Nothing says “relaxing vacation” like a list of chores to finish before checkout. It’s a common issue for travelers staying in Airbnbs to find themselves forced to strip beds, wash dishes, and take out the trash before catching a flight — all while still paying a cleaning fee.
But now, Airbnb is putting limits on that routine. For reservations booked on or after Nov. 20, hosts generally won’t be allowed to ask guests to do the housework any longer.
What can Airbnb hosts still ask guests to do?
The update, announced by Airbnb on Oct. 20, draws a distinction between light tidying and cleaning the rental for its next occupants.
Here’s how the company breaks it down:
-
Dishes: Hosts can ask you to leave used dishes in the sink, but shouldn’t ask you to wash and put them away.
-
Laundry: Gathering used towels is allowed. Stripping beds or starting a load of laundry generally isn’t.
-
Trash: Hosts can ask you to separate garbage and recycling into designated indoor bins, but shouldn’t ask you to haul it off-site.
-
Air conditioning: Hosts shouldn’t tell you to avoid an amenity advertised in the listing, though they can ask you to turn it off when you leave.
Airbnb may make exceptions based on the property, the stay, and local conditions. Some examples include putting trash in an animal-proof container in bear country and limiting shower time during local drought restrictions.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
There is an interesting financial wrinkle: Airbnb takes a cut of cleaning fees. Its single service fee, which is 15.5 percent for most hosts, applies to the nightly price and additional host charges, including cleaning. At that rate, $15.50 of a $100 cleaning fee goes to Airbnb. That means, if hosts raise those charges to cover more work, Airbnb could collect more, too.
No surprise rules after you book
The changes also address another familiar frustration: finding out about the rules only after the reservation is already paid for. Under the new policy, all house rules and requests must appear in the designated listing section when you book. That means no additional requirements slipped into a message, posted on the fridge, or delivered in person after arrival.
And hosts generally can’t attach their own fines or penalties, either. Hosts who persistently violate the policy could face a warning on their listing, reduced visibility in search, or other action from Airbnb.
To make those expectations harder to miss, Airbnb is displaying rules more prominently on listings, in guests’ Trips tabs, and in reservation reminders. Listings with unresolved cleaning requests may also carry an alert reading “includes cleaning requests” — useful information before committing to a weekend away.
If this all sounds familiar, Airbnb has been working on the checkout chore problem for years. Back in Nov. 2022, the company said guests shouldn’t have to strip beds, do laundry, or vacuum before leaving. Its 2023 summer update made checkout instructions visible before booking and let guests flag excessive requests in reviews. Airbnb also said it would remove listings that repeatedly received low ratings over unreasonable chores.
Airbnb guests have entered the chat
The announcement has prompted plenty of travelers to celebrate and share their own horror stories.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
One user recalled a stay that required stripping beds, washing every dish, cleaning the kitchen, and hauling trash to the road — despite a $100 cleaning fee.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Another said a host in Florida had tried to charge an additional $250 after their stay because they hadn’t washed and replaced the bedsheets and towels, taken out the trash, or swept the floor. According to the post, Airbnb customer service intervened and told the host they couldn’t charge extra for those tasks.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
On Reddit, where a discussion in r/technology has drawn roughly 18,000 upvotes and 1,400 comments in 4 hours, users commiserate over similar experiences.
“We once had a host call us screaming because we piled the dirty towels in the bathtub instead of washing and drying them,” one commenter wrote. Another described being asked to take garbage to an off-site dump that charged for disposal and closed on Sundays. The host told them, “You have to take it out on Saturday then bring your Sunday trash home.”
“If you have to put your existing paying guests to work preparing your property for your future paying guests, while also charging everyone a cleaning fee, maybe hosting just isn’t for you?” said one X user.
But the conversation also includes other frustrations with Airbnb. One X user argued that the combination of prices rivaling luxury hotels and an “extensive chore chart” had eroded the service’s appeal. “There’s almost zero reason not to stay in a hotel at this point,” he wrote. “Too late. So many of us have moved on back to hotels. Less hassle and cheaper,” a Reddit user wrote in response to Airbnb’s latest update.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Not all guests could agree on where basic courtesy ends and an unreasonable chore list begins, though. “I never minded dishes, but laundry was asking a bit much,” one Reddit user wrote. Another said washing dishes and taking out trash seemed reasonable, particularly when food waste could start to smell.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Still, the online frustration hasn’t translated into an overall decline in Airbnb’s business quite yet. In its second-quarter 2026 results, the company reported revenue of $3.6 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier. Its combined “Nights and Seats Booked” metric, covering stays and experiences, rose 10 percent. So though some travelers may have sworn off the platform, bookings are still growing.
Nevertheless, Airbnb has drawn its line in a longstanding debate over what it means to be a good guest. Whether hosts and travelers can agree on it is another matter.
