At first glance, this new policy seems civil but there are a few flaws in it

Say goodbye to the good days of renting an Airbnb house, pissing off the cat-lady neighbor peaking through her blinds and then leaving the next morning without any evidence of public nuisance. Life was good. But that’s changing for the mercurial nomad searching for a cheap rental.

Head of Airbnb Japan, Yasuyuki Tanabe, revealed last week that the rental company is launching a feedback tool for neighbors to comment or complain about the renters in order to stop “party houses.”

“One of the most important issues facing the sharing economy is how the people choosing to take part in it co-exist with those that aren’t,” Tanabe said at the public forum. “Our first step in this direction is to give neighbors the opportunity to comment or complain.”

Great. There go our plans for staff initiation week. The new program allows neighbors to enter comments in an online form. That feedback will then go to Airbnb’s customer-support team, which will then take any necessary actions. It’s unclear if the information will be released publicly or if the identities of neighbors will be disclosed.

“Most Airbnb hosts are sharing the home they live in and we give them tools they need to only welcome respectful travelers. If issues do arise, we work with our community to try and resolve them,” the spokesperson told The Verge. “In the next month we are planning to start offering a new feature on our website that will enable neighbors to register a complaint directly to our customer service team for follow up. We will have more details when we formally launch the product in the coming weeks.”

At first glance, this new policy seems civil. And sure it helps to smooth over the HOA and apartment complexes for business purposes but there are flaws. Neighbors aren’t always the most credible individuals. We’ve all met the neighbor who complains that the dishwasher is too loud or our footsteps wake them in the middle of the night. A customer service support department is a start but how many complaints can you truly accept as credible when you’re renting around the world? We don’t see it happening.