Condos! When walking through the lobby on any given day you&#x27;re nearly guaranteed to see a few wide eyed, suitcase towing AirBNB guests standing around. Don&#x27;t except to be able to speak with the concierge for anything - the AirBNB people will be arguing with them over the fact that the concierge won&#x27;t just give out the keys to suites because people say they&#x27;re supposed to be allowed in. Shout out to the guy last week who yelled &#x27;This isn&#x27;t a fuckking hotel!&#x27; to the woman doing just that last week.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s particularly why I find their branding and messaging deceitful. They advertise in Toronto in a way that makes it seem like the company is merely a benign platform that helps citizens fund things on the side (one of their ads uses an Asian family with a kid, an appeal to emotion which I see through as an Asian Canadian). Except it&#x27;s disconnected from a reality where people buy properties for the sole purpose of listing them on Airbnb as short-term rentals.