Comment: Airbnb’s party ban mixed messages are inviting trouble – New Zealand Herald

Travel

30 Jun, 2022 05:35 AM4 minutes to read

Banning "problem parties" and reopening to larger groups is Airbnb wanting to have its cake and eat it. Photo / 123RF

COMMENT:

Yesterday, Airbnb said it was banning parties for good. In the same instant it lifted the 16-person cap on property rentals, throwing open the doors on some very mixed messaging.

In a release the online rentals company said it would be making permanent the so-called "party ban" it imposed in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US holiday rentals company began screening for problem bookings, looking for listings advertised on social media or profiling those making reservations a couple of years ago. They claim the largely automated screening process has been working and will be kept in place.

"We believe there is a direct correlation between our implementation of the policy in August 2020 and a 44 per cent year-over-year drop in the rate of party reports," the release states.

For its first decade the Silicon Valley-based rentals company was notoriously hands-off.

An early interview with the company on what they were doing to protect hosts' houses from being used for sex parties and destructive behaviour revealed a cavalier approach to controls.

"A lot of this stuff happens, and you just have to deal with it," said then head of global hospitality Chip Conley in a now-infamous 2014 interview with Fast Company.

We're doing what we can to stop orgies happening in your home, okay?

This changed in 2019 following a deadly shooting at an Airbnb property in Orinda, California, which was being used for a public party.

"Historically, we allowed Hosts to use their best judgment and authorise parties when appropriate for their home and neighbourhood," says the release.

The pressures from communities and a global pandemic forced the company to put a pause on party properties in August 2020, issued "until further notice".

The company says it had suspended 6600 accounts connected to "unauthorised parties" and "party houses" in 2021.

However, this did not put an immediate end to the problem. In New Zealand, revellers continued to find their way around screening methods.

In August 2021, a 16-year-old died at a party involving 80 young people in a Christchurch Airbnb. The devastated owners of the Medway Tce property said they had been "conned" by a fake profile.

The company says it will continue to screen suspicious bookings and properties and will be supporting neighbourhoods with a 24-hour phone line. Additional insurance has been made available by the platform to those who are letting properties.

However, the sheer scale of playing party police is more daunting now than ever.

As of 2022 there are 5.6 million listings on the website, more than there were pre-pandemic.

A tech-heavy approach, relying heavily on algorithmic screening of bookings, is very on-brand for Airbnb but will only go so far. One only has to look at other parts of the business to see there will always be a degree of trial and error in the "tech evangelism".

For example, there have been incidents of guests being left out in the cold and without lockbox keycodes after the Airbnb app began screening messages for phone numbers. There's never a perfect solution. Especially on the scale of a company the size of Airbnb.

But now Airbnb appears to want to have its party cake and eat it.

While saying the party ban will now be a permanent part of its policy, it also wants to remove all caps on guest numbers. Big bookings for large, speciality properties - castles, condos and private islands - are welcome.

Soirees, symposiums, get-togethers are all okay - just don't call it a "party". No pare la fiesta!

In the same release, the company said "plans are still under consideration" to grant party ban exemptions to hospitality venues.

Without giving any substantial information as to how they will be implementing this party ban, one presumes it will be much of the same.

Airbnb has 6000 employees, a number that's spread pretty thinly across what is fast approaching 6 million properties.

Here's a party plan: How about hiring more local staff in the 200-plus countries served by Airbnb?

At the moment Airbnb might have assumed the role of global party police but, when things go wrong, it's the hosts and house owners who end up being enforcers.

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Comment: Airbnb's party ban mixed messages are inviting trouble - New Zealand Herald