Some residents have had enough. “There’s broken bottles, garbage lying around, people coming and going all drunk,” says David Ewing, who is moving out of the building after five years. “This isn’t a residence, it’s a nightclub,” Ewing says. “I can’t even compare when I first moved here to the hell it has descended into during the Covid crisis.”
In Palm Beach County Florida, and in New Jersey, contact tracers have tracked positive cases of Covid-19 back to forbidden short-term rental parties. “This is the kind of problem that has kept us from making progress,” says David Eisenman, director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Public Health and Disasters. Holidays like Memorial Day and July 4th coincided with spikes of Covid-19, he says. “I expect we’ll see that again on Halloween.”
Airbnb hopes not. In early October, it banned one-night reservations over Halloween and said previously booked reservations would also be canceled at Airbnb’s expense. “In the midst of a generational crisis, all of us have a role to play in protecting public health and slowing the spread of Covid-19,” the company said earlier this month.
Airbnb’s efforts haven’t deterred party promoters like Davante Bell. In July, Bell planned the “100 Summers Mansion Party” in Glendora, California. The home was listed on Airbnb, Vrbo and vacationrenter.com, according to a city council report, and promoted on Eventbrite, offering pre-sale tickets, live DJs and bottle service. Around 200 people turned up. It took police more than an hour to kick them out. Bell walked away with a $1,900 fine — easily covered by the profits he made that night. He was also banned from ever using Airbnb again.
But Bell had big plans for Halloween: He listed “Nightmare on King Bell Street Halloween Mansion Party” on Eventbrite, offering bottle service, a $1,500 prize for best costume and tickets from $25 to $100. The party was bound to be a real life nightmare for the neighbors — and for whatever short-term rental platform it was booked on.
Eventbrite took down the listing after this article was published and offered refunds to people who had bought tickets since the party violated its guidelines against "events that promote or contain illegal behavior."
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This article was provided by Bloomberg News.