Airbnb has announced a new anti-party tool in the US and Canada to help identify potentially high-risk reservations. It also intends to prevent those users from taking advantage of the platform, the company said. In June, the company announced that its previously temporary ban on parties will become a codified policy.
“We are continuing our work to enforce that policy by taking measures trying to the best of our ability to take on unauthorized parties, meaning parties thrown without the knowledge or consent of hosts. It’s integral to our commitment to our host community, who respect their neighbors and want no part of the property damage and other issues that may come with unauthorized or disruptive parties,” Airbnb says in a press release.
According to the online platform, this new anti-party tool looks at factors like history of positive reviews, length of time the guest has been on Airbnb, length of the trip, distance to the listing, weekend vs. weekday, among many others. “The primary objective is attempting to reduce the ability of bad actors to throw unauthorized parties which negatively impact our Hosts, neighbors, and the communities we serve,” the rental company stated.
The company implemented a similar variation of this system in Australia last year. “ We have seen a 35 percent drop in incidents of unauthorized parties in the areas of Australia where this pilot has been in effect.”
Airbnb says this new tool prevents bad guests
Airbnb explains that this anti-party technology works to prevent a reservation attempt from going through. Guests who are unable to make entire home bookings due to this system will still be able to book a private room or a hotel room through Airbnb.
“We anticipate that this new system will help prevent more bad actors on our platform while having less of a blunt impact on guests who are not trying to throw a party.” The online platform said it is optimistic about this new tool. “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,” Airbnb said.
“We work hard to deter bad actors from using our platform,” the company added.
Airbnb concluded that it will communicate with transparency about the results of this testing phase.
