New Year’s Eve Airbnb party bookings on notice again for 2022

Airbnb says it’s redoubling the platform’s “proactive defenses” to stop rogue users from throwing New Year’s Eve ragers this year.

Building on a policy that began during the pandemic as a public-health measure, the company announced Thursday that it is banning single-night rentals of entire properties for guests who don’t have a history of positive reviews or previous bookings—telltale signs, the company has learned by experience, that a big party may be in the works. Attempts to book last-minute or rent a property in the same area where the guest lives will likewise raise flags, Airbnb’s statement said.

And what if these guests get clever and try to book a longer stay of two or three nights at these same properties? Airbnb says they’ll be denied again, only this time a message will suggest that they book a private room on the app instead, or consider staying in a hotel.

This automated anti-party technology was piloted in eight countries last year, but for this upcoming New Year’s Eve weekend, the feature is being expanded to a total of 11 countries to help put teeth on its global party ban—among them, the U.S. (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe.

The ramp-up is merely the latest to build on a move by Airbnb, launched early on during the pandemic, that restricted gatherings of more than 16 people. That was in the name of public safety. These days, it’s more to keep the peace with neighbors.

“Since piloting these restrictions for the first time for NYE 2020,” Airbnb says, “they’ve become a cornerstone of our commitment to tackle disruptive parties and neighborhood nuisance.”

This past summer, Airbnb unveiled improved measures to crack down on unauthorized Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend parties. Last year, it warned that certain one- and two-night reservations would be restricted during New Year’s, then expanded that to three nights. Meanwhile, the company has stayed busy extending its Neighborhood Support Line—the number that neighbors can call to narc on raucous Airbnb guests mid-party—to more countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Germany.

The company also added that, for upcoming year, it’s planning to introduce new reservation-screening technology to help boost safety for hosts and guests. Airbnb’s executives have advocated pretty openly that people should rent their properties for supplementary income as the economy slows. CEO Brain Chesky even lists one bedroom of his San Francisco home for $0, just to show everybody how easy it is.

And Airbnb already brags about its anti-party defense system’s success. “The measures have contributed to a year-over-year global drop in rates of party incidents over NYE of roughly 56% since the defenses were first piloted in 2020,” Thursday’s statement notes. “Last year, approximately 340,000 guests globally were blocked or redirected from attempting to book on Airbnb over NYE.”

In the United States alone, it thwarted attempts last year by some 120,000 users who had bad reviews or no rental history, potentially reducing the number of parties that police had to shut down after they grew “in excess of 700 people,” or resulted in the home’s wallpaper and a sink being obliterated, or were promoted on social media by the guests as “freak fest” orgies.