Airbnb changed its check-out chore rules – and hosts are fuming about it

Airbnb recently modified its check-out policies, prohibiting hosts from requesting tasks such as stripping bed linens or washing dishes before a guest's departure. This decision has garnered a significant amount of support from travelers, who have shared their grievances with the lengthy to-do lists from previous stays. However, the reaction from hosts has been decidedly less favorable.

Numerous hosts have vowed to boycott Airbnb on the day the ban on check-out chores takes effect on November 20th. Their discontent stems from the belief that the new rules unfairly punish "bad hosts" who tarnish the platform's reputation. One prominent post on the Airbnb Hosts subreddit asserts that the changes are irrelevant to most hosts, as few require or demand substantial effort from guests.

Some positive reactions from hosts include the notion that the updated rules do not significantly impact the average host, as most of them do not ask for any significant effort from their guests. Here are a few more measured responses from those affected by the new policy:

Airbnb has clarified that the new rules pertain to tasks that require "significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner." For instance, guests are no longer expected to wash up dishes, but they can still be asked to leave them in the sink. In a statement to Euronews Travel, Airbnb explained, "House rules help guests understand what hosts expect, but we've heard that they can be confusing, onerous, and hard to manage.

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 debate surrounding this change is epitomized by Patrick Vlaskovits.