With Airbnb becoming more and more mainstream, user profiles is changing a lot on the short-term platform leader. The souvenir of every guest taking care your property like his own is day by day further. Home owners and property managers are facing now new type of dangers.
Among them, Project X parties like became the worse nightmare of many Airbnb hosts and property managers but also of the Airbnb insurance. Internet is full of horror stories of lovely house transformed into trash after a guest decided to hold a party. This problem became quickly the number one issue for Airbnb after a fight and shooting left 5 people dead in a Californian property in November 2019. Airbnb since officially banned unauthorized house parties.
You will probably not bother much until it happens to you… We all started our Airbnb business with a bit naivety, focus on providing the best experience for our guests and we liked to think that guests will be always respectful and honest. This until you experience your own first horror story.
I was in this case too, since my first trash house drama, I have learnt and work on new way of screening guests, questions to asks etc. in order to prevent as much as possible such incidents.
TOP 5 of Anti-Airbnb party advises
Tip #1: Fill your house rules
The house rules function, is your first tool to defend your lovely property to get trashed by an Airbnb party. The number one short-term rental platform requires every guest to read and accept your house rules. They even have a pre-selected for you the “no party or event”.
Tip #2: Add additional rules
Right in the additional rules section of the house rules, don’t hesitate to reinforce that rule using a strict language to emphasize that this rule can not be negotiated.
Example:
“Respect our neighbors. Absolutely no noise after 10pm, Any violators will be asked to leave on the spot, without exception!”
What we want to accomplish here is to lower at the maximum the risk that your guest will transform your into a party house. Of course, writing the golden rule in this section won’t prevent 100% a party to happen. But the house rules is the most important section. What you write here stands for accepted by the guest if he confirms his booking.
Tip #3: Mention in your Listing description
I know, you have already mentioned it in the house rule and the additional rules… Well, do you always read the terms and conditions of your last purchase?
Add a line into the description of your listing to make sure get more chance that party crashers are aware of your “no party” policy. As this recommendation could look “a bit too much”, I would advice only to hosts having a high-risk of house party.
Example of listing description reminder:
“Who we host? Engineers, families, couples, job seekers, business travelers, world travelers and everybody who’s looking for a comfortable and quiet place to stay. Our neighbors are light sleepers and would not tolerate any party”
Tip #4: Know your guest better
Airbnb always promote the communication between the guest and the host. Guests are usually kind to answers few questions about themselves. This is less the case on other STR platforms such Booking.com or Agoda for example. You could easily screen guests asking a few questions, see if you can detect any red flag in their answers.
- Why are you coming to town?
- What are your plans?
- How many people will be staying?
- Do you plan on having any guests over while you’re staying here?
Another thing you could ask to your guests is the copy of their passport/ID of every guest staying at your place. Guests who provided their ID don’t feel anonymous anymore and tend to respect your property more.
Anybody who will book an hotel room will be asked to provide an ID. Why not at an Airbnb listing?
Tip #5: Remind the suspected party crasher
Did you detect any red flags regarding a potential party disaster in your last booking? Alright, don’t panic, it is time to use your best weapon: communication. In the party prevention process, this step usually follows the advice #4. You have asked few questions to your guests and you have a feeling that something is not right.
Go on and
- Kindly remind him that your property has a strictly “no party policy”.
- Emphasize that you are living next door (this works pretty well), or that your neighbor is very sensitive and he never hesitate to call the police at any sign of party.
Your property is isolated? You want to make sure to keep the control of your property? Additionally, to all the advises above. I have selected a few devices that could help you to prevent your house to become a party venue.
BONUS TIP #6: Use some tools against parties
Few tools around to prevent party crashers to invade your property. In my personal opinion, the most effective tools to avoid your house being trashed by an Airbnb party is the combination of a noise detector + device detector.
- Partysquasher, My personal favorite. This device detects possible party counting mobile devices within a range, even if they aren’t connected to your Wi-Fi network.
- NoiseAware, Noise detector with app. Ideal for homeowners and property managers.
- Here are the official Airbnb device recommendations. You will find NoiseAware which I presented above.
- Parakeet (mainly for US hosts), sounds sensor detector and more. This sounds detector will alert you as soon as the recorded noise level become suspicious.
- Safely (mainly for US hosts), it is a guest screening software. Checking profile, criminal records and allocating a “Safely Score” for each reservation.