Planning to host your New Years Ever soirée at a swanky Airbnb in a nearby neighborhood, perhaps as an alternative to the apartment you’ve undoubtedly spent too much time in over the last year (or, worse yet, a bar)? Well, uh, you might have to rethink things.
That’s because, per a new report from the platform, Airbnb is laying down the law this year by implementing certain controls that will make it impossible for some to rent on New Year’s Eve, in an effort to thwart “unauthorized” and “disruptive” parties.
It was announced, effective November 2, that:
- All guests without an established track record (i.e., a history of positive reviews) will be prohibited from making one-night reservations in entire home listings.
- More stringent restrictions will be deployed surrounding two-night reservations that may pose “heightened risk for disruptive parties” as NYE gets closer.
“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,” the company said.
It’s a system of defense that Airbnb first piloted in 2020 across rentals in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Spain and the UK. “Approximately 243,000 guests globally encountered these defenses during booking attempts ahead of NYE 2020, and we estimate that these efforts achieved our objectives of reducing disruptive parties,” Airbnb said.
Similar policies were enacted for both July 4 and Halloween this year and were presumably successful, as they’re also expanding the strategy to include Puerto Rico, Brazil and New Zealand. It’s all reportedly a part of the platform’s plan to expand on their already “robust party prevention” initiative (which, if you didn’t realize was a thing, you do now).
The good news is that guests who do have a history of positive reviews need not worry, as the newly instated parameters won’t effect their ability to book. So the moral of the story here? Don’t be an Airbnb asshole and jeopardize your good standing with the hosts. If you do, you might wind up banned along with the other bad review-soliciting guests come NYE 2022.
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