That secret party rager you were hoping to throw on New Year’s Eve? Don’t think you can book it on Airbnb.
The short-term rental site has been reduced to lists during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to avoid large meetings of the kind that health authorities urge to avoid. This includes a global ban on all parties and events until further notice and restricting users under the age of 25 from booking entire homes in the areas where they live, a move a spokeswoman said sparked more than 770,000 blocked booking attempts. in the United States and Canada.
Over the Halloween weekend, Airbnb banned one-night bookings on entire house listings to reduce the festivities. It is implementing a similar (albeit slightly looser) measure for New Year’s Eve, which prohibits guests with no history of positive reviews from making one-night bookings for entire homes.
Guests who have a history of positive reviews will not be subject to the rule and those who book a night for New Year’s Eve before December 3 will also be able to continue with their plans.
With many strict travel restrictions around the world and many people who get tired of not being able to socialize, many do. addressed to short-term rental sites to get out of his house and go out with friends.
Businesses, along with city, county and state officials, have tried to curb these meetings, but it can be a challenge. The Los Angeles police department has responded to numerous complaints about party homes since the spring, including one in May that saw more than 100 people partying on a property in the Hollywood Hills.
Airbnb, which contains a wealth of user data that analyzes and predicts guest behavior, has implemented “high-risk detection systems” that mark potentially problematic bookings, such as bookings made for large groups, for manual review.
The technology analyzes attributes such as the length of a user’s stay, whether he has a history of positive comments, the size of the tab and the number of nights of the reservation. The San Francisco company said it has proactively identified and proactively canceled approximately 9,000 high-risk reservations in the United States and Canada.
In September, Airbnb launched an initiative to prevent customers from booking homes with short notice in their hometowns; this resulted in the blocking of more than 170,000 reservation attempts in the US and Canada. He also took legal action against guests and party promoters, including in Sacramento and Glendora.
Airbnb users who have not been able to book reservations have expressed frustration on social media.
“I’m 2 hours from home in one [different] the state that I need to book a last minute Airbnb and not allow me because I run the risk of having a party? An hour trying to attend and they can’t cancel it, ”says user Michael Fisk he tweeted in October. “They tell me to take a hotel; I’m a 4-year-old superhost.”
“So Airbnb won’t allow me to book ‘last minute’ seats, even though I have good customer reviews, because I’m under 25.” he tweeted another in August.
Customers who book holiday reservations, but who want to bow down due to fears of COVID or the new shutdown rules, may find the hosts and company less friendly than they had expected: the policy of Airbnb’s mitigating circumstances do not apply to reservations made after March 14 for COVID. related reasons other than the actual disease. The rationale: Once COVID was declared a global pandemic, “its consequences were no longer unexpected, including the risk of continued or new travel restrictions and movements,” the company said.
However, if an Airbnb host or guest is currently sick with COVID-19, “it is always covered.”
Airbnb went public this month, with its shares more than doubled in its commercial debut in one of the most important rallies of the first day. The company, founded in 2008, has a current value of $ 97.5 billion.