Airbnb announces plan to crack down on New Year’s Eve parties

We introduced a global party ban in 2020 to remind everyone who uses our platform that bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb, and these measures have been embraced by our Host community. As part of this, we’re rolling out a ban on 1-night New Year’s Eve bookings in entire home listings for guests without a history of positive reviews. 

From today, the following criteria will be in place for guests attempting to book New Year’s Eve reservations in Australia and New Zealand.

• 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 and three night reservations — As New Year’s Eve approaches, we will deploy more stringent restrictions on two-night reservations that may pose a heightened risk for disruptive parties. For example, we will leverage and amplify our technology that restricts certain local and last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb.

Guests who have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will not be subject to these restrictions.

We know from past experience that certain holidays, such as New Year’s Eve, attract higher risks of unauthorised or disruptive parties, so that’s why we’re introducing new products and policies that crack down on any antisocial behaviour, helping to protect our Hosts and being considerate of the neighbourhoods and communities in which they list.

Derek Nolan, Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy for Australia and New Zealand, said the measures were designed to help ensure Hosts, guests and the broader community could all safely enjoy New Year’s Eve.

“The vast majority of guests are considerate travellers who are respectful of their Hosts’ neighbours, and treat the home in which they’re staying as if it were their own,” he said.

“These measures are about helping to ensure everyone can safely and responsibly celebrate New Year’s Eve. At the same time, they have been designed to make sure Airbnb guests with a track record of being respectful travellers can enjoy a wide range of options.

“Safety incidents are extremely rare on Airbnb – however, we continue to work diligently to make them even rarer. We want to remind both guests and Hosts that bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb and those who fail to adhere to our policies face removal from our platform.”
Airbnb first piloted these policies and restrictions last year for NYE 2020, where approximately 243,000 guests globally encountered these defences during booking attempts, and we estimate that these efforts achieved our objectives of reducing disruptive parties.