Airbnb Bans New Year’s Parties for a Selection of Guests

Airbnb has taken steps to curb short-term New Year’s Eve bookings all over the globe in attempt to stop rowdy parties.

According to the company, one-night rentals for entire homes will be banned for guests who have not received positive reviews or had no previous bookings. This policy will be in effect for the New Year’s Eve weekend in 11 countries, including the United States and Canada. It also applies to several European countries like France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Airbnb will be doing the same in Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands for the first year.

“Stays take place across the world each night on Airbnb, with the overwhelming majority of guests and Hosts being respectful of neighbors and delivering benefits to their local community,” Naba Banerjee, the director of trust product and operations at Airbnb, said in a statement. “These proactive defenses will help to promote responsible travel and help to prevent rare instances of unwelcome behavior, and enable Hosts, guests and communities to enjoy their end of year celebrations with added reassurance.”

In addition to banning one-night bookings, Airbnb said it would introduce “tighter restrictions” for those same customers who try to book two or three-night reservations, “with an emphasis on attempts to book locally.”

Airbnb has been cracking down on parties for years ever since a fatal shooting occurred during a party at a California rental property in 2019. Since then, the company has implemented booking restrictions over major holidays, including New Year’s Eve last year.

In August, Airbnb introduced anti-party technology in the U.S. and Canada to identify high-risk reservations, looking at factors like if guests have a history of positive reviews, the length of time they have been on Airbnb, the length of their trip, how far they live from the listing they are trying to rent, and what time of the week they are booking.

The company also made its no-party rule permanent over the summer after initially creating it in August 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

 

Source: travelandleisure.com