The music was screaming, the bar was overflowing and the air was thick with weed smoke. Armed security guards, armed with long guns, monitored the scene. It was a Saturday night in February, and about 300 people were partying in a nearly 5,000-square-foot Airbnb in rural Ohio. Then the cops arrived.
As Tuscarawas County sheriff’s deputies arrived, partygoers locked the doors. Fights broke out, according to police records. Someone threw a can of Red Bull at an officer. People fled. In the chaos, a partygoer refused to cooperate and allegedly got into a car to flee and hit a deputy.
Airbnb permanently banned parties in 2022, two years after suspending them during the Covid-19 pandemic, but large-scale and often dangerous parties still plague the platform. In April 2022, at least 11 people were shot, including two teenagers who died, during a 200-person party at an Airbnb in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And in December 2022, five people were shot and one died at an Airbnb in Rochester, New York, where the group was filming a music video. Unsanctioned parties have resulted in serious injuries and deaths, damaged property and disrupted communities.
And the gatherings are stretching across the United States, far from the bright lights of party cities like Austin or New Orleans. The Ohio home, just east of the state’s Amish country, is billed as a getaway with a heated pool and room for family activities, like “games, quilting and scrapbooking.” It’s perched on a hill in a rural community of just under 100,000, equidistant from Columbus, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. There is a nature reserve, farms and a camp nearby.
Hundreds of reviews left the house with a 4.97 star rating out of 5. But, with just a few clicks, this rural idyll turned into a dangerous rage.
Party poop
As the holidays continue, Airbnb says it has stepped up its efforts to thwart them. Airbnb’s ban on parties may date back to the pandemic, but problem guests are as old as Airbnb itself. In October 2019, the problem came to a head, when a mass shooting at an Airbnb in an affluent San Francisco suburb left five people dead. Airbnb soon after announced the launch of a 24/7 “neighbor hotline,” and said it would work harder to filter out high-risk bookings and verify listings.
Airbnb now does background checks on customers in the US and India. Since June, all Airbnb Guests and Primary Hosts must undergo an identity verification process by providing a photo ID that matches their profile details. Airbnb says it may also use names, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth or social security number, and compare them to third-party databases.
These screening processes follow previous prevention measures, which included restrictions on renting to some under 25s and limiting the number of Airbnb guests to 16 (although stays accommodating more than 16 people are again authorized to do so). Airbnb’s booking software looks at a guest’s past reviews and booking history with Airbnb, the length of their trip, how far they live from the listing, and whether they want to book a weekend getaway or on a weekday to try to flag down possible partygoers. System checks on reservations are intensified during holiday weekends, the company says. Yet critics argue that parties are still happening, people are finding loopholes, and protections aren’t enough — and that strong local regulation is needed to keep people safe.
