Airbnb’s Anti-Party Tech Cracks Down on High-Risk Reservations

Less than two months after formalizing its ban on unauthorized events, Airbnb is introducing new anti-party tools that identify potentially high-risk reservations.

Launched first in the US and Canada, the system considers factors like the user’s history (or lack) of positive reviews, duration of membership, length of planned trip, distance to listing, weekend vs. weekday booking, and more.

Guests who are flagged by the system and unable to make entire home bookings can still reserve a private room (where the host is more likely to be on site) or a hotel room.

“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,” according to an Airbnb announcement(Opens in a new window).

Following a Halloween 2019 shooting that killed five people at a California rental property, the lodging site prohibited “open-invite” and “chronic house” parties. Airbnb currently relies on a series of anti-party measures to police unauthorized events, including additional measures during certain holidays(Opens in a new window), as well as 24-hour safety and Neighborhood Support lines(Opens in a new window).

The company describes its latest technology as a “more robust and sophisticated” version of the “under-25” system it implemented across North America in 2020, which focuses on younger guests booking locally without positive reviews.

“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,” Airbnb said. “While we are consistently willing to make trade-offs in the interests of building trust, our goal is to make these systems as precise and fair as possible to support our hosts and guests.”

A similar program was successfully piloted in Australia, where Airbnb saw a 35% drop in unauthorized parties and plans to codify the program nationwide.