Airbnb cracks down on New Year’s Eve party bookings in 11 countries, including Canada

Ahead of New Year’s Eve, Airbnb is as soon as once more clamping down on unauthorized events after saying a ban on one-night bookings in Canada and 10 different international locations for Dec. 31.

On Thursday, Airbnb launched an announcement saying the ban is meant to place a cease to unauthorized events and neighbourhood disruptions after a ban final 12 months introduced down New Year’s Eve social gathering incidents to 56 per cent.

The ban will prohibit accounts with a damaging or non-existent reserving historical past from renting out total dwelling listings for one night time. There may even be restrictions for a similar accounts attempting to e book two or three-night reservations, significantly inside their native space.

Last 12 months, Airbnb launched this ban for eight international locations together with; Canada, the U.S., Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain and the U.Okay. This 12 months the ban is not going to solely embrace these international locations however three extra ones; Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands.

“These proactive defences will help to promote responsible travel and help to prevent rare instances of unwelcome behavior, and enable hosts, guests and communities to enjoy their end of year celebrations with added reassurance,” Naba Banerjee, Airbnb’s director of belief product and operations mentioned within the assertion.

According to Airbnb, an estimated 340,000 visitors had been restricted from reserving stays on New Year’s Eve, nearly all of which had been within the U.S. with 120,000 visitors.

The ban comes as the corporate carried out an amended ban on events that was initially introduced in 2020 to restrict giant gatherings amid COVID-19. The everlasting ban introduced in June codifies critical penalties on visitors who host giant events, together with account suspension and removing from the platform.

In October, Airbnb emphasised their ban on events for Halloween after introducing their “anti-party technology,” that appears into the account’s reserving historical past, size of the specified keep and if the rental is an area keep.

In 2021, there have been 114,000 folks in Canada who had been blocked from reserving a keep throughout the Halloween weekend, in accordance with Airbnb.

With recordsdata from CTV News’ Mitchell Consky and Natasha O’Neill.