Airbnb clampdown on young renters of party houses - but not yet in UK

Airbnb is reported to have banned under-25s in Canada from booking whole properties in their local areas to prevent potentially-violent house properties.

A Toronto Airbnb property was last week the scene of a triple murder, while in Ottawa in January one person was killed at an Airbnb property; this follows a pledge made shortly before the end of last year when the platform said it would introduce a ban on party houses being advertised, after an incident in California left five people dead.

Earlier this year Airbnb said it would invest $150m to bolster safety measures including 24-hour hotlines for complaints, noise detectors, and a listing-by-listing check on properties. 

Toronto mayor John Taylor has praised the new Airbnb measures which would bring about a “significant contribution to cutting down... dangerous activities” - although he would like even stiffer measures. 

Airbnb senior vice president Chris Lehane has told journalists: "We have a 0.3 per cent incident rate across our platform when it comes to issues involving property damage and a 0.6 per cent incident rate when it involves personal security issues. Those numbers get higher when you're looking at... reservations made by people under 25... within the community they live in.”

Airbnb and similar short let platforms have been under intense scrutiny in recent months, not only for anti-social behaviour and violence associated with some incidents, but also in  the UK in regard to the sector’s impact on long-term rental availability in major cities.