Canada’s first dedicated squad of short-term rental inspectors — also known as Montreal’s new Airbnb police. In partnership with The Real News Network, Ricochet Media had the chance to join them as they hunted down illegal rentals with our camera crew in tow.
With fines that can reach $100,000 for repeat offenders, the highest yet in North America, Montreal is cracking down on illegal ghost hotels. The flurry of enforcement comes in the wake of a tragic March fire that killed seven, including six Airbnb guests in a building with inadequate windows, fire escapes, and smoke alarms.
“Our message to everybody who is doing illegal [short-term rentals],” Plateau-Mont-Royal mayor Luc Rabouin says when we meet him in a local park, “we are coming.”
This reporting is part of the Investigating Airbnb project, a crowdfunded, multi-outlet effort to track the impact of short-term rentals on the housing crisis in Canada.
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