Parties in Victoria - Melbourne

Important: short-term rentals are being used for parties

Dear Partner,

We’re writing to let you know that there’s been an increase in problems reported with short-term rental properties in Victoria, Australia.

Specifically, we’re seeing a trend of people making bookings with the intention of hosting a party, sometimes using a stolen credit card and ID. In other cases, legitimate bookings are hijacked and then advertised as parties through social media.

The Victoria Police are especially concerned with these issues because of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and the health directives issued by Victoria’s Chief Health Officer. For this reason, any bookings that violate these directives will be investigated by the police, and property owners accepting them will be issued with Penalty Infringement Notices.

What can I do? You should always keep a record of everyone staying at your property, including their names and contact details. Make sure you get proof of identification for anyone booking your property, either directly or through the agent meeting the person responsible for the booking. You may also want to consider hiring overnight security for your property, or otherwise arrange to be able to get there within 30 minutes if an issue is reported.

If you have any suspicions about a booking, contact the Victoria Police Monitoring and Assessment Centre at (03) 9247 5553. If it’s an emergency or you feel unsafe, then call 000 immediately so the nearest police unit can be directed to you.

Kind regards, Your Booking.com team

We have house rules that state NO parties. Has always been the case. 

We have never had this problem -  AirBNB had this problem.