Airbnb party shootings, here we go again!

[Robin4]

When is Airbnb going to stop supporting the guest?

April 9th 2022: ELK GROVE (CBS13) — A party at an Airbnb rental in Elk Grove turned into a nightmare when an 18-year-old was shot and killed, said the Elk Grove Police Department. The incident took place at a residence in the area of Bowmont Way and Brandamore Court around 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

April 13th 2022:  A 23-second running gun battle in which 30 to 50 shots were fired during a teen's birthday party at a rented Airbnb house in a suburb of Houston left one person wounded.

April 18th 2022: Two teenagers were killed and at least eight people were wounded when a barrage of 50 gunshots broke out early Sunday inside a Pittsburgh Airbnb rental house, where police said roughly 200 people were having a party. Some escaped the gunfire by jumping out of windows. One of the gunshot party-going victims was 14 years old!

The dust has only just settled on an Airbnb  Sunnyvale California shooting on the 9th August 2021 where one person died, The 150+ people at that Airbnb party were aged between 15 and 19!

Airbnb, you are killing our industry! Your emphasis on protecting your guests at all costs, limiting them to any liability and shielding them from host scrutiny is forcing experienced hosts to leave Airbnb in droves and it is killing the industry for those of us that remain. Airbnb is now a dirty word, can’t you see what is happening?

@Catherine-Powell  you were lured to Airbnb with an incentive package that none of us hosts would ever dream of receiving in a lifetime. Instead of issuing feel good statements that in reality don't seem to lead anywhere, please start earning something of that $15m package that attracted you to Airbnb as global head of hosting! You are a person of influence within the company, represent your hosts! Please give us hosts the tools we need to stop this sort of mindless behaviour from happening. Local parties don’t just crop up out of nowhere, organisers don’t travel 100s Kms to stage them…..they are invariably local bookings! Work with your hosts to prevent them from happening! Local government authorities around the world are just going to keep on putting the screws on short term rentals!

Give us hosts potential guests verified information prior to booking, not just a generic letter!

Liaise with police enforcement to give a rapid response to out of control situations. You are the ones that hold all the relevant information…..make it available in a timely manner, not expect the hapless host sort it out because nobody in support knows what to do!

We have heard plenty of the talk, now is the time for action while there is still something of respectability in the company left……

Please support your hosts!!!

The thing Airbnb have to realise, good guests don't mind scrutiny, in fact it's their badge of honour......poor guests resent it and abuse it!

Cheers.......Rob

[Laura2592]

@Robin4 ABB's "party ban" is an absolute joke. 

I have seen hosts on this forum admit they permit parties. ABB does not take action and they talk out of both sides of their mouths. When tragedy happens its "thoughts and prayers" but ABB could PREVENT these issues by getting serious about banning parties. They choose not to. 

1. Sweep for "influencer" sites that do lists of great party houses. A friend found her LA home with pool listed on one and she absolutely does not permit parties. If I can find these, so can you ABB team. 
2. Educate hosts that parties are not allowed, full stop. Get serious about suspending hosts who continue to okay them (some even have "I had an awesome bachelor party here" in the reviews. What kind of message does that send??)
3. Ban guests who have been reported for parties from the platform
4. Institute a "no questions asked" party cancellation policy. If a host suspects a party is starting or in full swing at their place, cancel the guest reservation immediately without penalty to the host. 
5. Do an awareness campaign about the consequences of parties on ABB
6. Get serious about enforcing guest numbers. See #4. If guests book for 5 and show up with 10, allow hosts to immediately cancel the reservation without penalty.

I am so tired of these preventable tragedies. Its shameful that ABB chooses to keep their head in the sand.

[Robin4]

@Laura2592 

The issue with all of these points of yours Laura.....it will discourage ........'Guests'!

We have been dealing with this for years, haven't we.

I have built up a great relationship between Airbnb and my local community over the last few years, with 5 fellow Airbnb hosts  plus hopefully a soon to be 6th @Gillian166  we bring a lot of money into this community and the community accepts us. The local council health officer (Lilly Do) even translated my house rules into simplified Chinese text!

One of lead stories on our local televised news service all the way over here in the backblock of South Australia this evening was..... shootings at 3 separate Airbnb party houses within one week.

Can you imagine what that is going to do to all the good work I and other hosts have done in this community. I am cross....no I am bloody angry that Airbnb do not take this seriously! They think a few press releases will smooth things over and life will go back to normal. 

