Copyright ABC News
This Halloween, Airbnb’s biggest fear isn't ghosts or ghouls — it's guests throwing parties. Airbnb says they are deploying AI "anti-party" technology across the U.S. and Canada to mitigate Halloween gatherings this weekend, according to a press release. The company says it is using machine learning to block bookings that show potential of party risks "such as the length of the reservation, the distance of the listing from the guest’s location, property type, and timing of the booking, including last-minute requests." This is the fifth year that Airbnb has instituted anti-Halloween party protections, which prohibited 38,000 people from booking houses in the U.S. and 6,300 in Canada last year, according to the company. Airbnb issued a permanent global party ban in 2022 amid multiple shooting incidents. "Strong policies must be complemented by strong enforcement," the company said at the time. "We've introduced a number of anti-party measures in recent years to enforce our policy and try, to the best of our ability, to stop both unauthorized parties and chronic party houses." The company had previously instituted a temporary party ban in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. "In 2024, we saw a decrease in the reporting rate of parties compared with 2023, with fewer than approximately 0.035 percent of stays worldwide leading to an allegation of a party," Airbnb said in the press release. The company also warned against customers booking for others or they could face consequences on the app. "As the holiday approaches, we are also reminding parents, grandparents, and other adults that they should not use their account to book stays for anyone else," the company said in the press release. "Third-party bookings – when a user books a listing for someone else and won’t be staying themselves – are prohibited on Airbnb."
