Building trust in our local communities

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Building trust in our local communities

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Building a safe, trusted community doesn’t end with hosts and guests. The neighborhoods you host in are an important part of the equation, and maintaining trust within these neighborhoods makes our entire community stronger.

 

We know that disturbances from Airbnb guests or visitors can have a significant impact on hosts and their local communities. So we’ve been working on a few important initiatives to help prevent those types of disturbances from taking place, and to give neighbors a better way to report them when they do.

Clarifying our new “party house” ban

You may have heard the news about Airbnb’s “party house” ban. We want to clarify that we aren’t prohibiting authorized parties and events. We know that most parties booked through our platform are organized by respectful guests for things like family reunions, baby showers, corporate off-sites, and more.

 

Instead, our goal is to address the small number of guests who act irresponsibly and those rare listings that become persistent neighborhood nuisances. With that in mind, the new “party house” ban covers:

  1. All “open-invite” parties and events
  2. Any large parties and events in multi-family complexes, like apartment buildings and condos

Your top questions, answered

What happens if a guest throws a party in my space without my permission?

Any type of unauthorized party—meaning a party that violates House Rules and is thrown without the consent of the host—is prohibited in all listings. First, we’re working to stop these parties before they even start by strengthening our risk-detection technologies. When they do take place, depending on the level of disturbance they cause, the guest will be given a warning, or may face suspension or removal from the platform.

 

What is considered an “open-invite” party or event?

This is when a guest or one of their visitors hosts a party or event with limited knowledge of the attendees. If a party is advertised on social media, or charges an entrance fee at the door, that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s an “open-invite” event.

 

I host in a multi-family complex. What’s considered a “large” party or event?

These are large parties or events like weddings, baby showers, corporate events, or something similar. This type of event is now prohibited in apartments and condos, even with the host’s permission and even when there’s a restricted, invite-only guest list.


Does this ban on “open-invite” parties or events apply if I run a boutique hotel, professional event space, or other traditional hospitality listing?

If you run a more traditional hospitality listing, you can set your own rules around open-invite parties. Still, even for these types of listings, Airbnb will monitor for any complaints and follow up with these venues as needed.

 

Can I still allow guests to host parties in my single-family home?

We’ll continue to allow hosts of single-family homes to make their listings available for closed-invite parties and events, which you can specify in your House Rules. We know that a “single-family home” can range from a farmhouse listing without any neighbors nearby, to a quiet residential street where even small gatherings are potentially disruptive. So we prefer to address these on a per-listing basis as opposed to a sweeping policy, which could unfairly impact certain hosts.

 

There are lots of nuances, but our goal in all cases is simple: If the parties are negatively impacting neighbors and we receive complaints, we’ll take appropriate action. We’ll start by working with hosts with affected listings to change their House Rules to prohibit parties. If complaints persist, hosts may be suspended or removed from the platform.

Improving Neighborhood Support

When a property that’s listed on Airbnb is causing a disturbance—whether that’s excessive noise, a disruptive party, or unsafe behavior—members of the local community can report it using our Neighborhood Support tool. Until now, though, that tool hasn’t been easy enough for neighbors to find or use. So we’ve been hard at work revamping it, and we’d like to share some of those changes with you.

 

Making it easier to access Neighborhood Support 

Community members can now find Neighborhood Support in the list of links at the bottom of Airbnb’s homepage and all other main pages. They can also access the link right from a phone without having to download the Airbnb app.

 

Connecting the community to emergency services

The Neighborhood Support tool now provides a link to local emergency services, so if a community member is facing an urgent safety issue, they can get the help they need right away. They’ll also have access to the new Neighborhood Hotline number, where they can report a party that’s still in progress.

 

Communicating with Airbnb

We know that in the past, we haven’t been good enough about keeping members of the community in the loop once they’ve submitted a concern on the Neighborhood Support tool. Now, when they report an issue, they’ll get a message from us explaining what happens next.

