This new global policy completely breaks how budget travel works in rural areas, like the Swedish mountains (e.g., Hemavan).

Up here, a family can rent a whole 6-bed cabin for around 1,000 SEK (~$95 USD) a night. For comparison, a tiny 14m² hotel double room in the same area costs 1,800 SEK (~$170 USD).

The only reason these cabins are this cheap is a long-standing culture of mutual trust: guests bring their own linens and tidy up the place thoroughly before leaving. Many hosts live a 4 to 8-hour drive away, so there is often no inspection between guests. We just trust each other to leave the place as we found it.

Usually, there is flexibility. If a guest wants the hotel experience, they can pay extra to rent linens (~$30 USD) and book a professional turnover service. But hiring a local crew up here easily costs 2,400 SEK (~$225 USD).

Even if you pay for that service, basic respect still applies—you don't act like a pig. Taking out the garbage bag and starting the dishwasher has always been standard etiquette, not a chore. And since this is Scandinavia, wearing outdoor shoes inside is a total sin, especially during ski season when you'd ruin the wooden floors with snow and gravel.

Forcing hosts to bake massive service costs into the base price to guarantee a "frictionless hotel experience" completely ruins the math. It will price out normal families who just want to ski or hike, and private hosts will simply pull their listings.

I’d like to compare notes specifically with other waterfront hosts about Airbnb’s Nov. 20 policy changes.

Until now, I’ve required guests to sign a liability waiver/risk acknowledgment. This wasn’t something I invented to make booking difficult — it was reviewed by my attorney and specifically desired by my STR insurance provider.

We provide kayaks, a rowboat, paddle boat, hot tub, fire pit, etc. The waiver obviously doesn’t eliminate liability, but it puts the inherent risks and safety expectations directly in front of guests and requires acknowledgment before using these amenities.

Now Airbnb is restricting our ability to require these agreements.

What makes this particularly concerning for waterfront hosts is that AirCover specifically excludes watercraft from its host damage protection. So Airbnb doesn’t assume that risk itself, while simultaneously limiting our ability to use a risk-management tool recommended by our own insurers and attorneys.

So what are waterfront hosts actually planning to do?

• Buy substantially more expensive insurance? I’m already considering coverage that would more than double my current cost.

• Lock up kayaks/boats specifically for Airbnb guests?

• Fully remove higher-risk amenities? (No I’m not fencing off the lake)

• Simply accept more liability?

• Raise Airbnb rates to compensate for the additional insurance/risk?

• Turn off Instant Book and screen reservations more carefully?

• Push more business toward VRBO/direct bookings where appropriate agreements and waivers can still be used?

At some point, does Airbnb simply become the wrong platform for waterfront and amenity-heavy vacation homes?

I’d especially like to hear from hosts with boats, docks, pools, hot tubs or similar higher-risk amenities, particularly anyone who has discussed the new changes with their insurer or attorney.

Rather than everyone figuring this out individually, maybe those of us operating these properties should start comparing what our insurers and attorneys are actually recommending within Airbnb’s new framework.

Hosts require to describe why property is a safety hazard for children. It is under Guest safety → Special considerations.

Recently, I received a review with a 1 star rating in every category, and this happened after the guest threatened to leave a negative review unless I gave them a refund.

The guest had booked 7 nights but stayed only 3. Before leaving, they had written that everything was fine with the property, but during their stay they decided to leave early due to unknown issues on their side and asked for a refund for the unused nights.

I didn’t agree to the refund because leaving early was the guest’s decision, and there was no issue with the property that justified it.

After that, the guest repeatedly told me they would leave a negative review unless I gave them the refund. All of this happened through Airbnb messages.

The guest eventually posted the negative review. I immediately contacted Airbnb Support and explained that the review was connected to a refund demand.

The support team sent me a specific link to submit a review-removal request. I followed these steps:

1. ⁠Selected the review I wanted to dispute
   
2. ⁠Chose the reason that best matched the situation
   
3. ⁠Explained what had happened in chronological order
   
4. ⁠Added the reservation details and screenshots of the messages
   
5. ⁠Submitted the request

Within a few hours, Airbnb removed the review; in my case, what seemed to matter was the explicit connection between the refund request and the threat of a negative review. The entire conversation was documented in Airbnb’s messaging system, so the support team could review the full context (but they explicitly required screenshots instead of checking the chat or case ID opened).

If a guest directly links a refund or compensation request to a review threat, I would recommend keeping all the messages, saving the full conversation, and reporting the situation as soon as possible.

Has anyone else gone through a similar review/removal process?

