BAY AREA, CA — Airbnb is taking steps to deter unauthorized parties on its listings over Halloween weekend, the home rental service announced Monday.
The new “platform defenses and policies” follow an Oct. 1 shooting that killed two teenage brothers and injured two others at an unauthorized party at an Airbnb home in Oakland.
The measures prohibit people without a history of positive reviews on the platform from making one-night bookings in whole-house listings.
Additionally, anyone trying to rent whole houses without a history of positive reviews, in a certain area, and/or last minute bookings, will be redirected to listings that are not whole house listings or completely blocked, a the company said in a press release. Monday.
People trying to make local reservations over Halloween weekend will need to confirm that they understand that Airbnb prohibits parties and that if they violate this rule, they could be subject to legal action, the company said. .
The Halloween rules come in addition to anti-party measures Airbnb rolled out in August that track a person’s review history, how long they’ve been on the platform, and the type of booking they’ve made. tries to organize, among other things.
The company said it used similar measures to deter more than 12,000 people from booking a full listing of homes in California over Halloween last year.
People with a history of positive reviews are not subject to the restrictions, the company said.
In 2020, Airbnb instituted a temporary ban on parties on its listings, which it made permanent in June.
The house in which the two brothers, both Berkeley high school students, were shot and killed earlier this month was the scene of an unauthorized party of at least 30 people in the 900 block of Apgar Street in Oakland.
Three suspects arrived in a vehicle shortly before 10 p.m. and two opened fire inside the home at specific people, police said.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said the shooting was the result of a dispute at or near Berkeley High on campus and was not related to any group or gang.
The person who booked the home has been removed from Airbnb’s platform and the listing has been disabled for investigation, according to the company.
In another widely publicized case, five people were shot and killed and several others injured at an unsanctioned 2019 Halloween party in Orinda at which more than 100 people had gathered.
As a result of this shooting, the Orinda City Council banned “non-hosted” rentals and also imposed additional limits on “hosted” sites.
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