Airbnb Wrestles With House Party Problem Ahead of IPO

Chris Fling heard gunshots at around 1 a.m. two weekends ago across the street from his Tulsa, Okla., home. He had been watching dozens of young people gather earlier that evening at the house, which had been rented on Airbnb for the night. One teenager at the party had been shot in the arm, the Tulsa police said. The next day, Fling found bullet holes in a tree in his yard, and neighbors discovered bullet holes in their cars. 

Fling, 63, has stayed in Airbnb rentals himself, but that experience left him shaken. “They’ve got to do a better job of screening people,” he said. “It’s not what short-term rentals are for.”

Airbnb, on the brink of a highly anticipated initial public offering, is grappling with a rash of high-profile incidents in which customers are throwing unauthorized parties. That may complicate the recovery the company has started to see in its business in the last two months, as the incidents hurt relationships with hosts and local authorities while raising the specter of costly damage claims.