United States – Following its implementation of a temporary ban on parties across registered listings globally in August 2020, vacation rental company Airbnb has permanently codified its party ban globally.
According to the company in its official blog, the temporary ban implementation had proved to be effective, as they have seen a 44% year-over-year drop in the rate of party reports. They have also reported that in 2021, over 6,600 guests were suspended from Airbnb for attempting to violate their party ban.
“We know that the overwhelming majority of our Hosts share their homes responsibly, just as the overwhelming majority of guests are responsible and treat their listings and neighbourhoods as if they were their own. In turn, we focus on trying to deter the very rare cases of Hosts who do not operate responsibly, or guests who try to throw unauthorised parties,” Airbnb explained.
The party ban also includes disruptive parties and events that will continue to be prohibited, including open-invite gatherings. So-called ‘party house’ properties will continue to be strictly prohibited as well.
During its temporary ban, Airbnb introduced a 16-person occupancy cap — which was prompted primarily by COVID-19 concerns around large gatherings prior to the introduction of vaccines. As part of the updated policy, and based on feedback from a number of hosts who have listings that can house above 16 people comfortably, they will remove this cap.
“Finally, strong policies must be complemented by strong enforcement. We’ve introduced a number of anti-party measures in recent years to enforce our policy and try, to the best of our ability, to stop both unauthorised parties and chronic party houses,” Airbnb added.
