Airbnb to crack down on New Year's Eve parties by restricting bookings

Those looking to book an Airbnb to ring in 2023 with a party should make other plans.

The lodging rental company is again seeking to prevent people from making reservations with the intent of throwing New Year's Eve bashes. 

Airbnb is banning one-night bookings of entire home listings for users without positive account histories – or have no previous bookings. Those same users also will face tighter restrictions when they attempt to book two- or three-night reservations, particularly when they attempt to book locally. 

Airbnb estimates that these measures have contributed to a 56% drop in party incidents on New Year's Eve since they were tested in 2020. In Philadelphia, more than 3,200 people were deterred from booking entire home listings last year.

"These proactive defenses 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," said Naba Banerjee, director of trust product and operations at Airbnb.

The company's measures are part of its larger strategy, which includes a general party ban, offering hosts free noise sensors, which alerts guests when they become too noisy, and expanding its neighborhood support line, which allows neighbors to report disturbances.

Party policies were originally tightened in 2019 following several incidents, and a temporary global party ban was enacted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban proved so effective – party reports have dropped by 44% since August 2020 – that Airbnb codified it in June. 

Airbnb also is testing anti-party technology in the U.S. and Canada that will identify potential high-risk reservations and prevent those users from taking advantage of the platform.

Along with New Year's Eve, Airbnb has taken similar measures to limit unauthorized parties around holidays like Halloween and the Fourth of July.