Due to the lack of a discotheque, the parties have moved to homes, and in particular rentals, since the deconfinement. The peer-to-peer rental platform Airbnb has decided to react: it announced, Thursday, August 20, that it was going to ban the organization of any party or event in the homes offered on its site and that it was going to limit the capacity to 16 people maximum.
This ban applies to all bookings made from Thursday and until further notice, the company said in a blog post.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, “Some have chosen to transfer what they were doing in bars and nightclubs to houses, sometimes rented through our platform”, notices the group. “We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible – we don’t want to be involved in it, and anyone who engages in or authorizes this behavior has no place on our platform. “
Although hosts could so far agree to a party being organized in their home, 73% of the accommodations offered on the site already prohibited any event.
Additional measures since the pandemic
Airbnb had also imposed restrictions at the end of 2019 to limit unauthorized parties after a Halloween party that turned into a tragedy, in particular by banning houses posing as party places.
The company had also created a team to respond quickly to problems and take immediate sanctions against users who violate the new party rules.
But the group has taken additional steps with the pandemic and social distancing rules, for example removing from its filters the mention that hosts agree to hosting events or asking guests to obey locally applicable rules. .
“However, in many large jurisdictions public health rules on gatherings have changed – and in some places have swung back and forth in response to changing rates of Covid cases – as have regulations on bars. , discos and pubs ”, Airbnb notes in his post. In this context, “Decreeing a comprehensive ban on parties and events is in the best interest of public health.”
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