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Niagara Falls
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Letter: Turner column on Airbnb numbers was incorrect
Opinion. FILE
Dear editor:
Mr. Turner’s belief and statement in his Dec. 19 opinion piece “The town that wants to be a motel,” that “Airbnb shows more than 1,000 short-term rental listings in Niagara-on-the-Lake” clearly demonstrates that the columnist needs to do some further research to understand how the platform works.
When one chooses dates for a location, many of the surrounding areas end up being included in the search result. This is true when one uses the platform to travel anywhere.
Mr. Turner, before creating panic and perpetuating disinformation about the number of short-term rental properties (legal and illegal), please do another search and see where all of the 1,000 properties are actually located. You will see that a huge number are in Niagara Falls, Thorold, St. Catharines, Lincoln … the list goes on and on.
Once you have really done the proper research (which isn’t just inputting dates and a location, but rather going through one property at a time to determine its actual location), please share the number of properties that are located solely in Niagara-on-the-Lake with your readers, and compare that to the number of licensed properties with the town.
One can only hope that the staff analysis knows how to do the proper research.
Once that is shared, I would suggest you consider rewriting your column with the actual facts.
While I live in Toronto, I am the owner of a licenced short-term rental in NOTL.
My biggest concern about Mr. Turner’s article is that it creates unnecessary panic through the spreading of misinformation.
I want to be clear that the reason I knew immediately that Mr. Turner either does
not know how such platforms work or possibly that he just wanted to have a big number to “make his case,” is not because I am a host myself, but rather because of my prior travels.
When I have looked on such platforms in anticipation of a potential trip, the options that come up are often quite far from the location I input.
One has to sift through the information and carefully look at actual locations as part of the process.
Tara Abrams
Toronto

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