Airbnb’s new site lets neighbors complain about noisy guests

Airbnb is making moves to show it can be a good corporate citizen. Instead of just showing how it can build up market share in cities around the world, today it launched a site dedicated to hearing complaints from neighbors.

Those who suspect badly behaved tenants near them are renting an Airbnb property will now have a dedicated place to inform the company. The submissions can be done anonymously, or you can have your information passed along to the host. Issues that you can complain about include noise, personal safety, common spaces, or other general concerns.

What Airbnb is providing is an easier way for neighbors to file complaints about listings in their neighborhood and gain some transparency into whatever investigation transpires. Now there’s a central place to get your voice heard instead of having to tweet madly at the company or even emailing with the hopes that your beef will be seen and catalogued.

While Airbnb has no fantasies its hosts and guests will always behave perfectly, it says it wants to “help our community members be good neighbors in the places our hosts call home.” The company claimed that “complaints and issues are incredibly rare.”

The launch of this portal comes as the company moves forward with its new marketing campaign that encourages you to “live there”: Guests shouldn’t just stop in a city for a split second and leave, but should actually take it all in like a local. And that means being a good community member. To defuse local governments and its citizens putting forth potential regulations, such as what Airbnb faced in San Francisco with Proposition F, it has to show that it’s taking the needs of non-guests and non-hosts very seriously.