Airbnb’s party ban leads to cancellation of 1800 Australian bookings in less than a year

More than 1800 Australian Airbnb bookings have been cancelled because the guests did one thing wrong.

Airbnb‘s ban on parties has resulted in hundreds of cancelled bookings in Australia in less than a year, the holiday rental company has said.

Between August last year and the end of July 2021, more than 1800 bookings were flagged by an automatic screening system and cancelled.

The company instituted a global ban on parties in the last year following a series of deadly incidents in the United States.

A screening system was also implemented in Australia to flag bookings that appeared as if they were made to host parties.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to enforce our global ban on parties, we continue to proactively and collaboratively work with police and take action against guests and hosts who breach our policies,” Airbnb’s head of public policy for Australia and New Zealand Derek Nolan said.

No Airbnb parties allowed – not even in this Coogee, NSW mansion.

“We continue to remind everyone who uses our platform that bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb.

“Make no mistake, anyone who breaches our strict policies faces removal from our platform.”

The global crackdown on parties came after a deadly shooting at an Airbnb listing in Sacramento, California in August.

That incident and a separate shootout at a party in Orinda, California in 2019 left a total of eight people dead.

Prior to August, users were allowed to throw parties if the host agreed.

Airbnb suspended more than 400 Australian listings in October last year over allegations of party rule violations.

And for New Year‘s Eve, the company instituted a temporary freeze on one-night bookings for users without a history of positive reviews.

The company has also launched a support line for neighbours to be able to alert Airbnb to any bookings that cause a nuisance.

But Mr Nolan said the “overwhelming majority” of hosts and guests did the right thing.

“Safety incidents are extremely rare on Airbnb and our team continues to work diligently to make them even rarer,” he said.