Airbnb rule change frees guests from chores involving ‘significant effort’

Airbnb has revised its rules to reduce the tasks a host can expect a guest to perform at the end of their stay — and washing dishes has been wiped from the to-do list.

Airbnb, which connects travelers with more than 5 million hosts globally, has advised hosts to choose from seven standard house rules that will be displayed prominently on the listing page.

Hosts can set ground rules for maximum occupancy, quiet hours, and pets, as well as specify key return procedures and whether guests may hold events or host commercial photo shoots.

The policy update, applicable to all reservations booked on or after November 20, is designed to streamline the Airbnb experience after a slew of customer complaints about unclear house rules and laborious demands by property hosts.

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“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,” an Airbnb spokesperson told CNN 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,” they added.

Hosts remain free to detail more specific requests alongside the formulaic rules they’ve selected from Airbnb’s standard list, but those requests must be considered reasonable.

Chores requiring “significant effort or time” that would typically be completed by a cleaner are off limits as guest requests, including stripping beds and taking out the trash.

While hosts are no longer at liberty to instruct guests to wash and put dishes away, they may request that used dishes are placed in the sink upon their departure.

Host-imposed fines are also prohibited, and guests are expected to work with hosts to reach a solution if a deeper issue, such as property damage, occurs.

Transparency appears to be key under the new policy, as hosts must be upfront about their house rules at the time of booking and cannot add caveats later.

Nor can hosts ask guests to enter a contract separate from the one they signed via Airbnb when they made their booking, except in limited circumstances.

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“Personally, I think it’s fantastic,” Minnesota mom Ellen, known online as Tall Mom Running, said in a video on social media.

She said that during a previous Airbnb stay, she was sent a list of things to do the day before leaving the property and threatened with a fine if they were not completed.

“It was an hour worth of work,” she laughed, adding: “An hour of cleaning … No thank-you, I don’t want to be doing that on vacation.”

But not everyone is as thrilled about the policy amendment.

“It’s not a matter of duty it’s about good manners,” Rossana Imbrogno, whose property in Rome has been adorned with the title of “guest favourite” on the site, said in a comment on social media.

“I clean and strip the bed and trash the litter even if I stay in a hotel,” the “superhost” added.

Airbnb 修改了规则，减少了房东希望房客在住宿结束时完成的任务——洗碗已从待办事项清单中删除。

Airbnb 是一家连接全球旅行者和 500 多万房东的平台，它建议房东从七条标准房屋守则中进行选择，这些守则将在房源页面上显著显示。

房东可以设定入住人数上限、安静时间、宠物等方面的基本规则，还可以规定钥匙归还程序，以及客人是否可以举办活动或进行商业摄影。

该政策更新适用于 11 月 20 日或之后预订的所有房源，旨在简化 Airbnb 的用户体验，此前有大量客户投诉房东的房屋规则不明确以及房东提出的要求过于繁琐。

乔·雷德尔/盖蒂图片社

随着住房负担能力危机加剧，Airbnb和Vrbo面临强烈抵制。

“房屋守则可以帮助房客了解房东的期望，但我们从社区了解到，这些守则可能会让人困惑、繁琐且难以管理，”一位爱彼迎发言人周四告诉 CNN。

“因此，我们重新设计了这些功能，使其更容易被发现和设置，同时还制定了一项新政策，使请求保持合理，避免出现意外情况，”他们补充道。

房东除了可以从 Airbnb 标准列表中选择的固定规则外，还可以提出更具体的要求，但这些要求必须被认为是合理的。

需要“大量精力或时间”才能完成的家务，通常由清洁工完成，客人不得要求做这些家务，例如更换床单和倒垃圾。

虽然主人不再有权指示客人清洗和收拾餐具，但他们可以要求客人在离开时将用过的餐具放在水槽里。

房东禁止自行处以罚款，如果发生财产损失等更深层次的问题，客人应与房东合作寻求解决方案。

新政策似乎强调透明度，房东必须在预订时明确说明房屋规则，之后不能再添加附加条款。

除少数特殊情况外，房东不能要求房客签订与通过 Airbnb 预订时签署的合同不同的其他合同。

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“我个人觉得这太棒了，”明尼苏达州的一位妈妈艾伦（网名“跑步的高个妈妈”）在社交媒体上的一段视频中说道。

她说，之前她通过 Airbnb 入住时，房东在她离开前一天给她发了一份待办事项清单，并威胁说如果不完成这些事项就会被罚款。

“这相当于一个小时的工作量，”她笑着说，“一个小时的清洁工作……不，谢谢，我不想在度假的时候做这种事。”

但并非所有人都对这项政策修正感到兴奋。

“这不是责任问题，而是礼貌问题，”罗萨娜·伊姆布罗尼奥在社交媒体上评论道，她在罗马的房产曾被该网站评为“最受客人欢迎的房产”。

“即使住在酒店，我也会清洁并更换床单，并清理垃圾，”这位“超级房东”补充道。