Earlier this year, Airbnb made a new rule which bans house parties. The company is now testing a new “anti-party technology” in the US and Canada to make sure that guests are not partying.
The technology tries to predict which new bookings might be for parties. It does this by looking at the guests’ reviews on the website, the age of their Airbnb account, how long they want to stay at a property, and the day of the week for the booking.
Airbnb says that it started testing similar technology in different parts of Australia in October 2021. The software tests reduced parties by 35 percent.
There is another system in the US that focuses on guests under the age of 25 who try booking large houses near where they live. It’s been in use since July 2020.
Airbnb has wanted to crack down on parties for some years. In 2019, after a deadly shooting at a Halloween party at an Airbnb house in California, the company said it would ban “party houses.”
In 2020, it announced stricter rules because of the COVID pandemic. The company thought that more people would try renting Airbnb properties for parties because bars and clubs were closed. Airbnb found that the party ban was good for business and decided to continue it.
If a guest is blocked from booking a property because they might host a party, they can still book a private room or a hotel through the Airbnb website. Airbnb’s focus is on preventing house parties.
In 2021, the company suspended around 6,600 Airbnb users for violating the anti-party rules. There are around 150 million users on Airbnb.
VOCABULARY
- Ban – to not allow; to stop; to forbid; prohibit;
- Predict – to say or guess what will happen in future; forecast; imagine
- Booking – a reservation; an appointment
- Account – your profile or page on social media or internet service
- Property – a building; a house;
- Reduce – to make less; make smaller; decrease; bring down; shrink
- Focus – pay attention to; concentrate on; look at closely
- Crack down – strong action to stop something; regulate; control strongly
- Shooting – situation where a person shoots a gun at other people
- Announce – share information openly; to tell the public; to make a statement; to report
- Strict – severe; harsh; no flexibility; exact; strong
- Find – realize; learn; discover;
- Prevent – to stop; to keep from happening; to put an end to
- Suspend – to stop or remove for a short time; temporarily reject
- Violate – break a rule; do something that’s not allowed
Original story from The Verge below:
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