If you’re looking to party so hard that you forget 2024 ever happened, you may not want to try it in an Airbnb in Ontario, as the short-term rental platform is cracking down hard on New Year’s Eve stays this year.
To prevent guests from throwing what it calls “unauthorized and disruptive” shindigs for the big event, the brand is leaning into a strategy it has employed for four years in a row now to stop suspicious-looking bookings on holidays like NYE and Halloween.
Special tech will recognize aspects of an attempted reservation around December 31 that Airbnb considers “high-risk,” such as one- or two-night stays in an entire home. All customers will also have to agree to special anti-gathering rules, and risk having their account deleted temporarily or for good if they don’t comply.
Though the mandates sound like no fun, they really do work — last year, some 640 people in Toronto, 3,200 people in Ontario, and 5,700 people in Canada were denied stays that AI flagged as having too much party potential. And, there has been a 60 per cent drop in parties reported to Airbnb over New Year’s Eve since the company started these efforts.
Unfortunately, it is unclear how the defences may impact those people who are genuinely looking to innocently visit a different city or town for the evening, though Airbnb states in a release that guests booking over New Year’s may “redirected to alternative accommodations on the platform” rather than blocked.
blogTO has reached out for further information.
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