Keep the feedback coming

We know there’s more work to be done—but these are critical steps toward elevating trust and safety on the platform and within the neighborhoods that hosts call home. As always, we want to keep the lines of communication open until we get this right, so please keep sharing your feedback, and we’ll keep working on improvements that benefit the entire Airbnb community.

51 Replies 51

Airbnb needs to do more to guest who violate the host property. Than just kicking them off there platform. To the younger kids that’s a joke they just set up another account with a another friends info and start the B/S all over again. Make a example put the fear of GOD into them that they’ll be scared to try it again.  Jail time sounds kinda right.  With a heavy fine.Wreck there credit. And impose A heavy fine. I had my place wreck by parties. Oh yah Airbnb was nice enough to follow threw with there Million dollar coverage but I also had to loss out on money until my unit was fix back. Airbnb don’t cover you for lost customers that we need to cover or mortgages. Do to damages from disrespectful guest.So kicking Guest of your platform they already found away around that. There’s a lot of nice guest that need a place to stay that these Violator that seek out your home to party in need to be punish.  Than just a slap on the wrist.  And that’s real talk. You guys have a blessed day!  

Darlene148
Level 2
Texas, United States

Cool, more phone numbers to call only partially trained agents halfway across the world at 4am when a party is happening. 

and tell me exactly what will they do when the party is happening?

 

the few times I’ve had an especially bad guest, you “suspend” their account while you investigate thus not allowing me to leave a review. Surprisingly some of those guests are still on the site. I am astonished that I even get requests from guests with 2 star ratings, how is that even possible?

Cormac0
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

@Airbnb 

 

Bla, bla, bla, bla,

 

i’ve read Brian Chesky’s email on the new proposed security and house rules initiative, which I have chosen to call the “Mañana manifesto” big on talk and after being a daily contributor to the host community over four years and read the same issues arise week in week out, I find his “Mañana manifesto” hardly credible. 

 

 

 

 

@Cormac0 

A "Manana Manifesto" is exactly what it is - and deliberately so. Note how they're using "by the end of 2020" as the estimated timeframe for all these new roll-outs. Gives them plenty of time to get the IPO/DPO done and dusted before anyone twigs that they haven't actually met any of their "targets", or fulfilled any of their false promises.

 

And I guess this cute little cartoon video below will probably be the sum total  of the "education" initiative they stated they'd be providing for travellers, around how to be decent guests...

 

Many, Many Thank You's - Airbnb

https://youtu.be/9bMZRtOceHk

 

Alex6153
Level 1
Massachusetts, United States

If you’re a host and you don’t use smart technology in your home including remote door locks and outdoor video cameras then it’s on you if you can’t monitor in real-time what’s happening with occupancy levels, parking issues and noise.  You should be using cameras to monitor all occupancy-related violations, not wait for your neighbor to call you and the police to complain.  You call the guest and remind them of the house rules.  If they push on with a party, you call the police to ask them to help you confront the occupants as you drive to the home.  Nobody should be relied upon to do any course corrections but yourself.  Add a hefty extra person charge in your listing, indicate occupancy monitored by external cameras in your listing and provide the video to Airbnb and have them enforce the additional fees for those guests who went beyond the max occupancy.  Be proactive and preventive on your own.

Well that's all great advice, @Alex6153 - but you're scuppered if guests have a party in your place, because there's nothing in your House Rules that says parties are forbidden. And nothing about extra guest fees beyond the max occupancy either. So if you are unfortunate enough to be targeted by the party-animal brigade, you won't have a leg to stand on with Airbnb. In fact, there's every possibility they may even shift the blame on you for not specifically stating  "No Parties" in your House Rules, and as crazy as it sounds, you could even end up being penalised or banned, under the new rules prohibiting "party houses".

 

Oh and in many jurisdictions, unless there's a genuine emergency (someone has been hurt/injured etc), local police forces are refusing to attend call-outs for Airbnb parties.

Chad294
Level 1
Rockford, IL

I been 19 year olds trying to book. Saying it’s a business party. You have to be strict on the underage. 

