Airbnb frees guests from cleaning responsibilities; hosts have strong feelings on the matter

A change to Airbnb policies means that guests will no longer be asked to perform household chores such as stripping beds or washing dishes before checking out. The new rules, which will come into effect on November 20, have been met with mixed reactions from the platform’s hosts online.

Airbnb has seen complaints from guests in the past, who have accused hosts of charging them unfair fees related to cleaning. In some cases, the guests have claimed that they were charged for small things, such as not loading the laundry before leaving. The fees aren’t exactly small either, with some guests allegedly being charged thousands of dollars for not being able to meet the host’s unfair expectations. So the new rules will no doubt bring a sigh of relief to guests.

According to The Guardian, Airbnb outlined the rule changes in a community policy update earlier this week. It said that guests will no longer be expected to complete tasks that “require significant effort or time or would typically be performed by a cleaner.”

Examples given included stripping beds, taking trash offsite, and washing and putting away any dishes used. Instead, hosts can set seven standard house rules and add additional “reasonable” requests if necessary.

Airbnb hosts react to the new rules

The change in policy was met with mixed reactions from both hosts and guests who use Airbnb. On the Airbnb host subreddit, some voiced their issues, claiming that tasks like cleaning dishes aren’t usually in a cleaner’s job description: “Most house cleaners don’t do dishes,” wrote one Reddit user, adding, “That would be a mother’s helper. Dirty dishes is a waste of their cleaning time.”

The frustrated host recommended other hosts give their feedback to Airbnb. However, others didn’t see it as being as much of an issue, claiming that “good guests wash their dishes” and “bad guests don’t.” Instead, they suggested using the rating system and giving guests who don’t clean dishes bad reviews as a way of trying to deter bad guests from leaving a mess.

Of course, there has been little sympathy for hosts after many allegations against bad hosts who have been allowed to list properties for years. One TikToker named Saron claimed that she was enjoying watching the Airbnb hosts “melting down over the new restrictions.”

Although a few responses to Saron’s video outlined how the changes could encourage hosts to simply charge more in cleaning fees. One doubtful viewer wrote, “Not sure we are gonna be as happy as everyone thinks.”

While there certainly may have been a few hosts panicking over the policy change, plenty were willing to embrace it, claiming that the new rules only affected bad hosts. “Most of us are great hosts and don’t require or ask significant effort from our guests,” another host on Reddit claimed.