Airbnb to crackdown on “party houses” following Halloween murders

Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO revealed the company will act to enforce its ban on “party houses” after five people were shot dead at a Halloween party in San Francisco.

Brian Chesky said in a series of tweets that the company would up its efforts to “combat unauthorised parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda”.

“What happened on Thursday night in Orinda, CA was horrible. I feel for the families and neighbours impacted by this tragedy – we are working to support them,” Chesky said.

The CEO of the home-sharing giant said the company would expand manual screening of “high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology”, create a dedicated “party house” rapid response team and engage in immediate action against users who violate these new policies.

Chesky said Margaret Richardson from the company’s executive team would be overseeing the new team and “initiate a 10-day sprint to review and accelerate the development and implementation of these new safety initiatives”.

“We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” he said.

We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 2, 2019

The crackdown came in response to the deaths of five people who were shot during a Halloween party held in an Airbnb property in Orinda, San Francisco.

ABC News reported the woman who rented the house told the Airbnb host she was renting so her asthmatic family could escape wildfire smoke, but the owner became suspicious of a one-night rental on Halloween and reminded the woman of the no parties rule.

More than 100 people reportedly were attending the party when the shooting occurred.

No arrests have been made at this stage of the investigation.

Travel Weekly has approached Airbnb for comment.

Featured image source: Mike Segar: Reuters

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