CHARLOTTE — Airbnb is continuing its crackdown on people using rental houses as one-night party destinations, and that means you might have tough luck if you’re trying to find a booking for Halloween.
It’s one of the biggest party nights of the year, and Airbnb says it’s using artificial intelligence to block “certain one-night and two-night reservations over Halloween.”
It’s happening in North Carolina, and across the United States, according to Airbnb.
The company says it’s looking for“bookings identified as potentially higher-risk,” but it didn’t say any people, specifically, are being targeted. According to Airbnb, the company’s technology “looks at hundreds of signals relating to the booking attempt ... including length of the trip, the distance to the listing, and whether the booking is last-minute.”
Airbnb says it’s trying to “reduce the risk of disruptive and unauthorized parties over the holiday weekend.”
Channel 9 has reported on issues with Airbnb parties in the past. Back in February 2022, two men were arrested after a shooting at an Airbnb party in north Charlotte, and another shooting at an Airbnb pool party in Indian Trail left one person dead in 2020.
Since then, Airbnb has been cracking down on parties at its available homes. According to the company, there was a 55% decrease in reports of parties over two years.
The company says that last Halloween, it blocked about 5,400 people in North Carolina from booking an entire home.
(WATCH: NC Airbnb property threatened $10,000 fee for negative review)
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