Party House, House Party, and Party School

Mike1034
Level 10
Mountain View, CA

Party House, House Party, and Party School

After Orinda incidence with 5 people shot to death, Airbnb announced to ban 'Party House'.  I googled internet to find what a party house is. Most of them came out related to Airbnb's announcement for banning 'Party House'.

 

I could only find House Party definition in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_party. It is defined as

A house party is typically a type of party where medium to large groups of people gather at the residence of the party's host. In modern usage, a house party is typically associated with teenage or young adult crowds, loud music, dancing, and the consumption of alcohol, marijuana or other recreational drugs.

 

The term 'Party House' reminded me 'Party School'. Party School appears in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_school

 

A house is a house which is a residential property. There is no party house unless a party is held in the house by party goers. Airbnb bans Party House, which is essentially to delist a house from its listing platform. It actually does not do any good to eliminate the root cause. The root cause is party goers. If party goers are not banned, they will pick other listings to have parties.

 

There are party schools. I have not heard that any schools being closed because of the parties held by party goers in those schools. Hopefully Airbnb management understand what they need to be done to stop un-registered parties held in those listings which do not allow parties by hosts instead of delisting those houses which are victims of those party goers.

 

One side note is about the absence of Airbnb in the hearing held by Orinda city council. Do Airbnb really care about the death and shooting incidence in a host's house? From the absence, I don't see they really care. What they care is to get publicity in various media and internet about their pledge of banning 'Party House'. Ironically, another gunfire was reported yesterday in an Airbnb listing in San Diego less than two weeks after Airbnb announced to ban 'Party House'. https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/gunfire-reported-during-party-at-la-jolla-mansion.

 

I'd like to hear hosts' opinion what Airbnb really need to do to ban parties held by party goers in Airbnb listings which have no party specified in the house rule.

 

 

37 Replies 37

@Mike1034 

 

The racial profiling matter resulted from lawsuits about racial discrimination lodged against Airbnb.   Airbnb was forced to take action by the court.  They spun it into a reactive marketing campaign, which has been used by many with less than honorable intent to conceal needed information required to safely operate our business and protect our homes/properties by preventing us from having access to information required by insurance and law enforcement agencies to protect ourselves, our investments, and our neighbors/communities.

 

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/california_will_audit_airbnb_hosts_for_racial_discrimination

 

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2019/08/19/536411.htm

 

If you read the articles, Airbnb decided how to avoid significant fines and censure by hiding guest names/photos as a platform-wide initiative designed to make them look like racial profiling heroes.  They further chose to loosen the basic profile requirements that did offer some measure of safety...which has naturally resulted in where we are right now; with no recourse for safety and liability concerns that have in some cases proven traumatic/lethal and ultimately very expensive for hosts in many ways, and are rippling outwards further into the insurance industry and community structure/laws, with (once again) hosts bearing the financial/social burden. 

 

As a result of not being proactive concerning the likely outcomes of relaxed vetting by this platform, many homeowners' insurance providers are scrutinizing and refusing to ensure airbnb's due to the increased liability risks and lack of available information to pursue damages, and municipalities are reacting similarly with restrictions/bans that also create widespread effect. It's not just about lack of housing.  It's about safety. liability, and property values as well.

 

This was a visionary company and still is, there just needs to be a more balanced, larger focus about consequences, protecting all involved, and meeting customary/basic legal industry requirements so all involved are protected, rather then reactive policy designed to protect a few by making those who provide the means to make the money and are ultimately liable (hosts) most vulnerable of all.  It's simply not sustainable.

 

Ahhh...the challenges of creating new intentional community/economy.  No community or culture is immune from these issues, and in the US corporations are people too, complicating matters further.  I highly doubt those 3 guys trying to make rent who started all of this could forsee all of the consequences...but they have create a huge enterprise and it's time to assume responsibility for this creation and it's effects from a far broader then personal profit perspective before more of their demographic (hosts/guests/communities) are damaged and alienated.

 

 

Susan1028
Level 10
Oregon, US

What to do?

A- Employ reasonable and customary lodging industry requirements such as:

1. Real Government picture ID that matches the person's face and home address FOR EVERY ADULT REGISTERED (make it a requirement every guest (regardless of age) is registered by age/name.)

a. send to host before arrival and require hosts to confirm ID matches on site.

B. Matching form of payment that matches the above individual and billing and home address

C- Hold a temporary security deposit on the credit card until 12/24 hours after checkout/cleaning

a.  Hotels and auto rentals require $400 average

D- since this is a "community built on safety and trust" do a basic criminal/sex offender background check for every guest and host "member" of airbnb. It's required by most employers, everyone that teaches, works with children/care-giving of any person and they can be done in bulk for $5-10 each, which is far less than the cost of legal advice after the murders in Orinda

 

I guarantee that it will weed out the majority of riskier guests and hosts.

 

 

Mike1034
Level 10
Mountain View, CA

@Susan1028To add on your vetting suggestions, additional punishment measures are also needed.

 

(1) Any guests violating No Party house rule will be deactivated from using Airbnb platform. And they are not be allowed to create new accounts because of the ID validation

(2) Any hosts with scamming listings will be removed from Airbnb platform. And they are not allowed to create new accounts because of the ID validation

(3) Security deposit is not refunded when no party rule is violated.

 

anybody want to talk about common sense? there were so many redflags the host should have known better and he had misgivings but went ahead anyway for the money. i would have never rented to these guests,  a one night rental on halloween for 12 people? come on! this reeks of deception. their reasoning to get away from the fire for only one day for like the smoke would be cleared the next day? also   their profile didnt show them living from any fire location.  the host knew the score and went ahead anyway

@Roy-And-Patti0  Do you know how many nights the guest had booked? Are you able to see a guest profile before a reservation is confirmed? Is the guest profile true? A guest can change the location, even the real name anytime.

 

There are are so many unknown. Therefore, I would not easily make such a judgement to the host.

 It’s also worth noting that he had two complaints this year about the exact same thing renting out his house to parties whether he was aware of them or not 

.

@Mike1034 

 

The guest booked for one night only, halloween night, for 12 people / 800 USD. What does a host expect with such a booking - 12 elderly people playing chess and then soundly go to sleep a 10pm?

 

@Ute42I can only make certain statement based on what I know. Some facts are only from various sources of reports which are different. I have seen that a night was rented for $280, to $420 per night (from Wiki), and now $800.

 

What I know are Airbnb's policies make a host vetting guests near impossible if not none.