Airbnb bans 'party houses' after 5 killed
The Orinda Police stay near a scene of a shooting at a Halloween Party in short-term rental house in California, US, on Friday.
Airbnb Inc says it’s banning “party houses” in the wake of a deadly shooting at an Airbnb rental in California, US.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said the San Francisco-based company is stepping up efforts to “combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct.” He also said: “We must do better and we will. This is unacceptable.”
Airbnb has always banned unauthorized parties but it plans to increase enforcement of that policy.
Chesky said Airbnb will expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations that are flagged by its system. Reservations for one night at a large house, for example, might get extra scrutiny.
The company also plans to crack down on hosts who allow their homes to become long-term nuisances in their neighborhoods. Effective immediately, the company will remove guests and hosts who fail to comply, Chesky said.
Chesky said Airbnb is also forming a rapid response team dedicated to house parties. He didn’t say what the team would do that police don’t already do.
Margaret Richardson, Airbnb’s vice president of trust, will oversee the rapid response team. Airbnb will release more details after Richardson conducts a 10-day review to determine the scale of the problem and the best way to fix it.
Five people died after a Halloween party shooting in the San Francisco suburb of Orinda.
The woman who rented the home lied to the host saying she was renting so her asthmatic family could escape wildfire smoke.
But more than 100 people attended the party.
