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Airbnb to bar hosts from requiring guests to wash dishes or take rubbish off-site

The revised house rules apply to reservations booked from November 20. Hosts can still ask guests to put dishes in the sink and sort rubbish into indoor bins.

NewsJaws DeskEditorial desk

Published 21 Oct 2026, 20:56 BST3 min read

Interior atrium at Airbnb’s headquarters in San Francisco. — File photo of Airbnb’s headquarters in San Francisco, photographed in 2018. Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA — Steve Jurvetson, Airbnb HQ (39902444911).jpg (resized and converted to WebP). CC BY 2.0.Image source Image licence: CC BY 2.0

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Airbnb announced on October 20 that hosts will no longer be allowed to require guests to wash dishes, start laundry or take rubbish off-site under revised house rules. The limits apply to reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026, and distinguish substantial cleaning tasks from smaller requests hosts may still make.

The policy bars requests that take significant time or effort, or involve work normally done by a cleaner, The Verge reported. Airbnb said many guests want to avoid unexpected chores and that cleaner-type tasks can detract from their experience, according to a USA Today report republished by The Telegraph & Argus.

Which Airbnb guest chores are restricted

Hosts may ask guests to put used dishes in the sink, but cannot require them to wash and put the dishes away. They may ask guests to gather used towels, but cannot require them to strip beds or start a load of laundry. Guests may be asked to separate rubbish and recycling into designated indoor bins, but not to take garbage off-site.

The limits also cover listed amenities. A host can ask guests to turn off air conditioning when they leave, The Verge reported, but cannot require them to avoid using it during the stay. Airbnb says it may allow exceptions based on the listing and local circumstances, including a request to use an animal-proof rubbish container in bear country.

How hosts will see the new rules

Airbnb is making hosts’ requests more prominent in a ‘rules and requests’ section of listings, according to The Verge. The USA Today report said rules will also appear in guests’ Trips tab and reservation reminders, giving guests another place to see what a host asks before and during a stay.

Hosts will choose rules from seven preset categories and may add other requests that Airbnb considers reasonable, the USA Today report said. Airbnb plans to flag rules that do not comply in the listing editor and give hosts guidance on changing them. The Verge reported that listings retaining cleaning requests after the policy takes effect may display an ‘includes cleaning requests’ warning.

The change has drawn objections from individual hosts. A host in Wakefield called the dishwashing restriction ‘utter nonsense and ludicrous,’ according to the USA Today report. The report also quoted hosts in France and the United States who questioned Airbnb’s authority to set rules for their properties. Those reactions describe the hosts quoted, rather than the views of hosts as a whole.

The November 20 date is tied to when a reservation is booked. It was not immediately clear how Airbnb will treat stays reserved before then. Airbnb has said it will assess possible exceptions in light of the type of listing or stay and relevant local factors.