How we’re working to reduce the risk of disruptive parties this Halloween

Ahead of the Halloween weekend, Airbnb is deploying heightened anti-party defenses across the US and Canada to help reduce the risk of disruptive parties and promote positive stays over the holiday.

The proprietary system that will be in effect works by leveraging machine learning technology to try to identify one-night and two-night booking attempts of entire home listings that could be potentially higher risk for a party, and stop those bookings from being made. This technology looks at hundreds of signals that can suggest a booking is potentially higher risk for a disruptive party, including whether the stay is being booked at the last minute, the length of the trip and the distance to the listing.

These defenses were in effect in the lead up to and over Halloween last year, and deterred approximately 37,000 people in the US and Canada from booking on Airbnb, as well as saw a decrease in reports of disruptive parties to us over that holiday weekend.

“The overwhelming majority of Airbnb guests are responsible travelers, and issues are rare. We want to support our hosts and local communities by trying to reduce the risk of disruptive parties even more, and we believe these measures will help us to do just that.”

Tara Bunch, Global Head of Operations at Airbnb

For guests seeking to book an entire home listing for Halloween anywhere in the US (including Puerto Rico) and Canada, the following measures are in effect:

• Restrictions on one-night and two-night reservations—Heightened restrictions on certain attempts to book entire homes where the reservation is identified as potentially higher-risk. 
• Mandatory anti-party attestation—Guests able to make local reservations must attest that they understand Airbnb bans parties and will see a warning that, if they break this rule, they face suspension or removal from the platform. This warning extends to attempts to make reservations on behalf of others, such as minors under 18, which is prohibited on Airbnb.

The foundation of our ongoing efforts to deter parties is our global party ban. Since implementing this policy in 2020, and introducing measures like this Halloween anti-party system to help enforce it, we’ve seen an over 50 percent decrease in the rate of party reports to us, while last year just 0.035% of reservations globally resulted in a report of a party.

Our aim is to keep building on this success by continuing to promote responsible travel in our hosts’ homes and local neighborhoods. To that end, other measures we have in place to support the communities we serve this Halloween—and year round—include: 

• Our reservation screening technology, which screens for party risk
• For neighbors, our Neighborhood Support Line is available 24/7 to report concerns to us in real-time about a home they believe is listed on Airbnb
• Hosts and guests have access to our 24-hour Safety Line, to directly reach our Safety team for urgent support, such as to report a suspected party in progress
• Hosts can also get a free noise sensor, which has been found to help proactively address noise issues before they start while respecting guest privacy, and we provide tips on steps hosts  can take to help prevent parties in their listing