David K. Blum and other neighbors suffered near-nightly disruption from a unit that was advertised as a “singles loft (sleeps up to 16”) and was rented for $ 1,000 per night.
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It started as a loud party next door. But when this went on for days, David K. Blum called his friend who lived in the apartment and was informed that the friend had moved out.
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The party lasted for over a week, when, on a whim, Blum searched Airbnb and found an ad for the apartment in question.
“My heart sank,” Blum told the Montreal Gazette last week, “because I saw the pool table, what I heard – I didn’t know what it was – and the pool table. baby foot. Most importantly, I saw four beds in one room.
Almost a year later, Blum and other neighbors experienced near-nightly disruption due to premises advertised on Airbnb and other sites including Booking.com , Expedia , Travelocity and Hotels.com like “The Bachelor Party Loft Old Montreal” and its variations, which “can accommodate up to 16 people” at $ 1,000 per night.
“The first time I found (the ad) the description was crazy,” Blum said. “It was like, ‘Come party until the early hours of the morning.’ It was crazy.
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Blum has tracked down the owner of the building, Shiller Lavy Realties. After many trips back and forth, he met the manager of the company, Teresa Cristiano, and was put in touch with the tenant at 111A, rue des Sœurs-Grises, which is called Amr.
“What I found out – I don’t know the exact number, but Shiller Lavy rents a lot of units from this Amr guy.”
Blum met Amr, who said he was the son of the owner of a Saudi hotel company and ran a website called Hometrotting.com , which also rents apartments in New York, Chicago and Toronto.
“He told me that in Montreal alone he had 60 (apartments),” Blum said.
Amr accepted some concessions, such as moving the pool table away from the wall adjoining Blum’s apartment; he also adjusted the language of the ads to make them less clearly focused on debauchery. (Some descriptions of the place boasted of “2 stripper poles inside the property” and that it was “best for a bachelorette event.”) But the noise continued.
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“Nothing happened,” Blum said. “The party was constant. I wrote to Shiller Lavy and said, “This has been going on for months; this is a huge problem. If that doesn’t change, I’m going to have to act, and I don’t want to. “
Blum showed the Montreal Gazette an official email he then received from Shiller Lavy’s lawyer Tiffany Hanskamp on December 5, asking him to cease all communication with Shiller Lavy employees and follow her for go forward.
Sensing their exchange was unproductive, Blum stopped communicating with Hanskamp and Shiller Lavy. He was out of the country from January to May by then, but returned to find that the problem persisted.
“The feeling I got from all of this was that Shiller Lavy didn’t want to ruffle Amr’s feathers because they do so much business with him. But at the end of the day, there’s myself, the guy on the other side, and the guy upstairs (who live with this). It’s non-stop.
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Shiller Lavy did not respond to Montreal Gazette requests for comment.
Blum estimates that there are parties five nights a week in the apartment. He describes trash left on the sidewalk on random days, people drinking on the roof, and rowdy antics until all hours. The police have been called more times than they can count.
Another neighbor, who lives on McGill Street, confirmed Blum’s claims.
“I call the cops every weekend,” said the neighbor, who asked that his name not be used. “It’s been almost a year now, almost every night. … This is terrible. It is not tolerable. It should not be allowed. It is a residential area. We all share space together, but what they do is out of control.
The property manager of a neighboring building, who preferred to remain anonymous, said all of his tenants were upset by the situation.
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“It drives us crazy,” he said.
Montreal police said they could not comment on specific cases and all complaints are confidential.
Blum has been in contact with an inspector from the city of Montreal, who examined the situation last week. The city confirmed to the Montreal Gazette that it had received a complaint regarding the operation of illegal tourist accommodation and commercial activity outside the address. The information was transmitted to Revenu Quebec and the host was informed, according to municipal press secretary Audrey Gauthier. She said a city inspector was assigned to the case.
It can help turn the tide. Last week, the Airbnb ad for the apartment disappeared; it stays on Hometrotting.com and other sites.
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Until recently, the apartment was rented on Airbnb by a “superhost” named Mike, and before that by a certain Hakim.
In a history of the CBC on the companies behind some Airbnb profiles, Mike was revealed to be a fake name with a stock photo used by Hakim. The CBC quoted Hakim, who said he used the pseudonym because of previous racist comments about his appearance.
Mike was recently changed to “Seb”. But Seb isn’t real either. Although described on Airbnb as a Montrealer and “a recent college graduate with a computer job in the city,” nearly all 68 Advertisement is also on Hometrotting.com , and a quick search revealed that his headshot was a stock photo widely used online.
Seb joined Airbnb in 2010, according to His profile , and his properties have been reviewed 8,200 times – “more reviews than anyone,” according to the CBC article, which called him “one of the most prolific Airbnb hosts in Canada.” The old reviews of Seb’s ads contain references to both Mike and Hakim.
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Airbnb did not respond to requests for comment. A phone call to the number Blum had for Amr led to an international ringing and a voicemail recording indicating that the person at that number was unavailable. Calls to Hometrotting Montreal on Friday and Saturday were answered by an employee who said Seb was responsible for renting the apartments, but was out of the country. A message was left for Seb and / or Hakim, but none called back at press time.
Blum’s problems are not over. On Friday afternoon, he sent the Montreal Gazette a short video he had just taken of nine young men (out of a total of about 30, he said) exiting 111A rue des Sœurs-Grises. , as well as photos of a rented minibus they rented. had embarked.
It was shaping up to be another long night.
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