Airbnb has contacted its US hosts with measures aimed to combat unauthorised parties in properties listed on the platform.
In a recent blog post, Airbnb states that reducing the number of unauthorised house parties has “always been a priority and it’s [sic] more important now than ever”.
The initiative restricts US guests under the age of 25 with less than three positive reviews from booking entire home listings in their local area. However, these impacted guests will continue to be able to book any type of listing outside their local area, and all under-25s will still be able to book private rooms and hotel rooms through Airbnb.
Younger guests with at least three positive reviews and no negative ones are not subject to this restriction.
The same restriction was launched for Canadian users earlier in the year which Airbnb claims saw the number of unauthorised parties booked by guests under the age of 25 “experienced a meaningful drop”. The restriction will only impact a small percentage of bookings overall according to the platform.
Airbnb claim that 99.95% of trips on their platform have no safety-related issues reported, but that these solutions are being put in place to get the percentage as close to 100% as possible.
The platform stated: “There will always be people who work to find ways around our trust and safety protections, and we know that people over the age of 24 are perfectly capable of booking a home for the wrong reasons, too.
“But based on the positive impact this policy has had on unauthorized parties booked by guests under 25, we believe this is the right action to continue to protect the safety of our community.”
