During the pandemic, Airbnb had many issues with renters throwing large parties in homes rented for a night causing damage and a big mess for owners to deal with.
With nightclubs and bars closed, young adults used the online rental service to find nearby spaces for large parties.
This prompted Airbnb to prohibit parties from being thrown in rentals through its service with the threat to renters of being banned from the platform.
And while this reduced the number of reported incidents by 55%, it didn’t fully resolve it.
This year for Halloween, Airbnb has rolled out some high tech to combat the problem.
The company is using artificial intelligence to help flag suspicious rentals.
The algorithm will look for things like new accounts renting locations near their homes and close to holidays like Halloween when people often have parties.
Naba Banerjee, Head of Trust and Safety at Airbnb said, “While disruptive parties are rare, we want to try to reduce the risk of them even more. Our AI anti-party system is an important tool in helping us to do that, and we’re optimistic it will have a positive impact for our community and neighborhoods this Halloween.”
Using AI to spot potential misuse is becoming more and more common as the tools mature.
AI can use machine learning algorithms to analyze large amounts of data in real-time.
These systems can be trained on historical data, improving their accuracy and effectiveness.
Airbnb knows that it risks flagging and denying legitimate rentals, but the hope is that the AI tools will “learn” and improve responses over time.
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