Shutterstock
Saturday, July 1, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Airbnb in Las Vegas
More than 330,000 people are expected to visit Las Vegas this Fourth of July weekend, a nearly 5.5% increase from last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Many of those visitors will take advantage of the resort corridor’s abundance of hotel rooms. Others will opt for short-term rentals like Airbnb.
And, in anticipation of the busy holiday weekend, Airbnb has instituted anti-party measures it hopes will ensure safety at its properties.
“For us, holiday weekends are really a highlight with so many people traveling to see their friends and family around the world, and particularly across the United States,” Christopher Nulty, director of global corporate communications at Airbnb, said during a news conference Thursday. “But they’re also weekends that we take really seriously, as you can imagine.”
The anti-party system identifies potentially high-risk attempts by guests to book one or two nights of an entire home, and prevents the booking from going through. A guest’s account, their review history, distance to the listing and whether the booking attempt is last-minute are a few factors that could be considered high-risk, according to Airbnb.
Guests who do manage to book successfully must acknowledge Airbnb’s ban on parties. Failure to comply could lead to suspension or removal of the guest from the company’s platform, Nulty said.
The neighborhoods and communities in which Airbnb operates are as important to the platform as the guests and hosts who use it, said Nulty, who emphasized that only .039% of Airbnb’s reservations — with more people than the population of Los Angeles staying in one of the short-term rentals every night — result in a party incident.
“One of the things that makes Airbnb different and special is that you’re staying in a neighborhood,” Nulty said. “You’re staying close to locally owned businesses. You’re staying in the places that make that city so special.”
Since instituting a global party ban in 2020, Airbnb has seen a 55% year-over-year decrease in the rate of party reports, it said. The short-term rental company first piloted its anti-party measures over the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends last summer, and Airbnb is confident they are working, Nulty said.
“At Airbnb, we’re really committed to helping our hosts promote responsible travel in their neighborhoods,” Nulty said. “We’re committed to working with cities and governments across the United States and around the world. And we’re committed to reducing the risk of disruptive parties.”
Other efforts to prevent partying, not just on holidays but year-round, include a 24-hour safety line for hosts and guests, free noise-sensors for hosts to detect parties and a support line for concerned neighbors of Airbnbs.
“We developed that neighborhood support line because we want people to reach out to us when something problematic is happening in their neighborhood,” he said. “Because, fundamentally, at the end of the day, that’s not good for us. It’s not good for that neighborhood, and it certainly is not good for the neighbors.”
The company also partners with local law enforcement entities to investigate incidents of parties, Nulty said.
In an emailed statement to the Sun, Metro Police said it proactively performs area checks on short-term rental locations throughout the year.Metro didn’t detail specifics.
“We identify these locations based on previous police response to disturbances,” Metro said in the statement. “We work with citizens who live in these neighborhoods, advising them to call police when they become aware of any disturbances. Our goal is to provide awareness and education while keeping our community safe.”
According to the city of Las Vegas, weddings, birthday parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties or other types of special events are not allowed at short-term or vacation rentals. Property owners and tenants are expected to comply with noise, parking, capacity and other ordinances.
The practice of using personal homes for commercial lodging was legalized by Nevada in 2021, reversing a ban on short-term rentals in unincorporated Clark County.
