Much to the delight of customers, Airbnb announced it will limit the chores hosts often require guests to complete.
The new policy will apply to bookings from November 20 onward. It says hosts may have “reasonable” house rules but must disclose them in a designated section of their listing, which has dropdowns of standard options. This means hosts can no longer add more requirements after the booking is made, which in the past included chores added through messages or signs posted in the rental.
The part getting the most buzz is the new standard that checkout chores should not “require significant time or effort, or would typically be performed by a cleaner.” This includes doing the dishes, stripping beds, and taking out the trash.
“When adding a request, remember that most guests want to avoid unexpected chores. Asking them to do things a cleaner should handle can negatively affect their stay and your reviews,” the update says.
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE MIDTERM HUB
In a statement to The New York Times on Thursday, the company added, “House rules help guests understand what hosts expect, but we’ve heard from our community that they can be confusing, onerous and hard to manage.”
This change has been met with enthusiasm from travelers who have been debating whether Airbnb rentals are worth the added aggravation, especially compared to similarly priced hotels. Many mention that they’re expected to complete a whole list of cleaning tasks but still get charged cleaning fees.
“Airbnb had to ban hosts from assigning chores. Hotels figured this out around 1850,” one X user noted.
“Airbnb finally realized the increasingly outrageous host-mandated chores are driving away customers,” another said.
“Imagine paying a $200 cleaning fee and the host still wants you to do the laundry,” a third commenter agreed.
While many social media users were thrilled by the update, Airbnb hosts already launched a Change.org petition in hopes of reversing the new policy. It has racked up over 4,500 signatures as of Thursday morning.
“We believe this policy is unreasonable, unfair to hosts and fundamentally misunderstands the nature of self-catering accommodation,” the petition says. “When guests cook a meal, is it really unreasonable to expect them to wash the dishes they have used? When guests generate household waste, is it unreasonable to expect them to put it in the bins provided? We believe the answer to both questions is a resounding no.”
“These are not professional cleaning duties. They are ordinary aspects of living responsibly in somebody else’s property,” it says.
.png)
.png)
