Airbnb Officially Banning All ‘Party Houses’ From Its Site

Airbnb is officially banning “party houses” from their platform after the tragic shooting that took place at an Airbnb renter’s Halloween party, took the lives of five people. The woman who rented the home off Airbnb in the San Francisco Bay Area lied to the owner and said that she simply needed a home that her and her family could take refuge from the Kincade fires. Instead over 100 people erupted in utter chaos when gunshots ensued at the Bay area rental on Halloween night. 

“Starting today, we are banning “party houses” and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda. First we are expanding manual screenings of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology. Second, we are creating a dedicated ‘party house’ rapid response team. Third, we are taking immediate action against users who violate these policies, including removal. We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced in a series of tweets on Saturday. 

Chesky went on to tweet the logistics of how the company plans on implementing these new policies in a quick and efficient way. Chesky directed Margaret Richardson, an Airbnb Executive, to oversee and run the party house rapid response team, and also directed her to do an accelerated 10 day review and revision of their current policy to ensure these changes were put into effect as quickly as possible. 

Chesky mentioned that the rapid review and revision of their policy is extremely necessary, as the house where the shooting occurred was already listed on Airbnb as a “party free” house. Both the rental and the user who rented the property have been removed from the sight permanently. The property owner Michael Yang was the one who actually initially called police after checking his security camera footage and seeing there was way more than just a family attempting to escape the fires in his home. The police call was made at 10:25 pm, according to the Los Angeles Times, and 20 minutes later officers arrived at the home to chaos, as the shooting had already begun and patrons were rushing into the streets. 

The response from Airbnb also comes from the fact that this house in particular had been subject to noise complaints brought on by renters in the past. In February a renter exceeded the 13 person maximum every rental property is required to follow in the city of Orinda (LA Times). While that was the last complaint made since this past week, the fact that the regulations weren’t more strictly followed and regulated meant that further action had to be taken. 

Short-term rental agreements will be up for debate and discussion at an Orinda City Council meeting this week, and in the meantime policies all throughout California in general are being modified. For example Los Angeles enforced new rental terms this past July that only allows property owners to rent out their properties if it’s their primary residence, meaning they live in it for more than six months of the year. Short-term rentals are really the only type of at home renting that’s allowed to occur under these regulations. Additionally, all property owners who rent out their homes, regardless of what website they do it through, must register with the city of Los Angeles and pay a fee, according to the LA Times. 

Part of Airbnb’s policy modifications will include a streamlined enforcement of Los Angeles’ regulations on their website. Under this new system in LA, new renters will have to be approved by the city before they can rent out their properties, and any existing listings without the official documents and approvals from the City Council will be removed from the site.