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]

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

They do, and you do hear about them locally. ABB does seem to go national because the platform has been shunned by many localities. Every report of a bad thing happening at an ABB is just more fuel that municipalities need to ban or very strictly regulate them. ABB does NOTHING to help themselves with this. Instead of ensuring measures to provide a safe environment for hosts, guests and neighbors, they allow the problem to continue.

I have outlined a few steps that would go a long way to making ABB a serious and safe community partner. But they seem more interested in squeezing every cent they can out of hosts who are putting their properties on the line, and encouraging frat boys to target host spaces for their next poolside kegger. Why this is I have no clue. Honestly. It seems like a really terrible brand to take on. Who are their users? Do they need to cultivate 17 year olds who want to pretend to be in a music video?

[Kath9]

@Robin4  Absolutely agree that Airbnb should do more to prevent parties. However, it's funny that these shootings happen almost solely in the US. @Pat271, with all these incidents happening 'everywhere', why on earth are Americans still so attached to gun ownership? Unless someone has a very good reason to own one, guns should be banned, full stop.

[Pat271]

@Kath9  Mass shootings are not just a US thing. On the contrary.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/mass-shootings-by-country

Perhaps the Australian media considers things that happen in the US more interesting? I don’t know.

As far as the US’s “love of guns”, that an unfortunate stereotype. There is a vocal minority that makes a big deal out of owning guns; the rest of us hate them. I do agree with you that gun laws should be more stringent.

[Helen744]

@Pat271 I dont really know how many of these incidents occur in the U.S and result in shootings but in Australia there were some out of control parties' but they have been banned all through covid. Early on some of the 'more wealthy citizens' shall we say  continued to party even though all holiday homes were not permitted to be attended and parties were banned in private homes too. They were all fined about $5000 each. This tended to prevent them and sadly maybe, but definitely Australians are only now starting to have their family get togethers which they have missed out on for way too long. Parties do not seem to be much of a problem at all as far as I can tell at the moment here and certainly not with guns as far as we hear.  Many firearms were banned from the general population during a bad shooting  in Tasmania by an unhinged young man called Martin Bryant ,since then we have watched mass shootings escalate in the States and thank our lucky stars that it is not where we live. There are, as some people say criminals who can get hold of guns sometimes and young gangs who carry knives and kill  but there is not 'mass shootings ,or mass stabbings although there are 'terrorist acts', . The world is in a sad state, but these incidents are not most of us, and we need to keep our places safe by id ing and vetting and using our rules. It generally works is my opinion. H

[Helen744]

@Pat271 . That article says just about nothing about mass shootings .No we do not think things that happen in the US are more exciting it is just that mass shooting are covered by 'news outlets ' just like 'mass shootings'in any war. Its a war on its own people caused by arming a populace for no reason except mass hysteria. China and Japan strangley have practically zero of most crime as does Sweden and some other countries. This is where actual realistic statistics do occur. Not a debate for here but if that incident did occur in a democracy, that is very Sad and  would frighten many Airbnb owners living anywhere near scenes like that especially at the moment So sad H.

[Robin4]

@Kath9 

Hi Kath, the gun ownership thing is a sideline, it is your constitutional right to carry a gun in the US. Kids as young as 8 are encouraged to learn about responsible gun handling, I am afraid that is a cross Americans have to carry.

We have STR parties here in Australia that get out of hand, the end result is the same, someone gets hurt, instead of guns they use knives or baseball bats....and end up injuring themselves and destroying someones property.

As @Pat271  says Airbnb or STR shootings are just the tip of the iceberg.....every 9 minutes someone in the US dies of a gun related incident.....45,260 of them in 2020. The difference is these instances are local but random, they are spread out across the country, there isn't a particular brand put to them. Gun carrying is just a society evil that is going to touch many people in the US sooner or later!

But every time this happens in an STR, Airbnb gets automatically targeted and the Airbnb brand around the world suffers. Why should our evening TV news service here, half a world away, feature 3 shootings in a week at US Airbnb parties?

We hear about it because Airbnb are global, they are here in our community, and society from law makers to journalists to residents to potential guests will question just how safe Airbnb is if parties keep happening and keep on getting out of control.

We need more information and we need Airbnb to work with us to prevent risk situations from developing. We have heard about how Airbnb are getting tough on guests who don't abide by their rules......but they aren't. For the sake of this industry we need a bit more company cooperation, please give us something more than an anonymous package on our doorstep with an alphabet letter attached to it!  

