Airbnb brings its new ‘anti-party technology’ to US and Canada

When COVID-19 restrictions shut down nightclubs, bars and discos around the world, Airbnb saw a spike in out-of-control parties at its listings and instituted a temporary party ban before making it permanent in June 2022.

This week, the platform announced that it is bringing its new “anti-party technology” – the program that evaluates certain data that might suggest a property is being booked for a party, into the US and Canada, after successfully testing it in Australia.

“The primary objective is attempting to reduce the ability of bad actors to throw unauthorized parties which negatively impact our hosts, neighbors, and the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement.

According to Airbnb, new system assesses factors like history of positive reviews (or lack of positive reviews), length of time the guest has been on Airbnb, length of the trip, distance to the listing, weekend vs. weekday, among many others, to determine the ‘wild party threat’.

The platform said that this new anti-party system has been “very effective” in Australia since October 2021, leading to a 35% drop in reported incidents of unauthorized parties in the areas where it’s been in effect.

According to the property rental platform, the technology is “a more robust and sophisticated version of the “under-25” system that has been in effect in North America since 2020, which focuses primarily on guests under the age of 25 without positive reviews who are booking locally.”

Airbnb has adjusted its ‘party policy’ several times over the course of years. Before the global coronavirus pandemic, the platform would generally allow the hosts to decide whether their properties could be used for parties.

The company did, however, ban so-called “open-invite” parties that are advertised on social media in 2019.

The property rental company said it hopes that this new anti-party system could “have a positive impact for the safety of our community and our goal to reduce unauthorized parties.” 

But no system is perfect, Airbnb said, adding that it still strongly recommends reporting any suspected unauthorized parties to its Neighborhood Support Line.