Airbnb continues to crack down on party houses in Australia
Airbnb has announced that more than 400 listings across Australia have been suspended or removed from the platform as part of a concerted effort to crack down on party houses. Action has been taken against these listings for violating Airbnb policies on parties and events or for having received a number of complaints.
This follows Airbnb’s policy change to ban parties at Airbnb listings globally until further notice.
The vast majority of hosts in Australia are respectful and conscientious neighbours who make important contributions to their local economies and also take important steps to prevent unauthorised parties – like establishing clear houses rules, quiet hours, and communicating in advance with their guests and asking appropriate screening questions.
The actions have been communicated to hosts, with the suspensions and removals having taken immediate effect.
Derek Nolan, Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy for Australia, said the actions taken by Airbnb address the very small minority of hosts who have previously received warnings about hosting responsibilities or have otherwise violated policies.
“Our team continues to work diligently to help ensure every stay is a positive experience for hosts, guests and the broader community. The overwhelming majority of hosts and guests are good neighbours and respectful travelers and we thank them for doing their part to help grow tourism in a way that benefits everyone.
“However, our message to everyone who uses Airbnb could not be clearer; bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb and those who willfully fail to adhere to our policies face removal from our platform. We are extremely serious about enforcing our community standards, which require everyone to behave in a safe and respectful manner.
“We continue to work collaboratively with both police and governments to help deliver positive outcomes and we remain focused on continually improving our systems and exploring new ways to keep people safe.”
Airbnb is committed to promoting responsible hosting and reducing neighbourhood disturbances, and have previously announced a global ban on ‘party houses’ which cause repeated nuisance. To help enforce this ban on party houses, Airbnb encourages neighbours to make use of its Neighbourhood Support Page which allows community members to submit concerns or complaints regarding specific listings. Concerns raised by neighbours using this tool led to some of the suspensions announced today.
In addition to addressing party houses, Airbnb is also working to stop unauthorized parties meaning parties thrown without the knowledge or consent of local hosts. After a successful pilot in Melbourne which prevented more than 1400 bookings from taking place, we recently expanded our manual screening of high-risk reservations across the entire country to help stop parties before they start. While no system is perfect and able to prevent issues 100% of the time, this measure is working to give hosts and local communities further peace of mind.