Airbnb has published a new policy for bookings made from 20 November 2026. Hosts may no longer require checkout chores that take significant effort or are a cleaner’s job. The cleaning fee is not abolished.

Off the list: stripping beds, washing and putting away dishes, starting laundry and taking trash off the property. Simple requests remain allowed: dishes in the sink, used towels gathered, trash and recycling sorted into indoor bins, lights and appliances off, the door locked.

The cleaning fee stays, as payment for a standard tidy between guests. Hosts may not charge extra if a guest skips the chores now banned. This is not a law and not a ban on all house rules.

Rules and requests must be visible on the listing at booking. New rules cannot be added after a booking is made. Amenities advertised on the listing cannot be blocked. Guest fines are out; damage is covered by AirCover. Airbnb still allows local exceptions, such as shorter showers in a drought or trash in a bear-proof bin.

Guests have complained for years that they pay a cleaning fee and still get a chore list. Makarand Mody of Boston University says that is the biggest gripe: a hotel does not ask for this. Some hosts, on Airbnb forums, see a slide toward a hotel model and fear losing control of their homes.

The company already changed how prices appear: from May 2025, search results show totals with platform fees, excluding taxes. The checkout policy is published now; it applies to bookings from 20 November, not to stays checking out today.

Image: Steve Jurvetson, Airbnb headquarters, San Francisco, 17 January 2018, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; the building in 2018, not the October policy.

Sources consulted: Airbnb limiting the checkout chores hosts can ask guests to do - CBC News, 21 October 2026; Airbnb limits chores for guests, sparking backlash from hosts - TechCrunch, 21 October 2026.