—- A party at a downtown Airbnb condo turned deadly Friday night when gunfire erupted killing three young men and injuring two others.
The bloodshed unfolded during a “social gathering at a rented Airbnb,” according to Chief Mark Saunders.
He confirmed three young men were shot dead and a fourth shooting victim was taken to hospital but is expected to survive.
A fifth victim suffered cuts, Saunders said. —-
I was really upset to hear of this tragedy that unfolded on Friday, Jan 31 in my city. There has already been a number of shootings at airbnb listings in the last 12 months in my city but this was the most tragic.
Not surprisingly, the condo was rented by locals to throw a party. Every shooting that has happened in Toronto were caused by local residents booking an Airbnb to host a party. I’m sure this is also the case with other such events in other parts of the world. I’ve mentioned many times how hosts should be really careful with local bookings and how Airbnb NEEDS to take more measures especially from local bookings that fall on a weekend. I would even say it is worth banning all local weekend bookings all together. With the current trend of violence, it is not sustainable and the city will just come down with stricter sanctions and regulations on hosts.
As a result of the numerous shootings that have taken place in my city, all of us hosts have a dark cloud hanging above us with mistrustful neighbours. This gives all of us hosts including those who carefully screen guests a bad name. Be careful fellow hosts. I don’t blame Airbnb for this necessarily however I think hosts need better training on how to screen guests and Airbnb needs to utilize better technology to screen out risky reservations and impose stricter booking rules. E.g a ban on local bookings that fall on weekends
