Airbnb’s Party Ban and the Challenge of Neighborhood Crime Control

Illustration via Airbnb.org

In the last couple of years, there has been episodic reporting of serious criminal events occurring at Airbnb-listed properties. In 2020, Airbnb responded to concerns with the announcement of a  temporary ban on the use of its property listings as “chronic party houses” or for “open-invite” gatherings.

“Chronic party-houses had developed into neighborhood nuisances,” the company acknowledged.

In June, 2022, it decided to make the ban permanent.

The decision was prodded in part by a mass shooting in a Pittsburgh rental property that left two people dead and nine injured.  But it also reflected the company’s assessment of the policy as a “public health measure” taken during the pandemic that “developed into a bedrock community policy to support our Hosts and their neighbors.”

Editor’s Note: The company’s statement said over 6,600 guests were suspended globally from Airbnb in 2021 “for attempting to violate our party ban.”

For many residents of communities where there are Airbnb properties, the policy was long overdue. It was also good news for local authorities and law enforcement.

The business model of Airbnb and similar operations depends on connecting individual hosts and travelers with short-term property use outside traditional neighborhood oversight and regulation.

Historically, local governmental entities maintained such oversight through the review and approval process of buildings codes and uses.

The need for Airbnb’s policy change is easily understood when we consider what hospitality services such as short-term lodging accommodations do to a neighborhood.  They introduce a population that is transient by its very nature, and as such can be inherently destabilizing when it comes to localized, informal social control.

Urban planners and government officials are hard-pressed to maintain oversight over public safety in those situations.  Law enforcement agencies must properly and efficiently deploy patrol services in order to strengthen those urban areas where there are weaker forms of neighborhood social control.

Control over the forms and nature of everyday activities across geographical spaces has long been an understood way of engaging in crime control.

Ever since Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson’s introduction of Routine Activities Theory to criminology, law enforcement professionals and local government officials have recognized the intimate link between the nature and location of everyday activities and patterns in crime across geographical spaces.

This understanding is one of many reasons why local governments engage in zoning practices related to where one can build, and how one can use their property.

Such practices restrict and confine the nature of everyday activities to specific geographical places within a city.

Some may think the variations in building codes across areas is only a means to maximize city coffers by dictating the purposes and permissions for land use. But it is also a tool for overseeing and maintaining public safety.

This is why we see commerce activities located in some areas of town and residential activities located in others.

The new economic opportunities and savings realized by owners and travelers utilizing Airbnb’s services has been explosive. In 2021, an estimated  44 million Americans made use of an Airbnb rental rather than a traditional hotel accommodation.

Furthermore, nearly 20 percent of travelers today have made use of an Airbnb rental. What makes Airbnb listings potentially criminogenic is their facilitation of activities in neighborhoods that were never designed for such activities.

They claim that the self-imposed ban on the use of Airbnb listings for parties and other social events has reduced reports of party use by 44 percent.  Making the ban permanent is the proper policy approach to limiting Airbnb’s encroachment on neighborhood public safety risks.

Still, some may ask whether the digital platforms that offer such services outside of traditional local oversight should exist at all. Research is slowly emerging showing a mixed bag of results regarding the relationship between Airbnb or VRBO listings and local crime rates.

A 2021 study found a relationship between the density of Airbnb listings and neighborhood crime. However, that study was limited to one city, Boston.

Additionally, an earlier study in 2019, with a broader base of coverage also found a link between Airbnb listings and crime, yet it noted the relationship was limited to “type” of Airbnb listing, not simply density of listings alone.

The jury is therefore still out about the criminogenic effects of an Airbnb listing on neighborhood public safety. What these studies do suggest is that neighborhood characteristics still play a more determining factor on area crimes rates.

Kent Bausman

Presently, Airbnb listings seem to exacerbate the problems of neighborhoods already weak in local, informal social control, and they may introduce new ones to those that are not.

Regardless, the formal ban by Airbnb to prohibit the use of property listings for parties and the like is a step in the right direction.

It gives neighborhood residents a semblance of control over the activities taking place next door.

Kent Bausman, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at Maryville University and contributing faculty member of its Online Sociology Program” His research work has contributed to reform efforts in improving the Missouri public defender system.