To prevent the spread of coronavirus, Airbnb has announced it will ban one-night reservations on Halloween this year in the United States and Canada to cut down on potential parties.
In a press release posted to the company’s website on Tuesday, the popular vacation rental company said it will continue to honor its commitment to halt the spread of coronavirus this holiday season. The ban on Halloween parties follows last year’s protocol and this year’s ban on July 4 parties.
“This coming Halloween 2021 weekend will mark the one-year anniversary of our initial introduction of specific anti-party restrictions ahead of major holidays in the U.S. and Canada that are traditionally associated with a party-type behavior,” it said. “For Halloween 2020, we introduced a block on all 1-night reservations for entire home listings in the U.S. and Canada.”
“Then, for the weekends of New Year’s Eve and July 4, we introduced similar measures but with exceptions for guests with histories of positive reviews, based on feedback from our Hosts,” it continued. “For these holidays we also included additional protections for certain two-night reservations.”
According to Airbnb, the company’s policy helped create “a drop in incidents such as unauthorized parties by over 49 percent for Halloween and over 51 percent for New Year’s Eve.” The policies for Halloween 2021 were illustrated as follows:
For one-night reservations: Guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb will be prohibited from making one-night reservations in entire home listings.
For two-night reservations: As Halloween approaches, we will deploy more stringent restrictions on two-night reservations that may pose heightened risk for parties. For example, we will leverage our technology that restricts certain local and last-minute bookings by guests without a history of positive reviews on Airbnb and also block reservations within an expanded radius.
Reservations will only be allowed to guests who have a history of positive reviews and who will attest that they will honor the company’s party ban or else face legal action.
This year, Airbnb asked the Biden administration if the company could help administer vaccines by enlisting certain properties to serve as “depots” for vaccine distribution.
“In the context of President Biden’s call for the United States to go on a ‘full scale war time effort’ to defeat COVID-19, we are writing you to see if Airbnb can be helpful in identifying homes that could be used as vaccine distribution sites in communities where there may be a dearth of either pharmacies or medical facilities,” Christopher Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice president for global policy and communications, wrote in a letter to the Biden administration.
Follow Paul Bois on Twitter @Paulbois39.