Earlier this year Airbnb announced that parties at all listings were banned. This came after a temporary ban in August 2020.
However, while putting a ban in place is all good and well, people can simply ignore the rule. As such, Airbnb has announced the introduction of anti-party tools for Hosts in the US and Canada.
These tools or rather similar tools have been piloted in Australia since October 2021.
“We have seen a 35 percent drop in incidents of unauthorized parties in the areas of Australia where this pilot has been in effect. We are now ending the pilot phase in Australia and codifying this product nationwide. We are hoping for similar success as we begin testing this in the US and Canada,” Airbnb said in a press release.
Essentially, these anti-party tools will prevent a guest from even making a booking for an entire home. Guests will still be able to make bookings in a private room or at a hotel but not a full house.
The anti-party tool is based on Airbnb’s “under-25 system”. This prevents a user who is under the age of 25 with no positive reviews from booking a local stay.
The firm is careful to state that this isn’t a magic tool that will prevent Hosts’ homes from being misused. Rather, these measures are meant to try to stop bad actors from abusing the platform.
“While we are optimistic that this technology will have a positive impact for the safety of our community and our goal to reduce unauthorized parties — we want to be clear that no system is perfect. We work hard to deter bad actors from using our platform, but ultimately Airbnb is an online platform that facilitates real world connections. That’s why we continually seek to partner with experts and communities to complement their safety efforts, and we continue to invest in our Neighborhood Support Line to facilitate direct communication with neighbors regarding potential parties in progress or concerns with any nearby listings,” Airbnb said.
Bad news for party animals then, looks like you’ll have to hire venues or use your own home. That is until some clever folks inevitably find a way around these measures.
