Airbnb to make global party ban permanent

theguardian.com:

Airbnb is making its ban on parties at properties listed on the site for short-term rentals permanent, the company announced on Tuesday.

San Francisco-based Airbnb said it believes the ban has worked to reduce violence, rules violations and health concerns, with reports of parties at listed properties having dropped 44% from a year ago. More than 6,600 guests were suspended last year for related violations, the company said.

Airbnb began to crack down on parties in 2019 after several people were killed during a shooting at a Halloween party in a house in Orinda, a suburb in the California Bay Area.

At that time, the company prohibited advertising parties at Airbnb locations on social media, vowed to expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations, and said it would remove guests who failed to comply with policies banning parties at Airbnb rental properties.

In 2020, the company moved to temporarily ban house parties in its properties worldwide in a bid to comply with limits on gatherings imposed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The number of parties at Airbnb locations increased during the pandemic, Airbnb said, as people moved gatherings from bars and clubs to rented homes.

While making the ban permanent on Tuesday, Airbnb said it would lift a limit of 16 people at rented properties. It said the cap was prompted by health concerns before vaccines against Covid-19 were available.