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Airbnb to enforce anti-party restrictions for Halloween 2021

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Airbnb remains committed to taking steps to help prevent and deter unauthorized and large parties. Our party ban has become a foundational component of our trust and safety strategy, and we are continuing to invest in products and systems to complement that policy and promote safe and responsible travel.

This coming Halloween 2021 weekend will mark the one year anniversary of our initial introduction of specific anti-party restrictions ahead of major holidays in the U.S. and Canada that are traditionally associated with a party-type behavior. For Halloween 2020, we introduced a block on all 1-night reservations for entire home listings in the U.S. and Canada. 

Then, for the weekends of New Year’s Eve and July 4, we introduced similar measures but with exceptions for guests with histories of positive reviews, based on feedback from our Hosts. For these holidays we also included additional protections for certain two-night reservations.

They worked. We estimate that our efforts resulted in a drop in incidents such as unauthorized parties by over 49 percent for Halloween and over 51 percent for New Year’s Eve.

As a result, this coming Halloween we’ll again institute restrictions on one and two-night stays in the U.S and Canada for entire home listings while also utilizing our other robust party prevention systems. 

Here’s how it will work for Halloween 2021:

Similar to our New Year’s Eve and July 4 initiatives, effective today the following criteria will be in place for guests attempting to book reservations in the US and Canada over Halloween weekend:

  • For one-night reservations: Guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will be prohibited from making one-night reservations in entire home listings.
  • For two-night reservations: As Halloween approaches, we will deploy more stringent restrictions on two-night reservations that may pose heightened risk for parties. For example, we will leverage our technology that restricts certain local and last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb and also block reservations within an expanded radius.
  • Guests who have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will not be subject to these restrictions.
  • Guests making one or two-night reservations will need to attest that they understand Airbnb’s party ban and that they may be subject to legal action if that rule is broken, as seen below:
Example of what the attestation will look like over Halloween

We also know that the great majority of guests are respectful of neighbors and treat their Hosts’ homes with the utmost respect. We believe this plan will help prevent large gatherings while supporting the type of safe, responsible travel that benefits guests, Hosts and the neighborhoods they call home.
Read more about: News, Safety

About Airbnb

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

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