Airbnb and checkout chores: update your house rules before 20 November

Airbnb is changing its house rules policy. From 20 November 2026, every rule and request made to guests must be reasonable, and all of them must sit in one fixed place in your listing. Hosts who ask guests to strip the beds or wash up before they leave are the ones most affected.

What is new is that Airbnb will enforce it. This article explains exactly what changes, what is still allowed and what you should adjust now.

What Airbnb announced

On 20 October 2026, Airbnb launched new house rules settings in the listing editor. The accompanying policy takes effect on 20 November 2026. You therefore have until then to review your listing.

Checkout instructions are no longer in a separate tab. You now find them in the listing editor, under house rules and requests.

The policy is simple to summarise. What you ask of guests must be reasonable. Tasks that normally belong to a cleaner do not qualify. Airbnb warns that such requests can harm the stay and the review.

Seven standard rules

Airbnb now offers seven standard rules that you can switch on or off:

• maximum number of overnight guests
• quiet hours
• events
• pets
• smoking, including vaping and e-cigarettes
• commercial photography
• lock up at checkout, with optional details on where to leave the key

Two of these are new: the maximum number of guests and locking up at checkout. Everything else goes under the requests before checkout.

What is still allowed and what is not

Airbnb gives concrete examples itself. They show clearly where the line is.

Dishes. Asking guests to put used dishes in the sink is allowed. Asking them to wash and put them away is not.

Linen and laundry. Asking guests to gather used towels is allowed. Stripping beds or starting a load of laundry is not.

Rubbish. Asking guests to sort rubbish and recycling into the bins indoors is allowed. Taking the rubbish out of the property is not.

Heating and air conditioning. Asking guests to turn the air conditioning off when they leave is allowed. Forbidding them to use it is not.

Simple requests, such as turning off the lights when leaving, remain possible. Airbnb says what is reasonable can depend on the type of property and on local circumstances. Exceptions are possible.

Everything goes in the listing, nowhere else

A second change is at least as important. All rules and requests must appear in the house rules and requests section of the listing. Not in messages to the guest. Not on a sign in the property. Not hidden in the description.

In practice, that means a check. Look at whether your welcome message, your house guide and the notes in the property contain rules that Airbnb does not know about. A rule that only exists in a message will be hard to enforce later.

What happens if you break the rules

Airbnb flags requests that do not comply in the listing editor and sends you an email. You can appeal.

If the problem remains, Airbnb can show guests an alert, for example that the listing includes cleaning requests.

After their stay, guests are also asked how accurate the listing was. A guest who gives a low score must choose a reason. Excessive rules or requests are one of those reasons. Airbnb writes that listings with repeated low ratings because of unreasonable requests may be removed.

There is also an advantage for you. If a guest breaks a house rule during the stay, or says beforehand that they will, you can cancel without fees.

What to do now

Take these steps before 20 November:

1. Open each listing and read the house rules and requests in full.
2. Remove anything that sounds like a cleaning task, such as washing up, stripping beds or taking rubbish away.
3. Switch the seven standard rules on or off deliberately, rather than leaving them as they are.
4. Move rules that only exist in messages or in the property into the listing.
5. Rewrite what remains in short, friendly sentences. A request sounds better than an order.
6. Check that your cleaning and your cleaning fee are planned properly, now that guests will do less.

That last point is the real calculation. What guests no longer do, a cleaner has to do. A property that is left in good order saves time. One that is not costs time. Factor that into your turnaround times and your cleaning schedule.

The policy applies to Airbnb

These rules come from Airbnb and apply to your listing there. Booking.com and Vrbo have their own conditions. For direct bookings, you set the arrangements yourself, within the law. Even so, it is sensible to follow the same reasonable line on every channel. Guests compare and read every rule.

Airbnb does not say whether the policy applies to bookings made before that date or to stays after that date. Check that in Airbnb's help centre and adjust your listing for all bookings.

A simpler checkout also works in your favour

Many hosts asked guests to help because cleaning costs time and money. The result was long lists of rules and guests who did not feel welcome. A clear, short checkout is better for the review and for the atmosphere.

At YourDomi, our own cleaning team works with a fixed checklist and a photo check. Guests therefore have no chores to do, and the property is ready for the next arrival. The rental always runs in the owner's name, so reviews and reputation stay yours. If you would like to know what that could mean for your property, request a personal proposal.