If you've been kicking around ideas for how you want to celebrate New Year's Eve, you can take "renting an Airbnb with friends for one night" right off the table.
The home rental service is once again banning entire-home, one-night bookings for guests who don't already have a history of positive reviews. Airbnb is also banning first-time renters from renting a house for a night's long shindig.
In addition to the U.S., Airbnb's one-night booking ban will again be in force for New Year's Eve weekend in seven other countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K. 2022 also marks the first time Airbnb plans to enforce the ban in Ireland, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
On top of restricting one-night bookings, Airbnb is cracking down on the customers who opt for two-and three-night bookings as a loophole, launching reservation screening, and supplying hosts with free noise sensors. The tighter restrictions for end-of-year celebrations began after a 2019 party at a California rental resulted in a death. Airbnb says its policies contributed to a 56% decline in New Year's Eve party incident rates at its rentals.