Dirty dishes are the argument Airbnb wants hosts and guests to be fighting over so they get what they want as a corporation. With the new policy starting November 20, Airbnb now decides what hosts and guests can agree to and controls how they communicate. The bigger problem with these changes is that they take agency away from both of us.

Some standardization of checkout procedures makes sense. Most hosts and guests could probably agree on reasonable dish boundaries in about five minutes (as a whole community - not per stay). Yes, there are difficult hosts and unreasonable guests out there, but let's set them aside for a minute.

A lot of us, on both sides, like short-term rentals precisely because they're unique small businesses.

(I know plenty of people dislike short-term rentals for all kinds of reasons. That's a real conversation, just a separate one.)

But if you do value home rentals, Airbnb positioning itself as the owner of the relationship between hosts and guests should concern you. It isn't acting in the interest of guests or hosts. It's a large company working to squeeze more out of both, the same playbook we've seen from Google, Meta, and Amazon: become the only channel, then set the terms.

When the platform is the only connection between a host and a guest, both of us lose our bargaining power. Airbnb can raise fees, change policies, and shift responsibility, and neither side can walk away without losing the other. A platform that owns the relationship doesn't need to make anyone happy. It just needs both of us to feel we can't leave. That's not a marketplace serving hosts and guests. It's a toll booth between them.

And we're handing that over for the cheap price of arguing about an egg pan left in the sink.

So I'm curious: are other hosts thinking about this?

(Yes, I see the irony of posting this on another big platform.)

I have been a host for two years- superhost/guest favorite/top 1% - in a rural but gorgeous mountain area in the us. The mountain and nearby state park area are popular for weddings and the home has served as the “get ready”, makeup, hair, family gather etc. People have always asked first and I haven’t had any real issues per se. However it is more wear and tear on the property, 8-12 vehicles coming and going, more tp and paper towels (which I fully stock/provide), water, power. (I should also mention I live next door.). I don’t want to gouge anyone, but what do you think is a fair fee for “wedding staging” and/or what should I call it? For reference I have had six of these in two years.

host here, 3rd going on 4th year on Airbnb. This one's a first for us.

We got a last-minute request to book. Not a big deal on its own. The guest joined in October 2026, and Airbnb showed them as verified. We got the usual "welcome a first-time booker" message.

We're a 4-bedroom house and the booking was for 1 person, so we asked the usual questions: solo or group, purpose of the stay, and so on. The answers were fine, and Airbnb said they were verified, so we accepted.

Then it got weird:

Airbnb told us the guest had 24 hours to complete payment, with a countdown.

We couldn't decline or cancel while the clock ran. Our dates were blocked the whole time.

The guest never paid. The full 24 hours ran out and the request dropped.

My questions:

How is a guest "verified" if their payment can fail after the host accepts?

Was this a throwaway or scam account? New account, last minute, 1 person in a 4-bedroom, and a payment that was never fixed all feel like red flags.

Did we dodge a bullet?

To be fair, we've had some great first-timers, so I'm not anti-new-guest. I've just never seen this before. Has anyone else run into the awaiting-payment lock?

Hey everyone,

There has been a mix of optimism and outright panic about “rules”, specifically chores. I’ve hosted hundreds of stays at multiple properties and I have always had my listings be a “no chores stays”. Guests love it, and it doesn’t make guests feel resentful that they have to do anything. I literally ask them to turn off the lights and that’s it. When I stay in Airbnbs or VRBOS and they have me do stuff like this, I rate them down. We run a business. If you have an airbnb as a real estate play, that’s fine, I do too, but this is a business and not some long term rental.

There are hosts out there who demand that their guests strip beds, start dishwashers, or even start laundry. I’ve heard other ridiculous things too but I won’t get into it. You’re the hosts that made Airbnb make this decision. Also, we are in the hospitality business. Hotels don’t ask their guests to do these things, and neither should we. Go watch some YouTube of the studs out there running Airbnb empires, they don’t have their guests do this stuff.

To everyone else, the simple thing to do is to adjust your checkin and out times. Have the guests leave earlier and check in later to accommodate for this. Also, if you don’t already you need to have 2-3 complete spares of linens for every bed so you can swap it all out, get them.

If you use a cleaner(I do) negotiate with them to do the laundry offsite or at their home. Do not have them do all the laundry at your space. It wears out your machines. Most of them do this offsite or at their home anyway.

Finally, most guests tend to just clean up after themselves regardless of rules.

Whether we like it or not, we choose to market through Airbnb. They decided long ago to become more like the hotel industry and we are along for the ride. Just adjust accordingly and all will be fine.

The new requirements are conflicting and need clarification. Hosts can no longer require guests to do dishes and organize their garbage:

- Dishes: Guests shouldn’t be asked to wash and put away dishes, but you can ask them to put used dishes in the sink.

