In this photo illustration, a woman looks at a smartphone in front of an Airbnb logo.
In this photo illustration, a woman looks at a smartphone in front of an Airbnb logo.
Airbnb hosts across the world are rallying against San Francisco’s short-term rental platform over a divisive new policy that no longer allows hosts to compel guests to complete a long list of cleaning chores upon checkout.
The polarizing new policy, which was posted on Airbnb’s website Oct. 20 and goes into effect next month, states that hosts are not allowed to enforce unreasonable rules like instructing guests to wash and put away dishes, start a load of laundry, or take trash off of the property — tasks that some guests are asked to complete in addition to paying exorbitant cleaning fees that can cost hundreds of dollars.
“When adding a request, remember that most guests want to avoid unexpected chores,” the updated policy reads. “Asking them to do things a cleaner should handle can negatively affect their stay and your reviews.”
As expected, rental property owners on the community forum are outraged.
“They will rob us of toilet paper, destroy our towels and linens, leave holes and dents in walls,” one Airbnb host wrote. “And now you are ALLOWING guests to come in and be slobs.”
Another person warned, “with these idiotic rules, you are going to lose a lot of hosts and especially revenue.”
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Others argued that it’s basic decency and a sign of respect for guests to clean up after themselves, with some explaining that taking out the trash is necessary to prevent infestations, especially in remote, wooded areas.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky speaks onstage during the Airbnb 2026 Summer Release keynote on May 20, 2026, in San Francisco.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky speaks onstage during the Airbnb 2026 Summer Release keynote on May 20, 2026, in San Francisco.
But not everyone agreed. Some said that the policy will weed out bad hosts who behave like slumlords, and will create a better experience for all parties involved.
“Pocketing a cleaning fee and asking for a list of cleaning tasks as long as my arm to be carried out before departure is the reason why Airbnb’s reputation has declined, due to the fact that guests have to do the cleaning despite the cleaning fee being pocketed by the host,” another host wrote on the forum.
Company executives stand behind this new policy, and say that, overall, it will provide a better experience for renters.
“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,” Tom Korolyshun, an Airbnb spokesperson, told SFGATE on Thursday. “So we’ve redesigned them to make them easier to discover and clearer to set, alongside a new policy that keeps requests reasonable, with no surprises.”
But the policy change may be too late to win back former guests who have soured on the company over expensive cleaning fees and hosts with inordinate housekeeping demands. Anecdotally, it appears that the public is finally turning its back on the multibillion-dollar rental empire, and it’s understandable why.
As someone who was once nearly scammed into staying at an Airbnb in the desert that looked like a forgotten set piece from “The Hills Have Eyes” — and once paid a premium to stay at a Palm Springs home that forbade us from using the fridge and had a binder full of rules — staying at an Airbnb has always felt like taking a gamble with my dignity and my wallet. Why should we continue to subject ourselves to property owners who are trying to wring us out for every dollar, when we could simply stay at a cheaper, more reliable hotel for far less hassle?
A keychain with the Airbnb logo lies on a notebook on a table in a vacation apartment in Berlin, April 18, 2016.
A keychain with the Airbnb logo lies on a notebook on a table in a vacation apartment in Berlin, April 18, 2016.
Just last month, a user on Reddit went viral after claiming that their Airbnb host used artificial intelligence to generate an image of an overflowing toilet to justify charging them more than $1,000. And there’s no shortage of reports of horrifying experiences at poorly run Airbnb rentals — an entire Instagram account is dedicated to chronicling people’s unfortunate encounters with heavily stained mattresses, undisclosed security cameras, and hosts who charge money to simply watch TV and use Wi-Fi.
One guest said she was charged more than $900 in additional fees for allegedly using the washing machine and pool table at an Airbnb in England. In her Instagram video, prohibitive instructions are smattered on just about every object in the house, including the host’s deceased husband’s armchair, which the guest was most certainly not allowed to sit on. (In the new policy, Airbnb explicitly states that house rules need to be clearly posted in the proper sections of the listing, and additional rules cannot be sent via text or printed out on signs within the home.)
The argument over the new policy doesn’t change the fundamental reality that participating in Airbnb’s business model in any capacity feels obscene. Beyond giving irresponsible property owners the opportunity to charge reckless fees for a subpar experience, the San Francisco-based tech company is exacerbating housing crises across the world.
Aside from damaging people’s egos and bank accounts, Airbnb units divide communities by encouraging landlords to prioritize catering to tourists instead of actual residents who keep towns running. In desirable areas like Tahoe, where many homes have been converted to short-term vacation rentals, younger generations have been priced out entirely. The result is an undercurrent of hostility between residents and renters, and the practice could have even larger impacts on housing stock across the globe.
A protester holds a placard reading “Boycott Airbnb” during a demonstration against mass tourism in Barcelona, Spain, on June 15, 2025.
A protester holds a placard reading “Boycott Airbnb” during a demonstration against mass tourism in Barcelona, Spain, on June 15, 2025.
In cities like Barcelona, landlords have taken properties off the market to turn them into short-term vacation rentals, resulting in severe backlash from residents, housing organization World Habitat reported. “The cumulative impact is a measurable loss of residential housing and potentially an increase in housing costs,” it said. Subsequently, several cities in countries including the U.K. and Portugal have taken active measures to put restrictions on the vacation rental market, while cities in the U.S., including New York, San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe, have also introduced rules and regulations.
This legislation will undoubtedly “restrict the options, and probably increase the costs for visitors,” the World Habitat report continues, “but we should recognise the advantages of traditional hotels. Hotels are regulated, taxed, and planned for within city infrastructure meaning they can host visitors without displacing long-term residents or reshaping neighbourhoods.”
In light of the new policy, many hosts are threatening to leave Airbnb entirely, and as someone who’s watched these same types of property owners devour precious housing supply throughout the Bay Area, I sincerely hope that many of them do.
Not to mention, while staying overnight in a hotel is old-fashioned and maybe not as exciting as sleeping in a yurt-style tree house in Geneva or a yellow submarine, at least I can count on being allowed to use the microwave.
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Oct 26, 2026