Airbnb on Tuesday announced that it will no longer allow parties at its rented properties. The company also said that last year, around 6,600 guests were suspended by them due to similar violations.
Airbnb began to crack down on parties in 2019 after a fatal shooting at a party in a house in California. At that time, the company prohibited advertising parties at Airbnb locations on social media.
“The temporary ban has proved effective, and today we are officially codifying the ban as our policy,” the company said. “When the pandemic hit, many bars and clubs closed or restricted their occupancy. We began to see some people taking partying behavior to rented homes, including through Airbnb,” the company said in a statement.
The company said there has been a 44% drop in the annual rate of party reports since the temporary ban took effect almost two years ago.
No more parties at Airbnb
The rental site continued, “This was concerning to us due to both the disruptive nature of unauthorized parties and the risk of such gatherings spreading the virus. As such, we announced the party ban to our community as being ‘in the best interest of public health.’”
“Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure. It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our hosts and their neighbors,” they said.
Airbnb said it will lift a limit of 16 people at rented properties. It said the cap was prompted by health concerns before vaccines against COVID-19 were available.
“Amazing properties like these thrive on hosting multi-generational family trips and larger groups. And removing this cap is meant to allow those Hosts to responsibly utilize the space in their homes while still complying with our ban on disruptive parties,” the company said.
The restriction forbids disruptive events, social media-shared open-invite gatherings, and “party house” homes from appearing in Airbnb listings.
According to the statement, sanctions for breaking the rules will range from account suspension to complete removal from the network. In 2021, Airbnb penalized more than 6,600 visitors for attempting to break the party restriction.