RALEIGH – Airbnb has entered a new partnership to continue to crack down on illegal parties hosted through bookings on its platform.
The company will collaborate with Minut to provide a free sensor and three complimentary months of the subscription service that monitors noise and occupancy. As a part of the collaboration, Airbnb has already added features and functionality to its mobile application and messaging tool in order to assist the company’s host users to resolve any potential noise concerns or complaints “seamlessly via on-platform messaging,” a company spokesperson told WRAL TechWire.
In a statement, the company noted that this is the latest in a string of actions taken “to promote responsible behavior and enforce our anti-party stance.”
Since introducing the party ban in 2020, the company spokesperson said that there’s been a 70% year-over-year reduction in reported parties from properties based in North Carolina. The company expanded the party ban earlier this year.
The company also added additional protocols ahead of last year’s holiday season, and ahead of summer holidays. Now, as of last week, the company extended communication aimed to reduce party attempts during this coming Halloween weekend.
That includes “prohibiting guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb from making one-night reservations in entire home listings,” the spokesperson told WRAL TechWire.
Impact in NC
In North Carolina, the efforts to tamp down on parties seems to have worked, at least last year at this time, with the spokesperson noting that “nearly 2,900 people were deterred by our various anti-party defenses from booking entire home listings over Halloween 2021.”
The new Minut collaboration will enable hosts in 60 countries including the United States to install a sensor provided by the company in their home that is listed on the company’s booking platform.
But the sensor only records decibel levels, not audio or sound, which Airbnb noted in a statement ensures that the implementation of this technology offering still ensures guest privacy. Still, hosts will be required by the company to disclose whether they have installed such a sensor in their home.
“Stays take place across the world each night on Airbnb, with the vast majority being respectful of Hosts’ homes and neighborhoods and sharing the benefits of tourism with local communities,” said Catherine Powell, global head of hosting at Airbnb, in a statement. “This collaboration with Minut continues our commitment to encourage safe and responsible travel on Airbnb, and further empowers our Host community to stop unauthorized parties.”
The company aims “to promote responsible travel” and its anti-party measures include a global party ban. Airbnb said in a statement that following the implementation of that ban, there was a 44% year-over-year drop in party reports. It was implemented in August 2020 and the company cracked down on Triangle listings in December of that year.
Still, North Carolina hosts generated the sixth-most revenue of any U.S. state in 2021, the company reported in March.
Airbnb suspends 21 listings across Triangle in ‘party house’ crackdown
