Metro Vancouver Hotel & Short Term Rental Market Discussion

[whatnext]

Speaking of hotels, this was in BIV last week. I didn't realize GEC had sold the old Best Western again at Drake & Granville. Now it's operating as the Grand Park Hotel.

Vancouver wakes up: New hotel proposals emerge after long hiatus
Strong hotel demand despite construction slowdown in Canada
By Peter Mitham, Western Investor | February 9, 2024

Tourists and business travellers alike hit the road again last year, boosting demand for hotel rooms by 11 per cent Canadawide.

But new construction has been virtually non-existent, with the stock of rooms growing less than one per cent last year even as travellers have shown they’re willing to pay. Spending on accommodation was 97 per cent of 2019 levels in the first half of last year, while overall tourism spending was at 88 per cent – showing that even if travellers are skimping on activities, they’re willing to pay for comfy quarters....

....Vancouver is also seeing new proposals coming forward after a years-long hiatus, with four projects proposed for downtown. Pointing to the opportunities, the city recently logged its biggest hotel transaction since the pandemic with the sale of the 718 Drake Street, a former student residence now operating as the Grand Park Hotel and Suites Downtown Vancouver.

Diversification is a prime goal of investors looking at hotels right now, according to speakers at the Western Canadian Lodging Conference in Vancouver on Nov. 2.....

https://biv.com/article/2024/02/vanc...er-long-hiatus

[Migrant_Coconut]

Converting Vancouver's empty office space to pod hotels could ease hotel crunch, say councillors

Link

Two Vancouver city councillors are proposing Vancouver look at changing the building bylaw to make it easier to convert empty, post-pandemic office space to pod hotels.

Pod hotels were first built in Japan and designed for an affordable one person stay.

Councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung and Lisa Dominato say this could help travellers who can’t afford to stay in the city’s expensive hotels with an accommodation shortage during upcoming sporting events, such as the Invictus Games in 2025 and FIFA World Cup Soccer in 2026.

Their motion goes before city council on Wednesday.

The councillors say current hotel proposals under review will take years to complete rezoning and approvals, but pod hotels can meet the demand for affordable overnight accommodation and reduce the pressure for short-term rentals on limited rental housing stock.

“The aim here is to give the opportunity to get something done for FIFA, but I do want to stress it’s not just for FIFA, that these pod hotels have value beyond that to become part of our hotel stock so that people have options, particularly more affordable options,” said Kirby-Yung...

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Converting Vancouver's empty office space to pod hotels could ease hotel crunch, say councillors

I assume there might be developer behind this idea - although I guess the councillors could have dreamt it up. Pod hotels are expensive SROs with less space and no windows in the sleeping space, but leased on a daily basis. It's a shame we need the existing SRO rooms as badly as we do, as some of them would make great pod hotels.

Are there any vacant office buildings that the idea could be tried in? The only one I can think of is the Arts & Crafts building on Seymour, which was being converted into a Sonder before the pandemic. That wouldn't add a lot of rooms.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Changing City

I assume there might be developer behind this idea - although I guess the councillors could have dreamt it up. Pod hotels are expensive SROs with less space and no windows in the sleeping space, but leased on a daily basis. It's a shame we need the existing SRO rooms as badly as we do, as some of them would make great pod hotels.

Heaven forbid we incentivise new SROs to be built. Just wait until council decides these pod hotels need to have vacancy controls.

[NewfBC]

POD hotels are not 'rooms'.. they're typically modular prefabricated units that can be assembled quickly in a large open space.



Ron.

[Changing City]

Dup

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by NewfBC

POD hotels are not 'rooms'.. they're typically modular prefabricated units that can be assembled quickly in a large open space.

Ron.

Yes, you're right, they have less space than a hotel (or SRO) room. They require construction of bathrooms, showers etc. The Panda Pod hotel in Richmond has 64 wooden cubicles, but it's a new build single storey structure, not a conversion of an office space.


Vancouver is Awesome

[SpongeG]

I've been reading a few reviews or things posted by people travelling to/visiting Vancouver and they mostly are unaware of the Air BNB situation.
Anyway one of them said they got very weird instructions to their AirBNB, they visited after the new regulations had kicked in, they detailed the weird process they had to go through to retrieve their keys etc and not to talk to the door man etc. So people are still renting out their units as AirBNBs illegally. Some of the commentators asked the op for the info and reported the owners to I guess the government as they were quite pissed off about the lawbreakers, not the person staying.

