The phenomenon is not new and dates almost from the creation of Airbnb. A significant portion of travelers on the Airbnb vacation rental platform use rented accommodations as a party venue. Consequently, many owners find their homes showing damage, in any case more damaged than expected. This involves additional costs and leads to many conflicts between landlords and tenants. Airbnb, which has been active around this issue for many years, now suggests a new approach.
The end of Party Houses in 2020: Airbnb's first step
Following the phenomenon of untimely parties in accommodations that are inappropriate for this, Airbnb had suggested that owners classify their accommodation as Party Houses, i.e. accommodations where the organization of parties could be authorized. It was then up to the owner to organize himself upstream to limit the nuisances, in particular with regard to the neighborhood of the accommodation but also to take into account all that the organization of evenings could imply.
Unfortunately, it would seem that this initiative was not really able to curb the organization of unwanted parties and that the clashes between owners, tenants and neighborhood were only partially reduced. Then came the coronavirus crisis and the rules of social distancing: Airbnb then integrated into its regulations the ban on the organization of parties.
Owners and concierges witnessing the lack of impact of these measures:
The announcement of the ban on the organization of parties during Airbnb rentals reassured owners and rental managers such as Airbnb concierges. Unfortunately, this only lasted for a while and many tenants ignored the ban and continued to book accommodation for the sole purpose of organizing parties without the agreement of the platform, the owner or the rental manager. As a result, the situation has made little progress and the problem of parties in Airbnb accommodations continues to be a problem.
Alexandra, director of our concierge service in Bordeaux, explains: The phenomenon of parties in Airbnb accommodations is relatively marginal. Not all parties are problematic either. Tenants choose Airbnb to have a place to meet but know how to be perfectly respectful of the accommodation and the neighborhood. Conversely, some do not pay the same attention to the accommodation and its surroundings and this can cause several problems: unusual deterioration of the accommodation, neighborhood disturbances, noise pollution... This is where the problem hits for the owners and for us as Airbnb concierges. YourHostHelper concierge services are used to managing these problems and we minimize them upstream, from the selection of tenants. Unfortunately, this approach is unilateral and we do not have all the information to completely avoid this inconvenience and owners and managers are eagerly waiting for Airbnb's progress on the subject.
The “anti-party” algorithm implemented by Airbnb:
Airbnb has now chosen to deploy an Anti-Party algorithm on its site. As Alexandra was able to describe it in the operation of our concierge services, Airbnb chooses to tackle the problem from the moment of the reservation. By creating a database of criteria which, when matched, put the lights on red and block the reservation. The traveller's booking history, rental duration, distance from home, age or even periods of the year are thus taken into account by this new filter to block bookings as a preventive measure.
In such cases, Airbnb automatically offers an alternative. Indeed, rather than booking a complete accommodation, Airbnb will offer the user to book a partially available accommodation. The rental platform thus relies on the presence of other occupants to limit tenants' festive initiatives. This approach has already been implemented in Australia and has, according to Airbnb, reduced parties in rentals by 35%.
