Airbnb using AI to prevent unauthorized parties

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Airbnb is using AI technology to prevent unauthorized parties at short term rentals this holiday weekend. 

Here in Columbus, police and city leaders have expressed concerns in the past about parties at short term rentals after violent incidents.

Airbnb is expanding its anti-party technology first launched in 2018. They are using AI to detect if a booker is trying to throw a party. The system will flag the company based on a number of things. 

“What we do is that the technology that looks at all the reviews that you've ever had as a guest, looks at where you live, looks at how long you want a book, and how large of a place you want to book and makes a determination that this looks like this might be a party request,” said Vincent Frillici, the Policy Lead for the Great Lakes for Airbnb. “Then we tell them, I'm sorry, the booking is not available. And that's done on a technological basis where they just can't finish the booking.”

Airbnb said they rolled out this expansion last fourth of July and saw a decline through the technology blocking of potential party bookings of 58%.

Over the summer, Columbus police said they planned to meet with short-term rental companies after a shooting at a short-term rental house party on the Fourth of July that left a 17-year-old boy dead. Police have still not said which rental company was in charge of the property in this incident. 

Both police and Airbnb say they have been working together and have had several meetings since the incident. 

They said what's changed is they now have better communication. Airbnb said they have a law enforcement response portal to get in touch with the company instantaneously. 

“It's former law enforcement on the phone right away with the local police saying what's going on? And we can in some situations, provide them information on the guests in those immediately to allow them to assist with their investigation on the site. And we've done training with the Columbus Police within the last year to make sure they know how to use that and how to get in touch with us,” Frillici said.

Airbnb said they are the only short-term rental platform that uses that AI technology. They say they had more than 275,000 bookings in Ohio last year.