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Comment by jeegsy | Hacker News Reader

Why ban parties across the platform?

Parties are not the problem. Damages, illegality and annoying the neighbours are what they should be trying to detect. It's a shame that people planning a small get together with friends should have to suffer because some idiots like to trash places.

For one, loud parties might upset neighbors who might coordinate politically to restrict or even ban Airbnb in their area.

Sure, but its NYE. In most neighbourhoods there are going to be parties anyway, AirBnB or no.

Many, but I wouldn't say most. There are a few generally quiet areas here where I wouldn't expect loud NYE parties, but there are houses taken over for AirBnB use (one of which is near me, and he needs to get his lock-box fixed, I've been asked about it a few times which begs another question: why do AirBnB renters think a random local walking by will be able to help them get in?!).

Probably because there’s no dedicated front desk and any random person could be the host is my guess?

I don’t know. I prefer my accommodations with a front desk, if only because I tend to check in at odd hours and it’s nice having a human available to help if there are issues.

By comparison AirBnB seems like those annoying customer service “AIs” who are always eager to let you know how much you can get accomplished on the company’s website.

It could be that they are hoping that I know the owner, assuming the owner is local (often the houses specifically setup as short-term lets are not owned by someone local though, local to the city maybe but not the street), which I can understand.

But on more than one occasion I've got a strong “you can't just leave us out here with no clue!” vibe which really makes me wonder just what else they expect me to do!

I thought about that but decided that the issue is a function of location. A cabin in the middle of nowhere is not the same as a busy block in the city. So I really didnt see the need to ban everywhere, only in certain locations. You could even rent the "party zones" at a premium that I am sure some would be willing to pay

Because the hosts sometimes don't have control over the parties.

And so the houses gets trashed and whilst insurance covers the damage it doesn't cover lost income.

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