Airbnb is tapping other rental services starting with Vrbo to join on banning properties that field repeated complaints from neighbors

Airbnb and Vrbo are teaming up in a new crackdown on party house listings on their platforms.
Both companies will have access to information about party houses banned from either site.
News of the collaboration comes weeks after Airbnb extended its party ban through the end of summer.
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Airbnb and Vrbo are teaming up to to crack down harder on party houses listed on their platforms, according to a press release issued Friday.

Known as the Community Integrity Program, the collaboration will allow the vacation rental platforms to share information about listings that consistently serve as party houses. The goal is to stop party houses banned from one platform from simply hopping over to the other.

With help from a third party, the companies will create a process to identify listings that repeatedly violated community policies and were consequently booted from either platform. Airbnb and Vrbo can then use their pooled information on these listings to "take the appropriate action," the press release says.

The companies are calling for other short-term rental marketplaces to join their effort as well.

"Industry collaboration is an important step in narrowing enforcement gaps and prioritizing the safety of the communities in which we all operate," the press release reads. "Neighbors don't care if a party house is getting its reservations through any particular platform - they just want the parties to stop. That's why one platform alone can't solve this problem - it requires an industry-wide effort."

The program will launch in the US in the coming months, according to the press release.

Airbnb says it will release more details on the program soon.

Individually, each company has already taken some steps to keep parties from happening at its rentals. Vrbo allows neighbors to file complaints regarding "nuisance issues" through an initiative called Stay Neighborly.

Airbnb banned party houses in late 2019 after five people were killed in a shooting at a California rental's Halloween party. In August 2020, the company implemented a global ban on all parties and events in its rentals and set an occupancy limit of 16 people for all listings. Last month, Airbnb announced this ban has been extended through the end of the summer.

Airbnb has also announced that guests without a history of positive reviews won't be able to reserve US homes for one night for the Fourth of July weekend.

Uber and Lyft have also collaborated on their own effort to share information with each other. The companies said in March that they will pool information on drivers and delivery people deactivated for serious safety incidents, including sexual assault and physical assaults that resulted in death.

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