700 new jobs, but at what cost?
TVA trumpets that 700 new jobs will be created in Montreal by Sonder, a competitor to Airbnb, and another player in the process of removing regular rental units from the city.
Update: The deal was made after Quebec agreed to a $30-million loan some of which does not have to be paid back.
vasi 12:04 on 2020-12-16 Permalink
Hmm, I’m hoping Sonder will be preferable to Airbnb.
Airbnb avoids playing by the rules by claiming it just “connects vendors and customers”, and pushing responsibilities down to the landlords. So it avoids hotel licensing requirements, insurance costs, business taxes, zoning restrictions, etc. And of course the landlords generally don’t uphold these responsibilities either, but there’s so many of them and it’s so disintermediated that it’s hard for the authorities to go after them.
Sonder owns or leases the rentals themselves, and appears to stick to all the laws–taxes, zoning, licensing, etc. Ideally this means they’re not undercutting hotel prices, but just offering a different experience, And if not, and this does constrain the available rental units, it should be much more controllable via taxes/zoning.
DeWolf 13:07 on 2020-12-16 Permalink
Sonder seems more like a hotel company that is trying to tap into the Airbnb market, not an Airbnb clone. Their three Montreal properties are located in former commercial buildings so they haven’t taken over any residential units (yet).
One of the new Sonder hotels is located in the former Guérin textbook factory on the Plateau. It’s nice to know that, if my entire family or a group of friends visit from out of town, they have the option of staying nearby in a place that isn’t some illegal Airbnb. There’s a huge demand for tourist accommodations on the Plateau and almost no hotels to meet it.
Ephraim 13:11 on 2020-12-16 Permalink
I don’t mind if they do it legally. Sonder usually makes a deal with a condo builder, so they have their own separate building within a building or take over a building. If they are licenced, then they wouldn’t be apartments around town, because the city won’t give you a permit beyond a few streets. In the Plateau, it’s St-Lawrence, St-Denis and Sherbrooke street, if I remember correctly. In fact, when RQ starts doing it’s work, a lot of those places should come back to the rental market, because they can’t get the city permit that is required to get a permit.
Kate 21:32 on 2020-12-16 Permalink
I hope you guys are right. On Facebook today my MNA, Andres Fontecilla, QS, posted “Son modèle d’affaire? Louer des appartements à long terme et les relouer à court terme à des touristes et des gens d’affaires. Traduction : son profit, elle le fait en retirant du marché immobilier des centaines de logements qui pourraient servir à loger des familles en pleine crise du logement. M. Fitzgibbon est bien fier de dire que ce prêt d’Investissement Québec va renforcer la place de Montréal dans le secteur des technologies numériques et de l’intelligence artificielle. Soit, mais à quel prix?”