Airbnb to crack down globally on New Year’s Eve parties

Today, we’re announcing heightened rules and technologies aimed at helping to stop unauthorised parties over New Year’s Eve in 11 countries, following a successful trial last year.

We know the overwhelming majority of guests are respectful neighbours and travellers, and that the vast majority of Hosts share their homes responsibly. Equally, we are committed to reducing instances of unauthorised parties and helping Hosts protect against neighbourhood disruption, and certain times of year, like New Years’ Eve, can attract a higher risk of unauthorised or disruptive parties.

To that end, we are introducing restrictions on certain types of bookings over New Year’s Eve. These restrictions will see a ban on one-night bookings of entire home listings for guests without a positive account history – or no previous bookings at all – on the platform. We’re also introducing tighter restrictions for those same guests who try to book two- and three-night reservations, with an emphasis on attempts to book locally.

The restrictions will be in effect over the New Year’s Eve weekend in 11 countries, including the US (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, the UK, and – new for 2022 – Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Naba Banerjee, Director of Trust Product and Operations at Airbnb, said, “Stays take place across the world each night on Airbnb, with the overwhelming majority of guests and Hosts being respectful of neighbours and delivering benefits to their local community. These proactive defences will help to promote responsible travel and help to prevent rare instances of unwelcome behaviour, and enable Hosts, guests and communities to enjoy their end of year celebrations with added reassurance.”

This wider roll out follows the successful trial of these automated defences in eight countries over NYE last year as part of our efforts to help enforce our global ban on parties, which we codified earlier this summer. We estimate that the measures have contributed to a year-over-year drop in rates of party incidents over NYE of roughly 68-percent in the UK, since the defences were first piloted in 2020. Last year, approximately 340,000 guests globally were blocked or redirected from attempting to book on Airbnb over NYE, including more than over 34,500 guests in the UK¹.

In cities across the UK, potential party-throwers have been stopped by Airbnb anti-party measures in large numbers.

Estimated total number of people who hit NYE defences in 2022 per individual UK cities²:

• Bath – Over 600
• Belfast – Over 350
• Brighton – Over 850
• Bristol – Over 650
• Cardiff – Over 350
• Edinburgh – Over 800
• London (Combined Greater London and City of London) – Over 7800
• York – Over 450
• Glasgow – Over 700
• Manchester – Over 1350
• Birmingham – Over 750
• Liverpool – Over 400
• Sheffield  – Over 200

Since piloting these restrictions for the first time for NYE 2020, they’ve become a cornerstone of our commitment to tackle disruptive parties and neighbourhood nuisance, and have been well-received by our Host community.

We’re continuously exploring further opportunities around the world to introduce these types of initiatives, and build on our existing measures and resources to promote responsible travel on Airbnb and enforce our anti-party stance. These measures include:

• The launch of reservation screening technology, which blocks certain bookings that show an increased risk for disruptive parties and property damage
• A free noise sensor offer for Hosts in partnership with property tech company Minut
• The codification of our global party ban
• The expansions of our Neighbourhood Support Line for local communities, and our 24-hour safety line for Hosts and guests to directly reach our Safety team for support
• Tips for Hosts on preventing parties in their listing.