In a move the company says is designed to crack down on unauthorized and disruptive parties, Airbnb is turning to machine learning to help identify high-risk bookings and block those users from using its platform to book houses.
According to The Verge, although the technology will be rolled out globally, the company appears to focus on the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Puerto Rico, Spain, and New Zealand.
Users of the platform will be barred from booking one to three-night stays, and guests booking an entire home will be required to agree not to use the home for party purposes.
According to Airbnb, the platform blocked 74,000 high-risk bookings in 2023, with 33,000 of those bookings coming from the United States.
The company’s anti-party stance originated in 2019, and the following year, it added additional restrictions due to the pandemic.
According to a news release from Airbnb, the company‘s initiatives are touted as a reassurance for hosts who list their homes on its site.
“While issues are rare, we want to do our part to help reduce the risk of unauthorized and disruptive parties. Airbnb is committed to supporting hosts and the communities they live in, and we hope these defenses allow guests, hosts, and neighbors to celebrate the holiday with added reassurance,” said Tara Brunch, global head of Operations for Airbnb.
In recent years, Airbnb has been criticized for negatively impacting the housing crisis in America. However, perhaps the company’s more pressing issue is the perception that a service once proposed as a budget-friendly alternative to hotels no longer serves that purpose.
According to NerdWallet staff writer Sam Kemmis, that is only part of the issues plaguing Airbnb.
“The early days of Airbnb, like the early days of the internet, were full of promise. Here was a way for travelers to see the world while meeting hosts and enjoying authentic experiences, all on a shoestring. Yet this promise, like the promise of the internet itself, has been corrupted by greed, lack of competition, and poor product management,” Kemmis wrote.
According to a 2021 report from Bloomberg, the platform spent an average of $50 million on payouts to hosts and guests, including legal settlements and damages to homes listed on the platform.
Per its reporting, the incident that spurred the change to its party policy occurred on Halloween 2019 when gunmen opened fire at a multimillion-dollar home in Orinda, California, killing five.
Most of the attendees and organizers were Black, and given those facts, the media’s coverage of the story was criticized.
Cynthia Taylor, the mother of Raymon Hill, a Black 23-year-old victim who was attending the party, said that the company needed to be held accountable for its part in what happened.
“They (Airbnb) need to be held accountable for what happened,” Taylor told Bloomberg. “My son’s life was taken away at a property they allowed to keep renting on their service after multiple complaints.”
Jesse Danoff, a lawyer for Taylor and Hill’s family, said that Airbnb should have taken action long before Hill and others were killed at the party in the Bay Area.
“They knew, they ignored it, they took action once five people died of collateral damage,” Danoff told NBC Bay Area in 2019.
According to The Guardian, Cheryl Sudduth, a resident of the Bay Area and the commissioner of the Racial Justice Oversight Body, indicated that the media coverage of the incident from outlets in the Bay Area was racially biased.
“If her name was Alison instead of Tiyon, if his name was Michael instead of Omar, if these children were white, or if it was one of your kids, would you still be OK with this coverage?” Sudduth said. “I guarantee the answer is not yes.”
She continued, “People see a white child as a victim, but a Black child is seen as part of the circumstances. People say, ‘What do you think happens when you have a party with more than a few of you?’”
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