Vrbo cracks down on parties

The Future. Online short-term rental platform Vrbo is cracking down on parties ahead of the Super Bowl with ‘anti-party tech.’ After Airbnb codified its anti-party ban last year, it seems that rental platform marketplaces are washing their hands of parties once and for all. But must the party go on? With Vrbo and Airbnb out, this may open up a space in the market for a new, party-focused platform to emerge — if they can crack the code.

Shut it down
Vrbo wants to press pause on Super Bowl parties.

• This week, the company announced the national rollout of its ‘event prevention’ technology that identifies potentially disruptive parties.
• The tech has already been implemented for 12 months in its pilot phase and stopped ~500 unauthorized event bookings, saving Vrbo hosts over $2 million in party-related damages.
• Vrbo has also implemented several other measures to ensure hosts are ready for the flood of visitors who will be traveling to Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

Peace and quiet

Vrbo isn’t the first rental marketplace to enforce a no-party and event ban. Last year, Airbnb officially codified its party ban, prohibiting “disruptive parties and events, including open-invite gatherings.”

The enforcement of this policy has been ensured by Airbnb through special holiday anti-party measures, a 24-hour safety line, a Neighborhood Support line, and even a partnership with Vrbo to share information on repeat “party house” offenders in the US. They’re not playing around.