According to some Airbnb hosts, the app is “like an abusive partner”: It keeps manipulating them, but they keep coming back for more.
The platform’s latest offense? Banning hosts from requiring guests to perform tasks “that require significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner.” That includes things like stripping beds, taking out the trash, and washing dishes, all of which some hosts have made standard as part of their “House Rules.”
Hosts are still technically able to make requests of their guests, but they must “be reasonable.” One Airbnb host who tried to include instructions to wash the dishes and take out the trash in the “Requests” section was unable to save their changes, instead prompting an error message saying, “Guests shouldn’t be asked to do this task.”
The new policies go into effect for bookings made on or after November 20, but even a month out, hosts are already melting down on social media over what they see as an unfair change. Guests, meanwhile, are celebrating the end of being their own cleaners, only to pay cleaning fees on top of it.
Bending the rules
In one Reddit exchange (which has since gone viral in its own right), a host compared Airbnb to an “abusive partner.” Another commenter agreed, writing, “They keep hurting you, but you’re not sure you can find anything better, so you stay.”
“As a host, I’ve just about had it with AirBnB,” another host wrote in a comment. “It’s basically telling guests that they do not need to respect common manners, and making cleaning fees mandatory.”
In a Facebook group for Airbnb hosts, one poster suggested that they go on strike and collectively unlist their properties. “Airbnb built its empire on OUR properties. It’s time we reminded them who actually holds the power,” they wrote.
In another Reddit post titled “Guess my cleaning fee just went up,” a host said that the changes will ultimately harm guests’ wallets.
“I’ll raise the fee to cover the additional cleaner that now needs to wash dishes (no dishwasher, historic building) and drag out the trash and recyclables, while making sure property is spotless in a 5 hour turnaround,” they wrote.
But as one commenter pointed out, “if it’s so time consuming to drag out trash and recyclables it’s not really reasonable to ask guests to do it anyway.”
That’s the attitude dominating the discourse among Airbnb guests, who are reveling in the chaos of hosts’ online meltdowns.
“Airbnb hosts genuinely had us paying a cleaning fee just to do an unpaid shift as their housekeeper before 10am,” one user lamented.
Another user celebrated the new policy, saying that at her last Airbnb, she was required to strip the beds, wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, and more, only to pay a $100 cleaning fee on top of doing those chores.
She ended with a question for any hosts upset about the changes: “If you have to put your existing paying guests to work preparing your property for your future paying guests, while also charging everyone a cleaning fee, maybe hosting just isn’t for you? It’s OK not to host. We’d all be fine with that.”
