SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Airbnb said Monday its crackdown on unauthorized parties in the San Diego area has blocked thousands of potentially risky bookings.
The vacation rental booking company said that since its campaign began last year, 6,000 people have been blocked or redirected while making potentially risky booking attempts. That’s compared to 15,000 in Los Angeles and 4,500 in Las Vegas, according to Ben Breit, head of trust and safety communications for Airbnb.
“A lot of them are probably great people who were trying to book for legitimate reasons but haven’t earned that trust on Airbnb yet,” Breit explained.
Breit said the attempt to prevent more unauthorized parties from happening is working so far.
“We have gradually intensified our measures to try to stop unauthorized parties to the best of our abilities,” Breit said. “Everyone deserves the right to have peace and quiet in their neighborhood.”
The new numbers were announced ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend, when reservations and gatherings are expected for many of San Diego’s tourism hotspots. Airbnb added that to prepare for the vacation, it is barring guests who don’t have a history of positive reviews from making overnight reservations of entire homes across the country.
“Parties are rare and the vast majority of guests in San Diego are positive contributors and respectful. However, when parties do occur, we know it can be disruptive to hosts and neighbors, which is why we have continued to investing in trust and security,” the company said in a statement.
Last year, Airbnb began restricting local bookings for guests under 25 with no history of positive reviews under certain circumstances, in an effort to limit unauthorized parties. That accounts for most blocked or redirected booking attempts in San Diego, according to Breit.
“I don’t have a review on Airbnb and I’m trying to book a six-bedroom mansion in some part of San Diego, which doesn’t seem like a very good idea,” Breit said, giving a booking example. who to be blocked. “It’s not something we would pass up and therefore block.”
This policy is in addition to Airbnb’s current party ban, which is expected to continue through at least the summer. The holiday ban began during the pandemic in August 2020, at a time when COVID-19 cases were rising and public health restrictions limited large gatherings.
During that same month, Airbnb announced that it had suspended or removed 17 listings in San Diego for violating holiday policies or receiving multiple complaints. These properties included residences in the San Diego, Escondido, La Mesa, Clairemont Mesa, Linda Vista, Mission Bay Park, North Park, Pacific Beach, Peninsula, Southeastern San Diego and Uptown areas.
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