Airbnb announced a temporary ban on all parties and events in listings globally in August 2020. The temporary ban has reportedly proved effective, so the company has announced the ban will now be their official policy.
The company allowed Hosts on the site to use their best judgment to authorize parties when appropriate for their home and neighborhood. However, in late 2019, measures were tightened to prohibit “open-invite” parties, those advertised on social media, and “chronic party houses” that developed into neighborhood nuisances. Airbnb reports that 73% of global listings already had party bans in their House Rules, making the transition to no parties a bit smoother when the pandemic hit.
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As a public safety measure when the pandemic was announced, Airbnb announced a temporary party ban to the community as it was “in the best interest of public health.” When clubs and bars closed or had restricted occupancy in 2020, some took their party behaviors to rental properties including Airbnb listings. The company was concerned due to both the disruptive nature of unauthorized parties, but also the risk of the virus spreading at these gatherings.
Not only has this policy greatly affected the Airbnb Host community, but it has also been working. The company reports that there is a direct correlation between the implementation of the policy in August 2020 and a 37% year-over-year drop in the rate of party reports in Michigan.
In addition to this policy becoming permanent, Airbnb will be re-instituting strict anti-party measures for the fourth of July. The anti-party system that was workshopped on the Fourth of July last year in 2021 focuses on blocking certain one-night reservations and two-night reservation attempts for booking guests that do not have a history of positive reviews.
The following criteria will be in place for guests attempting to book over the Fourth of July weekend:
- For one-night reservations: Guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will be prohibited from making one-night reservations in entire home listings.
- For two-night reservations: As July 4 approaches, we will deploy more stringent restrictions on certain two-night reservation attempts. For example, we will leverage and amplify our technology that restricts certain local or last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb.
- Guests who have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will not be subject to these restrictions.
- We will also be introducing anti-party attestations to guests attempting to make local reservations, in which they must affirmatively attest that they understand that Airbnb bans parties and if they break that rule, they may be subject to legal action from the company.
Airbnb says that they will continue working with local law enforcement, neighbors, and their community to try to stop unauthorized parties, and they look forward to sharing announcements along these lines in the coming months.