If you’re planning to book a home for a summer party, Airbnb is warning you – look elsewhere.

The company is touting the tech solutions that Airbnb says prevented more than 500 people from booking a home in Alabama for a party last year.

The platform, which allows users to rent out homes and rooms, and which allows others to book stays on the properties, has proprietary anti-party technology, which it is rolling out for Memorial Day and Independence Day for the fourth consecutive year..

The anti-party defenses active over these summer holidays use machine learning to help prevent potentially higher-risk bookings of entire home listings from being made,and help enforce Airbnb’s global party ban.

Guests attempting to book will either be blocked from doing so, or redirected to alternative accommodations on the platform, Airbnb says.

How does it work?

The system looks at the type of listing being booked, the duration of the stay, the distance to the listing from the guest’s primary location and whether the booking is last minute, among other factors.

In fact, the San Francisco-based company said its software kept about 51,000 people in the U.S. from booking house parties last year.

In Birmingham, about 130 bookings were prevented during both Memorial Day and the Fourth of July weekend.

A booking in Birmingham, on March 3, 2024, resulted in the death of 21-year-old Phong “Timmy” Nguyen. According to police, the shooting happened at a short-term rental Airbnb that was being used for a party or gathering.

Court records say Nguyen was killed during a theft of cash and a gun. Two people were charged in connection with the killing.

According to Airbnb, parties are extremely rare on the platform. In 2024, 0.12% of reservations in Birmingham resulted in an allegation of a party.

As a result of its measures, the company says it has seen a 54% decrease in the rate of party reports in Birmingham over the last five years.