After Years-Long Debate, Airbnb Restricts Hosts’ Ability To Require Guests To Do ‘Onerous’ Chores

After years of Airbnb guests complaining about hosts requiring them to do chores such as washing their dishes, the vacation company is limiting the number and type of tasks hosts can impose on guests — and some hosts are pushing back with a petition to stop the change. The debate about whether hosts should ask guests to do chores has been running for years. Some hosts argue that the chores are not a significant burden and that the nature of Airbnb and staying in someone’s home is different from staying in a hotel with room service. On the other side, guests, and some hosts, argue that requiring travelers to do chores and also charging a cleaning fee is simply unreasonable. On Wednesday, Airbnb released a policy update set to take effect on November 20 that states that hosts who charge cleaning fees are “generally not allowed to” require guests to complete tasks that require “significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner, including stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes.”The policy also prevents hosts from sharing “new house rules or requests” in signs on the property — instead of in the listing — or via messages with guests. Hosts will also not be able to impose fines or penalties on guests or restrict them from accessing any feature of the property that is advertised on the listing. “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,” Airbnb said in a statement. “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.”The policy change was welcome to guests. One user on an Airbnb community forum said that he had stopped renting through the platform and resorted to staying at hotels “because I had to do more chores than what I even do in my own home.”While the update may help convince travelers — who might otherwise opt for hotels due to the convenience of not having to do tasks — to book with Airbnb, several hosts also expressed frustration with the change on the community forum.One host in France, Carole, said that if guests “don’t take care of my home, they shouldn’t book.” “I’m pausing my listing until I can decide for myself what I expect from guests: RESPECT,” the host added. Other hosts disagreed that asking guests to load a dishwasher is a “significant” chore. They also expressed frustration that if guests are not expected to take care of “basic” tasks, it will add to the time required to clean their properties.Shortly after the Airbnb policy switch a host in the United Kingdom, Harry Newington, launched a petition on Change.org, imploring the company to change course. By Thursday afternoon, the petition had received more than 5,600 signatures. The petition argues that giving people the chance to stay in a home and use a kitchen provides travelers with an “independence” that “comes with a reasonable degree of personal responsibility.”“We believe this policy is unreasonable, unfair to hosts and fundamentally misunderstands the nature of self-catering accommodation,” the petition reads. “Self-catering is not a hotel service.While the petition acknowledged that “some guests have faced excessive checkout instructions,” it argued that “washing the dishes” is not an onerous task, such as asking guests to clean an entire property. It asks Airbnb to allow hosts to require guests to perform “ordinary domestic responsibilities.”Mr. Newington said in a post that he asked Airbnb’s press team to send their petition to the company’s senior management, but had not received a “substantive” response.

After Years-Long Debate, Airbnb Restricts Hosts’ Ability To Require Guests To Do ‘Onerous’ Chores

After Years-Long Debate, Airbnb Restricts Hosts’ Ability To Require Guests To Do ‘Onerous’ Chores

More from the New York Sun

Trump Gets His Day in Court To Fight Convictions for Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels

Security Crisis Casts Shadow Over Boxing Championship, High-Profile WWE Matches Scheduled at Riyadh

Federal Judge Strikes Down New York’s Body Armor Ban

Old-School Thieving on New York’s Mean Streets

Pollsters Warn MAGA Voters Are Being Undercounted and Blue Wave is an Illusion

Ireland Scraps ‘Demeaning’ Ad Warning Grandparents Against Hugging Their Grandchildren

Larry David Was Right To Call Out Socialist Absurdity, but I Wish He Were Funnier

Victoria’s Secret Weapon: Getting Under Liberal Critics’ Skin Is Good for Business

More from the New York Sun

Trump Gets His Day in Court To Fight Convictions for Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels

Security Crisis Casts Shadow Over Boxing Championship, High-Profile WWE Matches Scheduled at Riyadh

Federal Judge Strikes Down New York’s Body Armor Ban

Old-School Thieving on New York’s Mean Streets

Pollsters Warn MAGA Voters Are Being Undercounted and Blue Wave is an Illusion

Ireland Scraps ‘Demeaning’ Ad Warning Grandparents Against Hugging Their Grandchildren

Larry David Was Right To Call Out Socialist Absurdity, but I Wish He Were Funnier

Victoria’s Secret Weapon: Getting Under Liberal Critics’ Skin Is Good for Business