title: The availability of smoking-permitted accommodations from Airbnb in 12 Canadian cities.
abstract: Airbnb is a web-based peer-to-peer (P2P) service that enables potential hosts and guests to broker accommodations in private homes as an alternative to traditional hotels. The hospitality sector has increasingly gone smoke-free over the last decade. This study identified the availability and cost of smoking-permitted accommodations identified on Airbnb.
  
  
  
  The study team searched for Airbnb accommodations in 12 Canadian cities across each of Canada's 10 provinces. Searches included availability for a single person for a private room, or double occupancy for an entire home/apartment; searches were for 1-night and 1-week stays.
  
  
  
  Cities across Canada, including Regina, Fredericton and Charlottetown, had no smoking-permitted accommodations available for the searches conducted. The proportion of private rooms available for one night that permitted smoking ranged from 2% in Calgary, 4% in Winnipeg and St. John's, 10% in Halifax and Victoria, 18% in Toronto, 45% in Vancouver and 69% in Montréal. The average cost for a private room for one night in Vancouver was $128, while the cost for a private room that permits smoking was $62; however, in other markets prices were more similar.
  
  
  
  Across Canada, there is a wide range of smoking-permitted accommodations available through Airbnb. In some markets, smoking-permitted accommodation may be significantly less expensive than smoke-free options. As hotel chains increasingly go smoke-free, it is possible that the marketplace will respond with offerings to fulfil consumer demand. As policy makers consider how to regulate P2P services like Airbnb, public health considerations should be included.
authors.affiliation: Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.|Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan David
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.affiliation: Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.
authors.forename: Ornell
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.affiliation: Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stehouwer
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Jackie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dawson
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D002947:Cities; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D061845:Smoke-Free Policy; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics; D000074606:Smoking Prevention / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014195:Travel / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Denormalization; Prevention; Public policy; Secondhand smoke; Social marketing