Airbnb superhost Keith Robinson lives and works in Calgary.
Calgary city councillor Richard Pootmans noted recently that regulation of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, may be next on the city's radar. Calgarians and City Council need to learn more about Airbnb.
I am proud to be part of a respectful and compassionate community of Airbnb hosts in Calgary. Airbnb hosts work extremely hard. We want visitors from around the world to feel they belong in Calgary, but we need to belong here, too.
My wife, Yoshiko, and I are empty nesters in our beautiful Parkdale infill. We had been using our guest bedrooms for visiting family, friends and the occasional student or intern.
About six years ago, I heard about Airbnb when my daughter had used the home-sharing website to visit her grandpa in Victoria. She was travelling with her small children, husband, strollers, car seats, foldable cribs and assorted kid stuff.
"How did you manage?" I asked her.
"We stayed at an Airbnb," she said. "It was great; the Airbnb had a kitchen and lots of room and everything we needed for the family."
We did some research and learned Airbnb was facilitating what we were already doing – sharing our home with friends, family and guests. Airbnb provided an online platform and global reach, and the opportunity to make a little money to support my family.
It seemed a perfect fit with our lifestyle, and we started hosting with Airbnb.
I'm a sommelier by trade with a small private consulting business. Great job, yes, but with the economic downturn, my sales were down about 80 per cent. We had choices to make about our future and decided to commit and make Airbnb a bigger part of our lives. We haven't looked back since.
We've hosted over 1,000 travellers from over 60 countries and from every continent. We've met the most fascinating people – scientists from Antarctica, shoemakers from Kelowna, diviners from Norway, pathologists from Tanzania, musicians, artists and business people. It's been an amazing six years.
Since our home is close to the Foothills Medical Centre and the university, we host a number of visiting doctors and scholars. One doctor from Brazil was a specialist in genetics and biologic evolution. She was a shy guest, very quiet. Back home, her patients were mostly children with severe genetic disorders.
One day, my grandsons came to visit. The doctor really brightened up and had a great time with them. She left a note in our guest book, saying that she had come to Canada to study medicine, but actually learned more about life, relationships and people by staying with us.
We hosted a young couple from Korea who moved to Calgary and became great friends with our neighbours. Other neighbours know what we do and have even dropped off treats for our guests.
Experiences such as these are our greatest reward from being Airbnb hosts.
I'm also proud to help our community by recommending local favourites such as Pizza Bob's, Lazy Loaf & Kettle, Dairy Lane or the Kensington district. If my visitors ask for old-fashioned straight edge shaves, I send them to London Barbers, and many guests have especially loved Notable, in Montgomery, for Alberta beef. Our guests bring dollars to our community and help small local businesses survive.
I hope my experience can help Calgarians see the benefits that Airbnb is bringing to our neighbourhoods, our local businesses and to our city.
We want to work together to educate Calgarians about home sharing. We want to be good neighbours, while at the same time protecting our right to share our home and help make ends meet.
Our neighbours understand and support what we are doing. They know the last thing our street needs is another "For Sale" sign.
Keith Robinson is a proud grandfather, sommelier and Airbnb host in Calgary.