Airbnb Uses AI Technology to Crack Down on Halloween Parties

CHARLOTTE- Halloween is just around the corner – and Airbnb is making sure nothing spooky comes their way.

The home rental company is deploying an AI-driven anti-party system to help lower the risk of disruptive parties over the holiday weekend, starting with limiting one night and two night reservations.
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Naba Banerjee is the head of trust and safety with Airbnb. She said in a press release Thursday that this will be extremely beneficial for Airbnb owners.

“To do this the system looks at many factors – hundreds in fact – that may indicate risk and try and stop those booking attempts. Some of the factors for example are the length of the trip, the distance to the listing from the booker, and if the booking was made at the last minute.”

Kristian Kammond is a professor of computer science at Northwestern University. I asked him plain and simple if he thinks this is going to prevent any type of Halloween partying what so ever?

“I think its an interesting idea,” says Hammond. “They have to make sure that there is not a bias in the system that has a bias against people based on income level, ethnicity, based on their names, there’s all these features that could participate in this. If you’re denied a rental and it turns out you were denied because of your race, then Airbnb – its not just a law suit, Airbnb is in a lot of trouble.”

We asked some people in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood what they thought of the anti – party AI.

“If I’m the owner of the home, I think it’s terrific to do everything i can to make sure people aren’t taking advantage of me, using it for one night,” says Jerry Levine.

Others think differently.

“I think its kind of sucking the fun out of it because you can come out and it not be to celebrate Halloween,” says Karl Klein. “It could be for anniversary, for a birthday, for anything. Just cause its the last weekend of Halloween you’re going to be put on a list? I think AI and machine learning has its place but I think logic also has its place too, so I think we need to keep logic in decision making.”