Airbnb is cracking down on summer parties and putting in place stricter anti-party measures over both Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July.
If you don’t have any positive reviews on the home-rental website, you will not be able to book an entire home listing for one-night reservations on either holiday weekend.
For Fourth of July weekend, Airbnb will get even stricter, making it more difficult for guests without a history of positive reviews to book two-night stays.
Anti-party attestations will also be introduced to guests trying to make local reservations, in which they must attest that they will not throw a party against the company’s rules. If they break that rule, users will also acknowledge that they could face legal consequences.
Airbnb said it used this same policy last year over the Fourth of July weekend, impacting 126,000 attempts to make reservations. “It worked. The 4th of July weekend in 2021 was quiet and we saw a substantial decrease in reports of disruptive and unauthorized parties,” said the company.
This year, the company is expanding the restrictions to include Memorial Day.
The company is making exceptions on these booking bans for those who do have a history of positive reviews. (After any Airbnb stay, you have the option to rate your host, and the host has an option to rate you as a guest.) People with a history of positive reviews should still be able to make one-night or two-night reservations, as long as the property owner allows it.
“We also understand that the simple fact of not yet having reviews does not mean that a guest is trying to throw a party — this is a trade-off we are willing to make in the interest of trust and safety,” the company said in a statement announcing the anti-party policy.
Airbnb has long faced criticism over large parties, some of which have turned violent, at properties listed by its hosts. Last month, 11 people were shot at a party in Pittsburgh hosted at an Airbnb rental property.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.