Airbnb Bans Groups, Halloween Parties In Texas Amid Coronavirus

AUSTIN, TX — Airbnb is cracking down on parties and large gatherings at its home listings across Texas — along with banning Halloween-related, one-night reservations — to help mitigate continuing spread of the coronavirus, officials revealed on Friday.

Citing concerns about a second wave of the pandemic — and to strengthen hosts’ protection against parties — Airbnb last week announced a moratorium on one-night reservations over the Halloween weekend at its entire bank of home listings across the U.S. and Canada, officials said in an advisory. In tandem with that effort, officials added, the company announced plans to bolster existing protections and technologies aimed at stopping "...as many large gatherings as possible that weekend."

On Friday, the company shared new data related to its work combating parties across Texas. To that end, more than 500 reservations already have been canceled across the Lone Star State, officiasl said.

In the way of context, the company said a year ago they expanded the manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by its automated systems. "This technology helps us to stop parties before they start," officials noted.

Such expanded monitoring has led to the cancellation of more than 500 reservations in Texas, officials said. "Further, our restrictions on guests under the age of 25 from booking entire-home listings locally, combined with our restrictions on very last-minute bookings, have redirected nearly 40,000 guests to private room listings or hotel rooms throughout the state to date."

The move follows Airbnb's recent actions to suspend or remove more than 80 listings across Texas that received complaints or otherwise violated policies on parties and events, officials said.

To learn more about this update and efforts to stop parties, visit the company's Airbnb Newsroom portal.