US: Airbnb has teamed up with Expedia Group’s Vrbo to take care of “disruptive party houses” by developing the Community Integrity Program.
In an industry collaboration, Airbnb and Vrbo will develop the Community Integrity Program. Working alongside a third-party intermediary, the two companies will build a process that “identifies properties that have been permanently removed from each platform due to repeated violations of respective community policies”.
The information collected will allow both companies to “take the appropriate action”.
Previously, Airbnb and Vrbo launched separate initiatives to address the challenges of monitoring party houses. Airbnb’s Neighborhood Support Line and Vrbo’s Stay Neighborly allows hosts and neighbours to elevate issues. If an offender was removed from one platform, they could re-list on the other.
The Community Integrity Program aims to resolve this challenge.
In a company statement, Airbnb said: “While rare, disruptive parties can meaningfully impact the community’s quality of life. This pertains to a very small minority of short-term rental properties, however, for the neighbours these can be genuine neighbourhood nuisances. Neither Airbnb nor Vrbo have tolerance for this type of irresponsible activity. Neighbours don’t care if a party house is getting its reservations through any particular platform – they just want the parties to stop. That’s why one platform alone can’t solve this problem – it requires an industry-wide effort.”
According to Airbnb, the program is expected to launch in the US in the coming months.
Last summer, Airbnb announced a global blanket ban on all house parties and events being held in properties listed on its site.
