Airbnb limits chores hosts can require of guests

Airbnb is barring hosts from requiring guests to strip beds, wash dishes or take trash off-site under new rules that have drawn objections from some property owners. The company says guests should not have to spend significant time cleaning a rental before they leave.

The rules apply to reservations booked on or after Nov. 20, according to CBS News. NBC News described them as starting with rentals on Nov. 20. Airbnb says hosts’ house rules must be reasonable and cannot require tasks that would typically be performed by a cleaner.

That leaves room for smaller requests. Hosts may ask guests to put used dishes in the sink, but not to wash and put them away. They may ask guests to separate trash from recycling, but not to carry garbage to an off-site facility. Stripping beds and starting a load of laundry are also among the tasks hosts cannot require, CBS News reported.

“When adding a request, remember that most guests want to avoid unexpected chores,” Airbnb said on its website, according to CBS News. The company said the tasks could prompt negative reviews that ultimately hurt hosts. Repeated violations could lead Airbnb to reduce a listing’s visibility or place a notice about the violation on the listing page, CBS News reported.

The changes have prompted a petition asking Airbnb to reverse course. More than 5,000 people had signed it, according to CBS News. The petition calls the policy “unreasonable” and argues that requiring cleaners to do more work could raise hosts’ expenses, potentially leading to higher prices for guests.

“These are not professional cleaning duties,” the petition says. “They are ordinary aspects of living responsibly in somebody else’s property.”

Airbnb bookings have long included cleaning fees, but the company previously had no universal policy on which chores hosts could require of guests, NBC News reported. The company says the new guidelines are intended to “set clear expectations.”

Travel industry expert Clint Henderson told NBC News that complaints about hosts’ demands had been increasing for years. “The complaints have been really ramping up lately with owners asking guests to do the most ridiculous things, like stripping beds, washing dishes, doing all the laundry and taking the trash out,” said Henderson, managing editor and spokesperson for The Points Guy. He said such demands could make travelers question why they should choose a rental over a hotel.

Gabriel Valk, an Airbnb host in Greenville, South Carolina, told NBC News he considers small tasks such as washing dishes and stripping beds “common courtesy.” But he also understood why guests who pay a cleaning fee might resist doing them.

“OK, you guys are paying, whatever, $100 for the cleaning. ‘We shouldn’t have to do anything,’” Valk said, imagining a guest’s reaction. “So totally makes sense to me.”