Airbnb using AI to block 'high risk' Halloween party bookings

Artificial intelligence may help Airbnb crack down on open-invite Halloween celebrations.

As a policy, Airbnb prohibits any gatherings that are disruptive or open invitation. The platform also bans disturbances to the surrounding community, including excessive noise, visitors and trash. But the policy doesn't always stop bad behavior during a holiday weekend. That's where artificial intelligence comes in ahead of Halloween celebrations across the U.S. 

The platform announced on Tuesday it was deploying an AI-driven, anti-party system, across the U.S. and Canada to help reduce the risk of disruptive and unauthorized parties over the holiday weekend.

"This state-of-the-art system utilizes AI and machine learning to take steps to try to identify potentially higher-risk one-night and two-night booking attempts for entire home listings and prevent those bookings from being made," the company said in a news release. 

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"To do this, the technology looks at hundreds of signals relating to the booking attempt that could indicate a higher risk for a disruptive or unauthorized party incident, including the length of the trip, the distance to the listing, and whether the booking is last-minute."

Aerial view of large party at a short-term rental courtesy of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.

Aerial view of large party at a short-term rental courtesy of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office. 

The platform's safety chief, Naba Banerjee, weighed in on the move, saying that "while disruptive parties are rare, we want to try to reduce the risk of them even more. Our AI anti-party system is an important tool in helping us to do that, and we’re optimistic it will have a positive impact for our community and neighborhoods this Halloween."

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Airbnb reported that in 2022, its anti-party system during Halloween saw thousands of people across the United States deterred from booking an entire home listing on the platform, including11,300 in Florida. 

Additionally, the platform said the move could be linked to a decrease in reports of disruptive and unauthorized parties over the holiday weekend.

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