Sorry, Gen Z. Airbnb is holding the line on its under-25s house ban, even as America emerges from lockdown — and more people are being blocked than we knew.
Airbnb says its anti-party safety system has blocked more than 100,000 “suspicious” bookings since launching in the U.S. last July. (The Verge previously reported that the number was “above 50,000”; that estimate did not include a number of major cities listed below).
The Airbnb system prevents guests who are 24 or younger, and have fewer than three positive Airbnb reviews, from reserving entire houses near where they live. The initiative was first rolled out in Canada in 2020 after a rash of violent house parties.
“We know that people over the age of 24 are perfectly capable of booking a home for the wrong reasons, too,” the online rental marketplace said in a statement last year. “But based on the positive impact this policy has had on unauthorized parties booked by guests under 25, we believe this is the right action to continue to protect the safety of our community.”
Airbnb confirmed the following local data for its blocked-booking system. Los Angeles, the Land of Irresponsible Influencers, tops the list with at least 15,000 party shutdowns in the past year. Atlanta and Chicago are the next most blocked cities, with roughly 12,000 and 10,000 blocked bookings respectively.
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~15,000 in Los Angeles
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~12,000 in Atlanta
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~10,000 in Chicago
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~7,000 in Dallas
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~6,000 in San Diego
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~5,100 in Charlotte
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~5,000 in Phoenix
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~4,500 in Las Vegas
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~4,500 in Seattle
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~3,800 in Austin
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~3,500 in St. Louis
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~3,000 in Columbus
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~2,700 in New Orleans
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~2,600 in Denver
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~2,600 in Portland
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~2,000 in Cincinnati
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~1,800 in Salt Lake City
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~1,500 in Albuquerque
The system does not block single room or hotel bookings. It will also allow entire house bookings by users age 24 or below if they have a good Airbnb history, or are making longterm rental plans. If your booking is blocked, you will know at the time of your booking attempt, Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit tells Mashable. Breit emphasized that the initiative is focused on “unauthorized parties — meaning a party thrown without the knowledge or consent of the hosts.”
Safety has become a big selling point for Airbnb amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This spring, the platform implemented an eight-point “summer of responsible travel” plan, which included restricting bookings around Fourth of July weekend for guests and offering 24/7 customer support as well as discounts on noise detection devices to hosts.
Just last month, Airbnb also announced a partnership with competitor Vrbo aimed at removing “party houses” — rental locations advertised with large (and potentially dangerous) gatherings in mind — from their collective marketplace.
“Airbnb and Vrbo plan to work with a trusted third-party intermediary to develop a process that identifies properties that have been permanently removed from each platform due to repeated violations of respective community policies,” the companies said in a press release. “The information will be available for each company to take the appropriate action.”
