Airbnb announces a ‘global party ban’ for public health reasons

Airbnb announced Thursday a global ban on all parties and events at its listings for health reasons. 

The home-sharing platform, which made the announcement in a blog post, said it would also introduce a property occupancy cap of 16 people. 

“Instituting a global ban on parties and events is in the best interest of public health,” the company said in the post. 

The ban applies to all future bookings on Airbnb and will remain in effect until further notice. 

Airbnb said 73% of listings had already banned parties in their house rules. 

Last year, the company introduced a global ban on “party houses.” These were essentially listings that repeatedly caused a nuisance in the local neighborhood. 

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Airbnb removed the “event-friendly” search filter from its platform and told users to adhere to local government guidelines. 

“However, in many large jurisdictions, public health mandates on gatherings have changed — and in some places swung back and forth in response to the changing rates of COVID cases — as have regulations on bars, clubs and pubs,” the company said. 

“Some have chosen to take bar and club behavior to homes, sometimes rented through our platform. We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible — we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behavior does not belong on our platform.”

Due to the way Airbnb works, the company can’t always stop parties from taking place. Guests can sometimes check-in to remote properties themselves and have as many people over as they see fit, regardless of what the house rules say. 

There have been multiple instances of Airbnb guests breaking house rules and having parties, with some resulting in major damage to the property. 

The announcement comes a day after Airbnb said it had submitted a draft registration to the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.