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Airbnb has plans to prevent unauthorized house parties on New Year’s Eve

New Year's Eve is around the corner, but the celebrations will look different this year.

In British Columbia, there are public health orders in place that limit not only large house parties, but even small gatherings that you might expect around the holidays.

Although both types of gatherings are prohibited at the moment, the larger concern surely lies in large New Year’s Eve parties that have become the norm every Dec. 31.

With those parties out of the question this year, Airbnb says that it’s doing its part to prevent “unauthorized house parties and large gatherings on New Year’s Eve.”

<who>Photo Credit: Unsplash</who>Stock Photo

Arguably the biggest measure in place to prevent that type of party at a rental Airbnb unit is a two-night minimum booking rule for almost all guests.

“Effective today, in these countries, guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will be prohibited from making one night reservations in entire home listings on New Year’s Eve,” said a release.

“We will allow already booked one-night reservations to go through as planned, as our data has historically shown that one-night New Year’s Eve bookings made prior to now very rarely lead to unauthorized parties.”

Guests who have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb won’t be subject to this restriction either.

In addition, Airbnb says it will be doing the following over New Year’s Eve to complement these new booking restrictions:

  • As New Year’s Eve approaches, we are deploying more stringent restrictions on one and two-night reservations that may pose heightened risk for parties. For example, we will leverage our technology that restricts certain local and last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb and also block reservations within an expanded radius.
  • All guests globally with successful bookings must attest that they will not throw an unauthorized party and that they may be pursued legally by Airbnb if they break our rules on parties and events (see below).
  • We are providing guidance to hosts in those countries on how to further reduce the likelihood of unauthorized parties, including updating and proactively communicating their house rules to guests.
  • Airbnb will be operating a virtual command center to get ahead of any issues, along with trained safety agents on call throughout New Year’s Eve.


“Our hosts are our partners in this mission – and we have carefully developed this New Year’s Eve initiative informed by their feedback along with a review of our data, systems and tools,” the release added.

“We believe this plan will help prevent large gatherings while supporting the type of safe, responsible travel that benefits guests, hosts and the neighborhoods they call home.”



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