The “anti-party technology” Python option that Airbnb overlooked

Airbnb is deploying “anti-party technology” to prevent a growing (and expensive!) customer problem: people using them to book houses to hold large parties in. This Fast Company article provides a short — and probably not complete — list of methods Airbnb is using to prevent people who are avoiding trashing their own place by trashing someone else’s place.

None of these methods is perfect, and there’s still a chance that someone who plans to throw a party gets past their filters. They’ll need some technological solutions that can kill a party in its early stages, and I have a Python-powered solution.

With a Raspberry Pi connected to the internet and tucked safely away in the the attic or locked closet and hooked to in-wall or in-ceiling speakers, you can remotely run this simple Python script that will stop any party dead in its tracks:

# party_killer.py

import webbrowser

# Open YouTube and play Bread’s greatest hits
webbrowser.open_new_tab("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwkgjz2tpqk&t=0")

Don’t believe me? Just give this a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwkgjz2tpqk

If you’re not Airbnb but a beginning Python programmer, you just learned how to use Python to open a new browser tab to a specific web page.

Update

It took a trip down memory lane, but I found it: the skit where I got the idea that Bread’s greatest hits will kill a party. It’s the “Party Stoppers” ad from the old Seattle-based comedy show, Almost Live:

The gag about Bread starts at 1:30.