Airbnb suspends almost 500 Aussie listings in party house purge

Airbnb has suspended more than 400 listings across Australia as part of its latest crackdown on party houses.

The homesharing platform said in a statement that the listings had been nixed for violating Airbnb policies on parties and events or for having received a number of complaints.

In August, Airbnb introduced an indefinite ban on all parties and events at its listings as well as an occupancy cap.

Derek Nolan, Airbnb’s head of public policy for Australia, said the actions address the very small minority of hosts who have previously received warnings about hosting responsibilities or have otherwise violated policies.

“The overwhelming majority of hosts and guests are good neighbours and respectful travellers and we thank them for doing their part to help grow tourism in a way that benefits everyone,” he said.

“However, our message to everyone who uses Airbnb could not be clearer; bad behaviour has no place on Airbnb and those who willfully fail to adhere to our policies face removal from our platform.”

Nolan said the platform is “extremely serious” about its community standards.

“We continue to work collaboratively with both police and governments to help deliver positive outcomes and we remain focused on continually improving our systems and exploring new ways to keep people safe.”

The platform’s hardline stance on “party houses” – listings that create persistent neighbourhood nuisance, according to the company – was sparked by a tragic shooting incident at a Halloween party held in an Airbnb property in Orinda, San Francisco last year.

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