[imagesource: Chris Clinton/Getty]

Airbnb rentals are back up and running under alert level 2 in South Africa.

The lifting of restrictions on interprovincial travel also means that the affordable alternative to accommodation in guesthouses or hotels will once again be an option for those travelling across the country.

While it’s a great way for property owners to make money if they aren’t keen on long-term rentals, it’s also a tricky business to regulate.

In many ways, using the service necessitates that you rely on the good intentions of your guests.

Under the current alert level, you aren’t allowed to host gatherings of more than 10 people.

When alert level 1 kicks in, the South African government website says that all public gatherings will be permitted. For now (regulations can change), that should remove the limit on the number of people that can party in one place.

According to 9NEWS, even before the pandemic, Airbnb was having issues with an increase of users renting short-term stays to host parties in various countries, some of whom left those properties wrecked, landing owners with massive cleaning-up bills.

To remedy this, it’s introducing new technology that will screen what the platform calls “high-risk and suspicious” reservations that “combine a number of data points including stay duration, same-city bookings, group size and listing size”.

Following a pilot test in Australia, Airbnb says that it prevented 1 400 “high risk” bookings.

At the moment, in South Africa, it is up to the host of a home-sharing venue to ensure that they are compliant with the sanitation and social distancing regulations – something that this new technology would make a lot easier.

You’ll find the new rules for the hospitality industry here.

And, please, if you’re planning on renting a property, don’t throw a massive party.

As we’ve mentioned before, a lower alert level doesn’t mean that we’ve beaten the virus just yet.

[source:9news]