Airbnb party ban: BNB Made Easy's Tim Mortimer says Orange house parties a non-issue

The online homestays company whacked a temporary bar on "all parties and events at Airbnb listings" in August of 2020, capping guests limits at no more than 16 people "until further notice".

This enforcement was mainly to curb large gatherings during the pandemic, and to deter festivities being thrown throughout lockdown periods - particularly while pubs and clubs were forced to temporarily stop operating.

Managing director of Orange's BNB Made Easy, Tim Mortimer says Airbnb's codified rule last week, though, won't exactly make much of an impact to the city - with scarce to no rager-related incidents on record so far.

"Luckily, in Orange, we don't really experience house party issues anyway," Mr Mortimer said.

"Orange is not a party city and we have barely even had an issue due to BNB Made Easy already imposing a party ban and "# of guests" cap in place, as part of our policy and agreed house rules."

Over the past 12 months, data through AirDNA shows 333 active short-term rental properties available for the Orange area, with 92 per cent of these stays offering "entire home rentals."

While analytics also show an increase in business, Mr Mortimer describes Airbnb's global-scale party ban, as understandable - saying how "some wild parties which got out of hand in America" were a big underlying factor for the now-permanent rule.

In November of 2019, five fatalities occurred after a shooting went down at a Californian Airbnb rental space, with the tragic event being what first ignited a "party houses" ban.

Following the peak of COVID-19 and restriction requirements, that's when Airbnb brought in the August 2020 party ban, kicking things up another notch.

In April of this year, however, 90-odd rounds were fired at an Airbnb listing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which ended in another deadly shooting incident.

At the massive party, holding estimates of some 200 attenders, two 17-year-olds were killed - with this next tragedy also wounding eight others by gunfire, and injuring another five people.

With all of these factors at play, this has lead to why the accommodation platform has had to pull permanent rank.

"Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure [and] it developed into a bedrock, community policy to support our hosts and their neighbors - moreover, it's been working," the company said on the Airbnb website.

"We believe there is a direct correlation between our implementation of the policy in August [of] 2020 and a 44 per cent year-over-year drop in the rate of party reports.

"The ban has been well-received by our host community and we've received positive feedback from community leaders and elected officials. As we build on this momentum, we believe the time is right to codify this policy."

For NSW, code of conduct rulings under the state's short-term rental code, also places additional accountability on guests.

What this means, is that any house rules that are broken and then reported, could also block people from using the Airbnb platform completely.

While there's no doubt the latest ban serves as another added safeguard - and peace of mind for any Orange-based hosts - thankfully, Mr Mortimer says, wild party-throwing remains a very low-level issue in the city.

"The Airbnb party ban won't change much in Orange, except give homeowners more comfort in deciding to place their properties on Airbnb," he said.

"And perhaps, deter some guests in the first place."

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