Airbnb bans hosts from assigning guests cleaning chores at checkout
From November 20, Airbnb hosts will no longer be allowed to require guests to wash dishes, strip beds or take trash off the property. For owners of short-term rental apartments, this means a new cleaning cost equation.
In the second half of October, Airbnb announced new rules regarding house rules. Fortune gives the date as October 20, Euronews as October 21. The changes will apply to bookings made worldwide from November 20, 2026. Hosts will not be allowed to require guests to perform tasks that are usually done by a cleaning crew. This includes washing and putting away dishes, stripping beds, and taking trash off the property.
According to Airbnb materials for hosts, it will still be possible to ask for lighter tasks: leaving dishes in the sink, gathering towels, sorting trash, or turning off the air conditioning. There will be seven binding rules. They concern the number of guests, quiet hours, parties, pets, smoking, commercial photos and recordings, and locking up the home at checkout. Everything else becomes a request that the guest does not have to comply with. Hosts will also not be allowed to impose their own financial penalties. Repeated violations may lead to warnings and a lower position for the listing in search results.
The platform does not limit the amount of the cleaning fee. According to AirROI data cited by the BBC, it is charged by 63.2 percent of listings, averaging £55. British hosts interviewed by the BBC are worried about higher costs. Lisa Clewes from Wales says that preparing her three-bedroom house for the next booking usually takes the cleaners four hours. She fears that more mess left by guests will require additional cleaning staff. Anthony Marsh from North Yorkshire will reduce the number of his Airbnb cottages from five to two. Some hosts support the change. Matt Prosz, who runs a London community of about 3,000 hosts, believes guests will still take care of the properties because both sides rate each other. Fortune reports that a petition against the changes collected more than 10,000 signatures.
Individuals and small businesses renting through Airbnb have until November 20 to recalculate cleaning costs and rewrite checkout instructions. The issue also shows how a change in the rules of a single platform directly affects the costs of its users. According to the BBC, some owners, also discouraged by last year's increase in Airbnb commission fees, are investing in their own websites and social media to attract direct bookings.