Calls to crash teen parties at rentals
WILD teenage parties have sparked calls for a crackdown on online short-term rental platforms.
A former cop turned party security guard has spoken out after a mass stabbing this year in Melbourne, where multiple teens were injured at a party held in a short-stay Spencer St apartment.
U-Nome Security founder Naomi Oakley said she knew some shortstay rentals were “turning a blind eye” to parties.
“People are getting hurt and in some cases, people are dying,” she said. “There’s no real controls.”
A police spokesman said most bookings didn’t cause issues but “there are occasions where individuals make bookings with the intention of hosting a party or causing trouble”.
Short-stay rental website Stayz, agrees and wants a registration scheme, an industry body to oversee breaches and a strikes-based system.
Corporate affairs director Eacham Curry said the vast majority of their users were well-behaved but there had been “a number of reported instances of anti-social behaviour” and the incidents “tar the entire industry”.
Airbnb said it had a pandemic-induced global party ban.