(KTLA) – With Memorial Day weekend in just a few days, followed by the Fourth of July in the not-so-distant future, Airbnb has announced its “anti-party system” is in effect for both weekends.
According to the homestay rental company, the system is implemented to reduce the risk of disruptive parties and promote responsible travel.
“We have measures in place to help identify and prevent reservations that are potentially higher risk for safety and property damage incidents, like unauthorized parties,” Airbnb says on its website.
In an email, the company said the anchor on the party crackdown is a block on some one- or two-night reservations for an entire home throughout the U.S.
Similar initiatives on Memorial Day and Fourth of July last year, according to Airbnb, helped deter some 9,300 people in California, for example, from booking an entire home listing, including 1,000 people in Los Angeles and an estimated 550 people in San Diego.
The automated system assesses reservation requests and looks at a range of factors, including the timing of the reservation, prior reservation and guest history and whether recent message thread topics indicate red flags.
Airbnb says that assessment can result in the following outcomes:
- A reservation request is allowed to proceed
- A reservation request is automatically rejected, and the customer is referred to an alternative listing or accommodation type such as a single room in a private home or a hotel
- Hosts are notified about the reservation request and can determine whether to accept or reject the request
- Guests are required to acknowledge the company’s damage policy before being allowed to proceed with the reservation request
- In certain cases, a review is done by a human agent and can result in the person’s Airbnb account being removed from the platform
Anyone who feels their reservation was canceled or restricted in error can contact the company for more information.