Airbnb Implements New Rules for Guests under the Age of 25

Airbnb will stop renting vacation rental homes to some guests in the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Spain under 25 years old in an effort to prevent house parties. Its main objective is to stop possible unwanted behavior, protect local communities, as well as to avoid large gatherings of people to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Since 2019, Airbnb has already implemented certain restrictions worldwide, prohibiting unauthorized parties and events in Airbnb accommodations. These limitations don’t affect those events that are authorized by hosts and comply with their house rules.

They launched this initiative earlier this year in Canada and have successfully dropped the number of unauthorized parties booked by guests under the age of 25. They’re now expanding to the United Kingdom, France and Spain.

What are Airbnb’s restrictions for under 25?

How Airbnb's restrictions work

These new measures don’t mean that travelers under 25 can’t book on Airbnb. However, they will have to comply with the following:

  • U.S., British, French and Spanish guests under the age of 25 with less than three positive reviews are not able to book entire home listings that are close to where they live. They are allowed to book any type of listing outside of their cities. But if they have no negative reviews or are planning to stay longer than 28 days, they’re able to do so.
  • They are able to book private rooms, regardless of where they live.

We want everyone to enjoy the summer safely and while the overwhelming majority of guests on our platform are responsible neighbours, we are absolutely determined to obstruct and weed-out anyone intent on causing antisocial behaviour. We want to do everything we can to be good partners to the communities where hosts live and we hope that our new policy will make it abundantly clear that there is no home for any unauthorized parties on Airbnb – Patrick Robinson, Director of Public Policy at Airbnb.

Avoiding unauthorized parties

Avoid Airbnb house parties

The changes to their platform come after a fatal shooting at an Airbnb house party last year. The party was promoted on social media as the “Airbnb Mansion Party” and more than 100 people showed up, though the host had explicitly banned parties at their vacation rental.

Following the attack, Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, stated that they will expand manual screening of high-risk bookings and “build a dedicated emergency response team for ‘party houses.

They also built a party prevention page to recommend security devices to maintain security and detect problems early. With these security measures, hosts would be able to monitor noise, heat, humidity or movement and be able to know whether or not the guests are complying with the established rules.

The platform even offers discounts on chosen devices to incentivize and help owners keep their spaces free of unauthorized parties.

Airbnb’s Summer Safety Campaign

In addition, this past Friday, August 14, 2020, Airbnb also launched the “Summer safety campaign” in an effort to promote safe and respectful travel amid a busy summer season.

Airbnb's Summer safety campaign

Throughout the four week campaign, travelers will be reminded to follow house rules, as well as enforce local COVID-19 restrictions and their party policy. Violation of their community standards and policies could lead to the removal of guests from the platform.

Hosts will also receive information and advice on enhanced cleaning during the COVID-19 crisis and tips on how to set clear expectations to guests on their house rules.

The importance of rental agreements and house rules

There is no need to be alarmed by this news if you know how to spot unwanted guests during the booking process and are very clear on your rental agreement and house rules.

Rental agreement

A major recurring problem is when guests bring additional people to the rental property without informing the host. It may be that they want to avoid paying for an extra person, or there is a maximum occupancy of guests.

Use your house rules and rental agreement documents to enforce the maximum number of guests, as well as asking for their full names and having them sign the contract.

Although only 0.03% of stays claim the Host Guarantee, Airbnb remains dedicated to becoming good partners and today’s announcement follows a number of steps taken to crackdown on antisocial conduct and unauthorized parties.

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