WASHINGTON, Nov 3: Online real estate rental service Airbnb will be banning “party houses” and increasing scrutiny of reservations following a shooting that killed five people at a party on Thursday in northern California’s Orinda, CEO and Co-founder Brian Chesky said Saturday.
In a series of tweets, Brian Chesky said on Saturday that the San Francisco-based company would expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations and remove guests who fail to comply with policies banning parties at Airbnb rental homes.
He also said the company is forming a “rapid response team” when complaints of unauthorised parties come in.
“We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable,” he tweeted.
Five people died after a Thursday-night shooting that sent some 100 terrified partygoers running for their lives in the San Francisco suburb of Orinda.
Chesky described three steps which the company has decided to take, including expanding screening of so-called high risk reservations, creating a rapid response team to uproot party houses and taking immediate action against violators.
The move comes after a deadly shooting took place at a large Halloween party in a northern California property rented via Airbnb. Local broadcaster KTVU cited sources as saying the woman who rented the house falsely claimed that she wished to temporarily move her family away from forest fires raging in the south of the state, instead throwing a party that reportedly attracted more than a hundred people.
Police had not identified or arrested any suspects, San Francisco Chronicle quoted local police chief David Cook as saying.
(UNI)
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