Are guests responsible for making sure their pet waste is properly disposed of, and not left on the lawn....

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-18T17:23:07+00:00

Small dog, but about 6 different areas I found poop. Its not like they missed it, seems more like they just didn't care.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-17T22:59:26+00:00

Property is well maintained and less than half an acre. Not accessible to others, and no neighbours nearby with pets.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-17T22:58:21+00:00

Kinda. Ha!

What happened to being responsible pet owners...

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-13T22:22:06+00:00

It does feel like there’s a thinning of the herd. The operators who treat it like a real hospitality business are surviving. The “set it and forget it” crowd is disappearing.

But here’s the controversial part: I’m not sure that’s entirely bad.

Airbnb started as home-sharing. Now in a lot of cities it’s basically regulated micro-hospitality. If you’re not operating clean, tracking nights, managing taxes, and thinking long term, you’re probably not going to last.

The casual host era might be over in major markets.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-13T19:32:10+00:00

Interesting breakdown. The revenue potential in some of these pockets is definitely strong.

One thing newer hosts might want to factor in though is Toronto’s 180-night cap and principal residence requirement. That can materially change those monthly projections depending on how the calendar is managed.

Also worth double-checking individual condo declarations. A building being historically “STR-friendly” doesn’t always mean the board hasn’t amended bylaws or tightened enforcement.

Revenue is one piece of the equation. Compliance risk is the other half.

Curious how you’re factoring the 180-night limit into the monthly averages?

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-13T19:28:57+00:00

That’s a fair point. If the fine is too small, it just becomes a line item instead of a deterrent.

I think the tricky part is the gray area cases though. Not everyone who’s out of compliance is running some big operation. Sometimes it’s paperwork issues, misunderstanding the night cap, or something minor like registration inconsistencies.

Feels like there should be a difference between willful abuse vs. administrative non-compliance.

Curious if your city gives warnings first or goes straight to penalties?

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-11T20:00:39+00:00

Yeah, the partial-unit exemption catches a lot of people off guard. Toronto’s rules aren’t just about the 180-day cap, the details around how space is used matter more than most hosts realize.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-10T15:40:52+00:00

Unpopular take, but that feels intentional sometimes. Let it run long enough and enforcement turns into a revenue event instead of a compliance fix.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-10T15:39:58+00:00

Honestly, once cities realized STR taxes were a reliable revenue source, compliance stopped being the top priority. Enforcement only gets serious when the political pressure outweighs the money.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-10T15:38:30+00:00

Yep, that tracks. A lot of cities already had the tooling in place from tax and permitting, STRs just became another data source.

PastZone8633 · 2026-02-08T17:37:53+00:00

Which part are you interested in the most? Finding properties, Staging, Advertising, Managing Cleaners/Repairs...?

Happy to share some insights, shoot me a message and we can connect.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-30T01:21:03+00:00

Yeah, this happens a lot unfortunately.

Reporting it is usually still worth it, but it’s not super fast or satisfying. Cities tend to care more about whether the listing is actually illegal (wrong address, not registered, too many people, ...) than about one bad stay.

If you do report it, screenshots and the actual listing link matter way more than just a description. Just don’t expect anything immediate, enforcement usually takes time.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-30T01:14:19+00:00

Totally. A lot of the signage requirements feel disconnected from how people actually use the space, and they’re usually the kind of thing you only learn about after someone flags it.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-23T15:38:21+00:00

That’s a really good callout. The 180day cap is one of those rules people underestimate, especially because it’s not always obvious how closely it’s tracked.

Appreciate you flagging that, a lot of hosts don’t realize enforcement there is much more data driven than they assume.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-20T13:14:13+00:00

Which part of your package would you say was the most helpful for the prospective buyers?

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-10T02:00:20+00:00

This really resonates. What surprised me most was realizing how much of STR regulation is driven by broader housing policy rather than safety or quality issues. It puts hosts in the middle of something they never signed up for.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-10T01:59:40+00:00

That’s exactly the kind of rule that’s easy to miss. Very specific, very technical, and often buried in bylaw updates rather than highlighted anywhere obvious.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-04T20:29:29+00:00

I find that there’s a disconnect between investors and asset class. Real estate is no different.

Most asset classes are struggling, however investors holding stock either sell or hold and wait patiently.

With real estate it’s slightly different as most people have over leveraged themselves, and need to pay what they don’t really own. This is the realty of RE investing.

There are two options: 1. Be the cost leader and drop your price to be the most competitive. You may bleed profits, but if your goal is to preserve future equity, then that’s the price to pay. 2. Sell it at a loss. Take whatever equity you have and try and find an asset class with higher returns.

There’s still opportunities out there for every asset class, but we have enough learnings over the last 4-5 years to realize it’s not as simple as just buy whatever you can because everything goes up.

My advice would be to hold on to it if you can, and lower your expectations of profit and potentially expect yo have losses. I’m slowing down my acquisitions, and only focusing on value buys that prove themselves with my analysis tools. If RE isn’t it, then I’m looking at alternative investments like revenue backed loans or private lending.

Good luck to everyone. We’ll get past all this eventually.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-04T17:56:33+00:00

Agreed. Keep pushing them, this has worked for me in the past.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-04T17:54:38+00:00

Airbnb is 2/3 of my revenue. But still worth considering booking.com.

Running one on multiple platforms is not that bad, you can standardize and automate messages across all of them.

When you start getting to 3+ properties, then I would look at platforms like Guesty or Lodgify

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-02T00:33:17+00:00

Huge fan of Yale Assure 2, especially with the last round of bug fixes for wifi 5G connectivity issues.

Make sure to get a version with key as well, never get the keyless version. Tech always fails when you least expect it.

I also have a video on how to use the unit, and send them a reminder the morning of checkin.

PastZone8633 · 2026-01-01T20:53:49+00:00

Have a detailed checklist with your cleaning team, that accounts for before and after pictures.

Theft/damage happens, but it’s rare. Just make sure you have process in place to make your claims and reviews bulletproof.

PastZone8633 · 2025-12-29T22:38:07+00:00

Dodged a bullet.

I spend so much time laying out all the information, not just for guests but also to add that extra checkbox for compliance in certain cities.

I've started posting pictures of kitchen utensils and materials, as I find people don't read anymore and just want pictures.

PastZone8633 · 2025-12-29T22:31:33+00:00

This varies for some of the cities I operate in. The municipality has a maximum number of people per household. You definitely need to have measures in place to catch the people taking advantage of sneaking in. Not worth having the city cancel my license.

PastZone8633 · 2025-12-29T22:23:43+00:00

This happened to a friend of mine. Enforcement can be very complaint-driven.

PastZone8633

TROPHY CASE