Airbnb announces global ban on parties, events at listings starting Friday

A Thursday news release from Airbnb announced a global ban on all parties and events at Airbnb listings, including a cap on occupancy at 16 people.

The ban is set to start Friday, Aug. 21, and will apply to all future bookings on Airbnb and will apply indefinitely until further notice, the company said.

“Unauthorized parties have always been prohibited at Airbnb listings. In fact 73 percent of our listings globally already ban parties in their House Rules,” Airbnb said in the release, stating that although the majority of guests have behaved respectfully, recent events surrounding COVID-19 have called for the global ban.

“When the pandemic was declared, and social distancing became an important element in promoting public health and responsible travel, we updated our policies. We started by removing both the ‘event-friendly’ search filter from our platform as well as ‘parties and events allowed’ House Rules from any event-friendly listings. Most importantly, we introduced a new policy requiring all users to adhere to local COVID-19 public health mandates,” Airbnb said.

The company went on to say that in many jurisdictions across the U.S. and beyond, responses and regulations have varied, making it a large factor in their decision.

“Some have chosen to take bar and club behavior to homes, sometimes rented through our platform. We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible – we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behavior does not belong on our platform,” Airbnb said.