As convenient and groundbreaking as Airbnb is, the company faced several PR nightmares in recent years, particularly around the San Francisco area. After a killing during a party at an Airbnb property in 2019, followed by a shooting in a similar setting earlier this year, Airbnb stated publicly that it plans to crack down on reservations suspected to be made solely for parties.

In order to achieve this, Airbnb plans to test an artificial intelligence tool called Trooly, which automatically performs background checks on renters, including reviews of their social media pages, searches on blogs and reviews of any other public information about the individuals.

Based on information from its approved patent application, Trooly can identify whether someone is “involved with drugs or alcohol; hate websites or organizations; is involved in sex work; has perpetrated a crime; is involved in civil litigation; or is a fraudster or scammer,” among other criteria.

This practice would accompany their existing practices of screening hosts and guests via background checks, indicating felony or serious misdemeanor convictions and sex offender registrations.