Cheers........Rob

[Christine615]

Does anyone think the new rules are anything but a PR stunt. First, Airbnb said the young person who "booked" the Pittsburgh unit was banned for life.

Really? All he/she has to do is get a friend to book. Or use a fake ID and a burner phone. Airbnb doesn't verify guests before allowing them to book. At least Twitter made me hold an ID up next to my face to prove I was a real person after my account was hacked.

Second, they don't verify hosts. At all. Here in my city 70% of the Airbnb's are not legal and many are owned by investors gobbling up starter homes and laughing at the lax vetting.

So yes, even though two teens were killed most recently, Airbnb isn't doing ANYTHING to make it harder to qualify for the platform.

[Fred13]

The subject at hand: https://abcnews.go.com/US/multiple-people-injured-pittsburgh-shooting-incident-police/story?id=84131...

The first person I would hold responsible is - the host - who perpetuated or allowed this party in the first place. The second persons are - the criminals - that did the shooting. And so on. That is why it is called Law & Order.

Also: https://www.statista.com/statistics/251919/number-of-assaults-in-the-us-by-weapon/

Good luck removing 400,000,000 guns as more can easily pour in via open borders. Maybe best to remove the criminal-minded among the population and stop wasting time with convenient excuses (guns, Airbnb, etc). 

[Robin4]

@Fred13 

"Maybe best to remove the criminal-minded among the population and stop wasting time with excuses (guns, Airbnb, etc)". 

The thought of living in a society where a 15 year old junior school drop-out is roaming around the streets with a gun in his pocket just makes me shiver uncontrollably!

It's not my place to preach to other cultures how they should live, I am just lucky I was born into one that truly encompasses mate-ship and a fair go and an automatic right to feel safe!

Unfortunately I have to deal with companies who don't necessarily hold that same set of values!

Cheers........Rob

[Fred13]

So was I, in fact I do not even live there any longer, left 12 years ago. Where else would 80 individuals drive up in 25 cars, go into a jewelry store in broad daylight and leisurely grab millions of dollars with 'security' watching them and no one could do anything about it? It is not the vehicles nor the guns they may be carrying that is the foremost problem, it is their opportunistic mentality  that is most alarming. 

[Pat271]

@Fred13 

You said:

“The first person I would hold responsible is - the host - who perpetuated or allowed this party in the first place. The second persons are - the criminals - that did the shooting. And so on. That is why it is called Law & Order.”

I couldn’t disagree more. Do you really think that *any* host would “perpetuate or allow” a mass shooting? We hosts can vet and vet until we are blue in the face - guests who plan these kinds of parties are experts at passing a host’s vetting tests.

I blame criminals for committing crimes. 

[Laura2592]

@Pat271 I don't want to put words in @Fred13 's mouth but what I think he meant is that some hosts DO allow or even encourage events. I have seen quite a few on this forum. "Oh we are okay with parties...as long as they clean up." When others have challenged them they tend to get very defensive and start deleting posts or bow out of the conversation. 

Do I think hosts are the main problem here? No. ABB clearly still has a box to check that says "Allows parties and events." WHY??? If their stance is "no parties" wouldn't it be easy peasy to make that line read "No parties or events are authorized in any Airbnb space. For more info (link to party policy.)" But they do not. Its ridiculous. 

This is Airbnb's responsibility. They need to educate hosts and guests about what is allowed and enact consequences when the TOU are violated. Hosts can be part of the problem, unfortunately, if they are chasing $$ and allowing parties. 

[Pat271]

@Laura2592  I think what Fred said was pretty clear.

By the way, I don’t think Airbnb allows parties and events anymore:

Note: As of August 20, 2020, Airbnb announced a global ban on all parties and events at Airbnb listings, including a cap on occupancy at 16, consistent with our community policies. This party ban applies to all future bookings on Airbnb, and it will remain in effect indefinitely, until further notice.

[Laura2592]

@Pat271 yes I know they say they do not allow parties. So why is there still a box you can check to say that you do?

I could pull up some threads by hosts who clearly allow parties and have listings that say so/reviews mentioning the awesome time everyone had at said party, but I don't want to embarrass anyone.

[Pat271]

@Laura2592 

Mine only has an “Events Allowed” checkbox.

There’s a fine line between an “event” and a “party”; I wonder if Airbnb has defined those anywhere? Would a family reunion be an “event”? How about a book club meeting?

@Quincy  Is there a definition for “Event”, or for the “Events Allowed” checkbox posted somewhere?