Other posts were wondering why it was so hard to find a place to stay with AirBNB, completely unaware of the new rules. I wonder how many are still renting out outside of the rules, is there a way to police it? are whoever is in charge able to?

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I've been reading a few reviews or things posted by people travelling to/visiting Vancouver and they mostly are unaware of the Air BNB situation.
Anyway one of them said they got very weird instructions to their AirBNB, they visited after the new regulations had kicked in, they detailed the weird process they had to go through to retrieve their keys etc and not to talk to the door man etc. So people are still renting out their units as AirBNBs illegally. Some of the commentators asked the op for the info and reported the owners to I guess the government as they were quite pissed off about the lawbreakers, not the person staying.

When I was in Melbourne one of the AirBNBs I stayed in had instructions on how to prevent the strata from knowing it was an AirBNB. At the time I believe there were no municipal AirBNB restrictions, but I guess it was banned by the building strata.

Was fine by me, I'd still rather be in an AirBNB than a hotel room. Criminalizing AirBNB just makes AirBNB operators criminals, it doesn't stop the practice.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by chowhou

When I was in Melbourne one of the AirBNBs I stayed in had instructions on how to prevent the strata from knowing it was an AirBNB. At the time I believe there were no municipal AirBNB restrictions, but I guess it was banned by the building strata.

Was fine by me, I'd still rather be in an AirBNB than a hotel room. Criminalizing AirBNB just makes AirBNB operators criminals, it doesn't stop the practice.

Interesting. I had a similar experience over 10 years ago, renting an apartment for a few nights in Portland. Airbnb was relatively new, and at that point there wasn't any negative comment about it. It was the first time I'd used Airbnb.

It was a quite new apartment in a Downtown tower, and the instructions were in a pdf that was emailed just before arrival, telling us how to get the key fob for the elevator and front door from the concierge, giving him a name that wasn't the same as the person we were supposedly renting from. It was all very odd, and not particularly convenient compared to using a hotel. The apartment was like living in a fluffed display suite. There were just two plates, bowls, glasses etc, (the best that Pottery Barn sold), and very 2010s decor like a portable typewriter and a mug with sharpened pencils next to it on a floating wall shelf.

The more disconcerting part was the instruction in the pdf to not tell anybody who we were, or where we were staying, or to ask the concierge anything else other than for the envelope with the key fob, which we were to hand back as we left.

It was obvious, once we got there, that the short-term rental wasn't permitted, and it's possible that whoever we rented from was a tenant, rather than an owner, and was illegally subletting. We couldn't ask, as we never met him.

I have only stayed in hotels since then.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I've been reading a few reviews or things posted by people travelling to/visiting Vancouver and they mostly are unaware of the Air BNB situation.
Anyway one of them said they got very weird instructions to their AirBNB, they visited after the new regulations had kicked in, they detailed the weird process they had to go through to retrieve their keys etc and not to talk to the door man etc. So people are still renting out their units as AirBNBs illegally. Some of the commentators asked the op for the info and reported the owners to I guess the government as they were quite pissed off about the lawbreakers, not the person staying.

Other posts were wondering why it was so hard to find a place to stay with AirBNB, completely unaware of the new rules. I wonder how many are still renting out outside of the rules, is there a way to police it? are whoever is in charge able to?

Yes, there's a provincial team to follow up and levy fines on owners who are operating outside the permitted rental rules. It's still all very new in some places in BC, and it should be clearer how well it's working in a few months. This piece explains how the new rules are being policed.

[Conrad Yablonski]

Long thread about a lot of visitors dodging bullets because some crooks (with hilariously bad timing) were exposed.

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic..._Columbia.html

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Yes, there's a provincial team to follow up and levy fines on owners who are operating outside the permitted rental rules. It's still all very new in some places in BC, and it should be clearer how well it's working in a few months. This piece explains how the new rules are being policed.

I'm on a strata council in Vancouver. The provincial rules are essentially the same as Vancouver's rules on paper. The hope is that actual enforcement will be better, there has been none from the City. So far the same from the Province, but that only started May 1st IIRC.