Strengthening Our Safety Commitment to U.S. Hosts and Communities

Today we communicated the following to our U.S. hosts regarding initiatives to combat unauthorized parties and protect the safety of our community:

Reducing the number of unauthorized house parties on Airbnb has always been a priority, and it’s more important now than ever. With public health mandates in place throughout the country, we’re taking actions to support safe and responsible travel in the United States.

Today we’re sharing an initiative that restricts some U.S. guests under the age of 25 from booking entire home listings in their local area. Earlier this year, we launched the same initiative in Canada, with the support of our Canadian host community. Since the introduction of this policy, the number of unauthorized parties booked by guests under the age of 25 has experienced a meaningful drop. Based on our experience, we believe this restriction only impacts a small percentage of bookings overall. 

Here’s how it works:

• U.S. guests under the age of 25 with less than three positive reviews are not able to book entire home listings that are close to where they live. These guests can still book any type of listing outside their local area.
• All guests under the age of 25 are still free to book private rooms and hotel rooms through Airbnb, regardless of where they live.  
• Most importantly, younger guests with at least three positive reviews and no negative reviews on Airbnb or with long-term plans are not subject to this restriction, and they’re welcome to continue to book entire home listings in their local area.

The overwhelming majority of guests treat Airbnb listings like they’re in their own homes and neighborhoods, and 99.95% of trips on Airbnb have no safety-related issues reported. But given the scale at which the Airbnb platform operates, we want to continue investing in solutions to get that percentage as close as possible to 100%. 

There will always be people who work to find ways around our trust and safety protections, and we know that people over the age of 24 are perfectly capable of booking a home for the wrong reasons, too. But based on the positive impact this policy has had on unauthorized parties booked by guests under 25, we believe this is the right action to continue to protect the safety of our community.