Airbnb Initiates 'Party House' Crackdown In New Jersey
NEW JERSEY - Airbnb has cracked down on "party houses" throughout the state of New Jersey as the world continues to attempt to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We stand with Governor (Phil) Murphy, and we support his call to action to stop parties and promote behavior that respects the public’s health,” said Chris Lehane, SVP of Global Policy & Communications for Airbnb. “We ban party houses and will not tolerate irresponsible behavior on our platform. We know that there is still more work to be done, we ask that neighbors contact us as soon as possible through our Neighborhood Support Hotline, to directly communicate any concerns, which will help us continue to effectively enforce our party house ban.”
As part of this, 35 listings across New Jersey that have received complaints or otherwise violated policies on parties and events have been either suspended or removed from the Airbnb platform, officials said.
Read more: 3 Charged After Party At Airbnb Rental Draws 700: Jackson Police
This move follows Airbnb’s previous ban on party houses and commitment to safe and responsible travel. Officials noted the vast majority of hosts in New Jersey take important steps to prevent unauthorized parties like:
establishing clear house rules
quiet hours
communicating in advance with their guests
But a company spokesperson said their actions address the small minority of hosts who have previously received warnings about hosting responsibly and the suspensions were communicated to the hosts beginning Thursday.
In late 2019, Airbnb announced a 24/7 Neighborhood Support Hotline in the United States, where neighbors can call anytime and reach a real person at Airbnb. The hotline is staffed with a rapid response team so that neighbors can reach us directly with their concerns. Issues raised by New Jersey residents through this hotline led directly to many of the listing suspensions announced today. That number is 1-(855)-635-7754.
The suspensions and removals impacted listings in the following New Jersey communities:
North Jersey
Hoboken
Guttenberg
Irvington
Jersey City
Long Hill
Montclair
New Milford
Newark
Nutley
Sparta Township
Wood-Ridge
Central Jersey
Asbury Park
Bridgewater Township
East Brunswick
Jackson Township
Pennington
Piscataway Township
Toms River
Trenton
Watchung
Woodbridge Township
South Jersey
Atlantic City
Brigantine
Stafford Township
Ventnor City
Stopping large gatherings is more important than ever in this current environment, officials said. The party house measures come on the heels of several other anti-party initiatives from Airbnb, including a strengthening of our policies to prohibit gatherings that violate public health mandates.
Additionally, Airbnb recently shared out restrictions on some U.S. guests under the age of 25 from booking entire home listings in their local area. As a practical example, if they identify a 20-year old guest who is located in Hoboken, the systems are set up to restrict that user from booking a house, apartment or other entire home listing in Hoboken for a 1-night reservation the following weekend unless they have a history of positive reviews on Airbnb.
However, if that same 20 year-old is booking a stay to visit family in Ocean City, the restriction would not apply.
Airbnb also announced last year the expansion of manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our automated systems. This helps identify reservations that help stop unauthorized parties before they start.
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This article originally appeared on the Long Valley Patch
