Sorry, Gen Z. Airbnb is holding the line on its under-25s house ban, even as America emerges from lockdown — and more people are being blocked than

Airbnb's party crackdown has blocked more than 100,000 bookings

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2021-07-06 10:00:07

Sorry, Gen Z. Airbnb is holding the line on its under-25s house ban, even as America emerges from lockdown — and more people are being blocked than we knew.

Airbnb says its anti-party safety system has blocked more than 100,000 "suspicious" bookings since launching in the U.S. last July. (The Verge previously reported that the number was "above 50,000"; that estimate did not include a number of major cities listed below).

The Airbnb system prevents guests who are 24 or younger, and have fewer than three positive Airbnb reviews, from reserving entire houses near where they live. The initiative was first rolled out in Canada in 2020 after a rash of violent house parties.

"We know that people over the age of 24 are perfectly capable of booking a home for the wrong reasons, too," the online rental marketplace said in a statement last year. "But based on the positive impact this policy has had on unauthorized parties booked by guests under 25, we believe this is the right action to continue to protect the safety of our community."

Airbnb confirmed the following local data for its blocked-booking system. Los Angeles, the Land of Irresponsible Influencers, tops the list with at least 15,000 party shutdowns in the past year. Atlanta and Chicago are the next most blocked cities, with roughly 12,000 and 10,000 blocked bookings respectively.