Airbnb Preventing "Entire Home" bookings by those with no reviews

[Geoffrey125]

This was the message I got from Airbnb support:

"In order to better protect our hosts from unauthorized parties, Airbnb recently implemented restrictions that prevent guests who have few or poor host reviews from making last-minute, local bookings of entire homes. We’re not currently able to make exemptions for this."

Is it just me or is this absolutely ridiculous? I would expect a policy like this to be something hosts can opt in/out of.

Would love some feedback.

Thanks!

-Geoff

[Geoffrey125]

I agree i think the intent is correct. However not every house is a "party house" or targeted as such. In my case, the neighborhood and makeup of the property is not a desirable party location. I guess i'm just hoping from some flexibility from airbnb as i could miss out on bookings even if i do my due diligence in preventing parties. I get that it is mostly to save face. but if parties arent a problem with my property then why should i suffer?

[Ute42]

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@Geoffrey125 

I think it wasn't so much Your property but certain criteria on the guests side that prevented their booking to go through. Maybe this guest is the nicest person in the world, but in general 90% of the guests who fall into the pattern that airbnb has detected as party-dangerous are party-people.

[Geoffrey125]

i would say that it varies by neighborhood, and property. I guess i think it would be a better idea to allow hosts to toggle this restriction based on their own determined party risk. 

Also... if you know of any effective way of getting feedback to airbnb i would appreciate some guidance as they dont seem to want any when i go through support.

[Ute42]

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@Geoffrey125 

I have a house that sleeps 10 in a totally secluded location. I'm doing weekend-rentals for 17 years and if any host on airbnb knows what a party is, that's me. The criteria that airbnb has detected as party-dangerous are in full line with what I have experienced.

Goeffrey, please please don't ruin airbnb's positivie move to prevent parties by hammering on the claim that Your place is the place where a party will not happen. It can happen and it will happen one day.

And no, there is no effective way that airbnb will listen to You and make an „exeption“. Hopefully not. We don't need another Orinda.

[Geoffrey125]

Congratulations on your success.

My claim is that the host/owner knows their own market better than airbnb does and a blanket restriction in my opinion is not the way to go. My backyard studio should not be guest controlled the same way that a 10 person vacation home is. Im not trying to get them to loosen their restrictions, but rather to let the hosts know know their markets have more control over who stays on their property.  Not all properties are equal thus should not be managed as such. 

[Mark116]

@Geoffrey125  Come on.  Airbnb doesn't even tell you the guest's last name or show you their photo until AFTER you decided to host them or not, they punish you like a child  if you decline too many people no matter what the reason is, you already barely have any control over who you rent to.  So, trying to get Airbnb to roll back the only thing they've done pro-actively to protect hosts from the worst tier of guests, is not going to be too popular among most hosts.  Do you really want this one random reservation that badly? 

[Sarah977]

@Geoffrey125  While you may not have had any problem with parties in the past, and may have  things in place like cameras that would enable you to nip such a thing in the bud, the notion that it's not a desirable party location seems naive. Any stand-alone, off-site host listing is a potential party house. And no guests who are planing to throw a party are going to tell you that- they'll tell you their intention is something totally innocent.

[Geoffrey125]

you make a good point. This property is not "off site" though. It is a guest suite but since it listed as the entire guest suite and not a private room, the restriction still applies. control and flexibility is the key issue here. Airbnb does not allow me to weigh the risk and make decisions on my property.

[Sarah977]

@Geoffrey125  I do understand your position and I agree that Airbnb tries to control far too much about our hosting. You have quite a few listings, so I didn't realize this one you got the request for was in your own backyard, which certainly makes some out-of-control party with a cast of 200 an impossibility unless you happened to be out of town.

[Geoffrey125]

exactly my point 🙂 this combined with their unwillingness to override is the point of frustration. have you had any positive experiences with delivering airbnb feedback? Any effective avenues? I havent been active in the community boards so if you know something i dont, i would greatly appreciate some insight!

[Helen3]

Airbnb introduced this system earlier this year following a number of parties where guests where injured or killed and hosts incurred damage. @Geoffrey125 

It is not actually how you say. The policy identifies

1. young people under 25

2. who live locally

3. who try and make a booking close to the departure date

4. who don't have 3 positive reviews.

5. who are booking a whole listing

This is to help prevent guests who book for one or two and turn up with many more and guests who are likely to be booking to party.

Personally I don't think it's ridiculous but a good idea. Do most of your guests fit this critieria?

[Geoffrey125]

No but the one that was blocked clearly explained their situation. They were college interns between housing. Airbnb would not override. this to me is a problem. no flexibility whatsoever

[Sean1002]

Can Airbnb give us options, as they do with cancelation policies? Turn off instant booking for guests that meet these criteria would flag an event that the host has to approve. Alternatively, you could have the option to automatically block bookings from these guests 🙂

[Fred13]

@Geoffrey125 Here is the upshot. Airbnb has gotten a black eye many times in the last year in the press because of parties, the headlines usually go like this - "Shots fired at Airbnb rental, 6 injured" or such attractive titles. Imagine how community councils use such stories to stop the STR practice in their sphere of control. Then there is the little matter of damage claims (yes because of Airbnb's infamous Host Guarantee), an entire separate can of worms.

   Airbnb has very little reason to fully trust every single host to prevent such parties from occurring, because they do continue to happen, so now they are taking steps to stop the guests-with-ill-intent to hoodwink hosts, who in many cases are not doing enough themselves to prevent such parties from happening. 

[Sarah977]

@Fred13  Very true- I've often read posts here where hosts say they have an ongoing problem with parties. They obviously aren't doing what is necessary to prevent this, if it just keeps happening.