Robin129
Level 10
Belle, WV

@Airbnb please mandate a valid photo ID and that the profile image be the actual guest.  I just had a guest reserve that had the fancy letter image then, after the reservation was confirmed, had an icon of a meme for the profile photo. In my reservation requirements I have actual photo marked as a condition.

I asked the guest to post a real image on the profile, she eventually posted something. I reached out to customer care who said they don't have to have a real photo. The guest eventually cancelled saying the friend she was visiting had a family crisis. 

I have a home share. I live where guests stay. I want a REAL photo on that profile for my safety. I need to compare that profile photo with a photo ID when guests arrive. 


---> That's how I look at most guests, like cousins. And you know, some of those cousins are kooks.

> some of those cousins are kooks

LOL, that's good

Jennifer1421
Level 10
Peterborough, Canada

@Airbnb 

From the article:

"When a property that’s listed on Airbnb is causing a disturbance..."

 

Properties don't cause disturbances, GUESTS cause disturbances.I have concerns that the implementation of this "hotline" is going to cause a backlash against perfectly good, in home hosts whose neighbours simply do not want to live next to "an Airbnb", and will use this tool to report listings where there really aren't any disturbances.

 

My questions about this effort are:

1. If a neighbour reports a listing, will the listing be suspended until the host proves that no disturbance took place; and

2. Will the proof required be the use of the Noise Aware (and other) gadgets that are being promoted by Airbnb - ie: a screenshot from the associated app that shows the decibal level (or however they record noise levels) at such and such a time was low, proving there was no noise? Will the in-home host, who has chosen NOT to purchase your monitoring devices be delisted because they are unable to provide such "proof"?

 

I am appalled to find myself in the position of a conspiracy theorist, but every recent policy released is so vague, the language around them so non-specific, the accompanying written policy so open to interpretation, and the CX training so seemingly non-existent, that I simply can't help myself for looking for the downside (as a host) to each of these new releases. When read from a cynical perspective (and let's face it, CX handling and company response to so many problems creates the cynicism), you have not released a single policy since the Orinda murders that unequivocally backs up your hosts.

Jeff-And-Faith0
Level 2
Santa Barbara, CA

I am so grateful for this new policy! One question though- we went through a dispute where a guest didn’t consider inviting extra guests to our home a party because it was only a few people. When I contacted support they said they only

consider a party is a certain amount of people. Is there protection for hosts when guests invite people to the home that are above the max amount of people on the reservation?

@Jeff-And-Faith0  Put in your rules  that no one who isn't part of the reservation is allowed on the property without your advance notice and permission.  And if you find you need to, remind the guests of this rule in your greeting/direction message(s).  That way, there can be no dispute about what was and wasn't a party because anyone outside of listed guests will be breaking the house rules. 

@Mark116  we did iterate in our rules that no guests outside of those in the reservation are allowed, and there would be charges per person over the max of guests. The guest refused to pay the difference and it took 4 months for Airbnb to respond to the issue. They kept closing the case even though we had photos of trash cans full of beer cans and platters of catered food leftover on the counter. They said there was no proof that there was a party and the guests denied it. I asked several times for a phone call and never got a call back. Finally, four months later, I got a hold of a manager who was apologetic for the length of time it took to resolve and they reimbursed us for the extra guests and cleaning fees incurred. But when I asked the manager how we can enforce our rules she said that Airbnb does not mediate, they only are a marketing company. I reminded her that if Airbnb  provides resolution between hosts and guests,  then they are in fact putting themselves in the position of mediator and are more than a marketing company. They really need to make the house rules more of a contract because people do not read them. I have a guest coming next week who asked if we provide wood for our fire pit (which she saw in our photos) when specifically it says in our rules that the fire pit can’t be used due to  city regulations. 

Greg122
Level 2
Brisbane, Australia

Can a guest have their booking cancelled in extreme circumstances if they break house rules such as an outrageous party?

Also add to canceling under those circumstances should ALWAYS be  "without refund" 🙂  .