Airbnb has announced that the firm will be banning “party houses” and getting rid “of abusive host and guest conduct” following a shooting at a Halloween party in Orinda, California, in which five people were killed.
BuzzFeed News reports that the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, has announced that the company will be banning “party houses” and cracking down on “abusive host and guest conduct” following a fatal shooting at an Airbnb rental in Orinda, California, during a Halloween party.
Renters of the house in Orinda held a party with more than 100 guests despite the Airbnb host stating that parties are not permitted at the residence. During the party, five individuals were shot after gunfire broke out, the situation is still under investigation by the Contra Costa County Sherrif’s Office.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced via Twitter that the company was taking a number of measures to prevent similar tragedies, such as a ban on “party houses” and the implementation of a system that would screen for and flag “high-risk reservations.”
First, we are expanding manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 2, 2019
Chesky further added that the company will be “creating a dedicated ‘party house’ rapid response team” and added that the firm would take “immediate action against users who violated these enhanced guest policies, including removal.”
I have directed Margaret Richardson from our Executive Team to oversee this new team and initiate a 10 day sprint to review and accelerate the development and implementation of these new safety initiatives.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 2, 2019
BuzzFeed News asked Airbnb how it planned to determine which listings were “party houses.” An Airbnb representative responded: “All of this is being determined as part of the 10-day review being spearheaded by our new VP of Trust, Margaret Richardson.”
The victims of the Halloween party shooting have been identified as: Tiyon Farley, 22, of Antioch, Omar Taylor, 24, of Pittsburg, Ramon Hill Jr., 23, of San Francisco/Oakland, 29-year-old Javin County, 29, of Sausalito/Richmond, and Oshiana Tompkins, 19, of Vallejo/Hercules.
A guest at the party, named Jasmine, told BuzzFeed News: “Everything was perfectly fine, and then it just was gunshots. There wasn’t even an argument before or anything. They just started shooting out of nowhere.” She added: “I had blood all over me. Somebody next to me got shot.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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