BCBusiness

34 BCBusiness august 2015 have. That was the theme of all seven Uber drivers sampled on a Friday after- noon and evening in Seattle. David Britt, a retired stockbroker originally from Ten- nessee, now living in a suburb east of the city, works only days and in the areas he wants. It's part of a great, fun game when he snaps up a customer going to the air- port and then snags another one going from the airport to Federal Way on the return trip. For retired vending-machine supplier Charles Birnie, it's freedom after the grind of his previous job. Like many others, he chooses not to work nights because he's not fond of what he calls the "tavern trade." Tsegereda Weldemichael, a 36-year-old Ethiopia native, says she likes the œexibility that working for Uber gives her to take care of her mother, who has medical issues. "I used to work in a nursing home and it was so hard to take care of family," she says as she zips across the bridge in her Toyota Corolla between Seattle's downtown and the university district to the north. She usually does three nights a week, often choosing not to go out until she sees that the prices are rising during a busy time. (Uber, unlike regular taxi businesses, raises prices when things get busy—so-called "surge pricing"—and alerts riders with a friendly sounding notice that they're doing so "to bring out more drivers.") Tonight, there's a Mariners game on in the city, so it's worthwhile for Weldemichael to be out. She's already taken two sets of people to the stadium by 7 p.m.; there will be another rush when they all get out. B ut all these disruptive busi- nesses are about more than just customers and provid- ers. Others get caught up in the change, as houses and condos become mini-hotels and everyone turns into a taxi driver. Despite the positive experience of Sylvain Senez and Alexis Fletcher in east Vancouver, complaints are starting to trickle in from homeowners in other areas—distressed to see a house on the block become a major traŠc generator or, from condo residents, startled to see units in their buildings advertised on Airbnb. Strata councils are tussling with routine discoveries that units in their buildings are being used as Airbnbs— which they -nd out about in odd ways. "Sometimes somebody who is renting mistakes us for the rental manager, so they call saying there are no towels or they can't -nd the key to the pool," says Jason Kurtz, vice-president at Stra- tawest Management, whose strata-man- agement company oversees about 130 condo buildings in the Lower Mainland. Kurtz says that even strata councils with relatively relaxed policies about rentals are not happy about the rentals that are for a few nights at a time; it makes others feel the building isn't secure, and there are always concerns about the wear and tear on the building. However, it turns out that strata- council rules often aren't written strictly enough to prevent Airbnb-type rent- als. People renting regular apartments aren't supposed to lease them out for overnight stays—but they do it anyway, and landlords often don't know. They're not around enough to spot the traf- -c, and Airbnb visitors are sometimes coached to say they're visiting. Adding even more uncertainty to the issue is a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling that put into question the City of Vancou- ver's bylaw stipulating that only hotel rooms can be rented by the night, while all other rentals are supposed to be for 30 days or more. "We're just starting to deal with the rami-cations of that," says Kurtz. There's more than just discomfort or rule-breaking involved; there are also the high-pro-le stories about disasters. uber, like airbnb, is also widely popular among vancouverites–even though the company's town-car service only operated here from July to november 2012. uber vancouver has 4,400 followers, and the petition urging uber for vancouver has 30,000 signatures

• Cover