Airbnb CEO and cofounder Brian Chesky has recently tweeted that the company will soon ban party houses following a shooting at Halloween party at an Airbnb rental in Orinda, California.
Starting today, we are banning “party houses” and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda. Here is what we are doing:
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 2, 2019
Chesky outlines the steps Airbnb is taking in the same Twitter thread, including creating a rapid response team for party houses, presumably to help homeowners prevent dangerous parties. Chesky did not explain what a party house is in the thread.
Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit defined party houses as rentals which repeatedly disturb neighbors, according to The Washington Post, but said that any specific standards have yet to be determined.
Airbnb claims it already uses an automated risk detection system that uses predictive analytics and machine learning to instantly evaluate hundreds of signals that help us flag and investigate suspicious activity before it happens.
Chesky says the company will have more humans screening that system soon too:
First, we are expanding manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 2, 2019
Meanwhile it is unclear whether that system, or the background checks and watchlists that Airbnb also claims it uses to spot potential bad actors, would have prevented this particular renter from throwing the party that led to the deadly shooting.
The Orinda house had received several complaints since it was listed as a short-term rental last November, including one about a party in February, CBS News reports.
The house has been taken off of Airbnb and the woman who rented it during the party has been banned from Airbnb as well.