I don't want to talk about Airbnb in my area any more because the first thing someone is going to say to me is...."How safe is Airbnb"!

You and I Laura, and every other host here deserve better than this, we should not have to make excuses because this company is simply too greedy to seriously address what is a serious problem!

Cheers........Rob

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592  I also think Airbnb could encourage disclosed outdoor security cameras. Instead of suspending a host for 5 days when a guest mentions one, it should be known that Airbnb stands by hosts who have a watchful eye on their property in an effort to prevent large gatherings. 

[Laura2592]

I agree @Emilia42 . I don't think anyone should be hosting without them. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

absolutely @Emilia42 , outdoor cameras should be encouraged, if not mandatory.

[Jenny]

Hi @Laura2592 and everyone @Branka-and-Silvia0, @Emilia42, and @Robin4  thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this. I know it can be hard to stay constructive when you're discussing something as critical as this so thank you so much for telling us as well what could be done instead.

Like @Emilia42 mentions, security cameras are allowed and encouraged as long as their positions are disclosed to guests, within your listing description and are located in common areas of the property such as outside. 

Penalties that were applied for cancelling a guest’s stay are also reversed if, after investigating, it is found the Host was right to cancel.

Jenny

[Laura2592]

@Jenny appreciate your input but all of that is REACTIVE. I think what hosts want is more PROACTIVE steps taken to prevent this from happening, rather than mitigating the damage after its already been done. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jenny  you said: security cameras are allowed and encouraged as long as their positions are disclosed to guests, within your listing description and are located in common areas of the property such as outside. 

Yes.... theoretically.... but in practice, when the guest contact ABB CS and says there are cameras on the property then Airbnb closes the listing FIRST, AND THEN investigates for days if not weeks. So the host is punished and suffers the loss even if he did nothing wrong and his cameras are disclosed and outside only, or he doesn't have and never had any cameras anywhere. How could I prove I don't have cameras???

There are numerous posts on CC about such unjust suspensions

This "guilty until proven innocent" practice has to stop because it is heavily abused by the worst kind of guests.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I agree with all of you @Robin4 @Laura2592 @Emilia42 

In case the party is thrown in his Airbnb, the host should be able to immediately cancel the booking by himself, with no penalty to him, and no refund for guests.

In some countries, police can't throw guests out if their reservation is still active so until Airbnb cancels the reservation host can only throw guests out by himself or watch his property being destroyed.

I can imagine getting a call in the middle of the night to tell me the party started at my Airbnb. I wouldn't have time to call Airbnb CS and wait for someone to respond and then waste 20 min to verify who I am or to chat with the bot... I would have to dress up, jump to my car, and rush to the location. I would barely have the time to call the police.

And then, when such a reservation is finally canceled, the guest is rewarded with the full refund for days not spent even when the substantial damage to the property is made!  This is insane. No wonder Airbnb is the preferred playground for party animals.

[Laura2592]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 there should never be a refund for a guest who has had an unauthorized party. 

ABB needs to jettison its college student identity and act like the publicly offered billions valued company it is. Its frankly pathetic that they pander to the worst common denominator guest. If they want to capture that market share, use some of that profit to purchase an event space website and encourage hosts who want to invite this sort of disaster to sign up there. 

[Quincy]

@Laura2592 @Branka-and-Silvia0, if a guest violates the policy and their stay is cancelled, they aren’t entitled to a refund anymore. This potential violation will be investigated first though, after the Host has reported the guest to CS mentioning they suspect policy violation.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Quincy  Thank you for this information, I wasn't aware of it, it seems nobody has, because it is written nowhere in the policy, I just checked.

Are you sure Airbnb CS knows the guests whose stay is canceled are not entitled to a refund?

[Helen3]

That is what the policy says. Sadly the reality according to hosts who have had this happened is sadly different. 

[Pat271]

These types of crimes happen everywhere, in every sort of venue: restaurants, hotel rooms, businesses, apartments, personal residences, etc. at even higher rates than what we are discussing here. You don’t hear about those as often, but just do a search on, for instance, “hotel shooting”. Hundreds of incidents happen every week!

Restaurants, hotel rooms, businesses, apartments and personal residences are not shunned as a whole because of these incidents. Somehow it just makes for more sensational news when it’s an Airbnb.

All of these venues need to constantly strive to put policies and security measures in place with the goal of preventing these types of tragedies. Airbnb should do likewise, and encourage their hosts to do likewise, even if it means both may sacrifice some revenue. There comes a point where money should not be the primary goal. We are talking about life and death here.