Airbnb imposes rules to prevent ‘disruptive’ New Year’s Eve parties

Airbnb has banned one-night bookings of hosts’ homes on New Year’s Eve, except for those with an excellent behaviour record, as part of a crackdown on “unauthorised” and “disruptive” parties.

The home rental platform, which imposed a party ban globally last year under efforts to maintain safety at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, said it was introducing new products and policies to protect hosts and their communities as travel returns.

“The anchor of this plan is a ban on one-night NYE bookings in entire home listings for guests without a history of positive reviews,” it said.

“For two-night reservations – as NYE approaches, we will deploy more stringent restrictions on two-night reservations that may pose heightened risk for disruptive parties.

Image: Airbnb says property owners back its measures to reduce disruptive behaviour. File pic

“For example, we will leverage and amplify our technology that restricts certain local and last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb.”

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It said the restrictions were now effective in the US (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and the UK.

Airbnb said the move followed a pilot last year involving several nations, including the UK, that resulted in its aim of reducing disruptive parties being achieved.

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“We implemented similar policy and product adaptations in the US and Canada over July 4 and Halloween 2021, with similar success”, the company said.

“We’re continuously exploring other opportunities around the globe to introduce this type of initiative, in addition to continued investment in our other robust party prevention systems.”

It said the policies had the support of its hosts, who now number over four million around the world.

It is not the first time the company has taken action over so-called party houses.

It reacted to the killing of five people at a Halloween party in San Francisco in 2019 by initiating a crackdown that included the creation of a “rapid response team” to handle concerns and complaints.

Earlier this year it revealed a phone number for neighbours to report bad behaviour amid criticism the company was not taking responsibility for anti-social behaviour.