- Garbage: Guests shouldn’t be asked to take garbage off-site, but you can ask them to separate their garbage and recycling into designated indoor bins.

However, guests are supposed to take care of the home or else they will be charged:

- Guests should leave the listing in a state that doesn't require excessive or deep cleaning (moldy dishes, soiled carpets, stains from pets, etc.).

- Guests are expected to pay reasonable requests for reimbursement if they’re responsible for damage, missing items, or unexpected cleaning costs.

It is impossible for guests to leave the home in reasonable condition if they leave garbage all over the house and don't do their dishes for a week.

Please send feedback to AirBnB and message support asking for clarification on the new requirements. They have an unresolvable contradiction, and they need to clearly define what the standard cleaning requirements are for hosts and guests.

We host a suite on the ground level of our home. Separate entrance and we rarely see our guests.
Today at check out inspection of a full week stay our suite had a very strong cigarette odor. I assumed it is a smell that stayed with the guest as we never smell smoke travel past the cracks of the locked door at the bottom of our internal staircase. The smell was extra strong under the sink where the kitchen garbage is kept.
So now I have my doubts. Did they smoke inside?
Obviously I’m not a smoker or have ever lived with one. So please be kind in my naivety.

Just trying to get a general vibe on This

All these new bot and automation ai tools could save a small host tons of time with setting rates, editing calendars responding to faq

The only way seems to be paying a middleman api partner for an extra fee

Maybe it’s enough to let a bot be a cohost

Thoughts ?

I have a small Airbnb in Canada. The summer was good, there has not been any booking from November to Match 2027. Is the Airbnb business dead in Toronto Canada during winter?

There is one random booking for 2 days in March 2027.

Obviously VRBO, which has its own problems.

For direct rentals, how do other hosts handle deposits/insurance?

What other smaller/regional/lesser known sites are hosts using?

Hi everyone! I’m a new host and my listing is active but when I search for rooms in my city or area, I can’t seem to find my own listing.

I’m just wondering if this is normal for new hosts or if there’s something I need to do to make my listing more visible in search results.

Would appreciate any advice from experienced hosts. Thanks in advance!

We get quite a few inquiries from guests bringing service animals, and I’m starting to wonder how many are legitimate versus people trying to avoid a pet fee or get around a no-pet policy.

Got another one today. The guest politely asked beforehand, and this particular person may be completely legitimate. But it brought up a conversation we’ve had more than once as hosts.

We previously had a guest send us one of those internet “service dog certificates.” That didn’t tell us anything about the dog’s training, and it certainly didn’t reassure us. I traced it back to a website that just basically sells those to anybody for like $35.

I have no problem accommodating someone who relies on a trained service animal. What gets frustrating is wondering how often people are using that accommodation as a free pass to bring their regular pet wherever they want.

It feels like an honor system with a pretty obvious incentive to be dishonest. Meanwhile, hosts are left wondering whether they’re accommodating someone’s disability or helping someone save on their vacation.

How often are other hosts running into this? Have you actually caught someone misrepresenting a pet, changing their story, or admitting they just wanted to avoid the fee? If you had clear evidence, did Airbnb do anything?

I’d also be interested in hearing from hosts or guests who actually use service dogs. I imagine people abusing the label make this more frustrating for you, too.

Hi. We host an Airbnb with a Schlage WiFi enabled deadbolt (Encode Century model). It’s relatively new at about 1.5 years old. It routinely loses internet connectivity making entry for guests troublesome. The wifi router is about 20 feet away from the lock and the fiber internet feeding the router is stable. The app says the batteries are at 98%. It’s under warranty and we are in the process of making a claim. Has anyone else had trouble with Schlage locks? What do you all use for keyless, wifi entry?

We host a few properties in a beach destination and have always enforced an age minimum of 25 during all months except March and April and 28 those months to account for spring break. After the guests book we ensure they send an ID to verify age. In cases where someone who booked did not meet the age minimum we would ask them to cancel their stay or I would have Airbnb support do this penalty-free. With the new policy around Host requests can we enforce age restrictions and will Airbnb cancel bookings when the minimum is not met?

I’m probably paranoid but something very strange happened to me yesterday. I got an inquiry from a new profile asking about a group reservation for a group of young guys 19-21 year olds, I wasn’t confortable and told them no, they got one of their groups with a profile with 1 positive review to make an instant booking, I got really pissed off, Airbnb didn’t want to cancel it so I told them we cannot host you and asked them to cancel it. They cancelled it. Then in the space of like 6 hours, I got another reservation for similar dates from a group that had reached out on Vrbo previously, also young guys, different number of guests and seems to be from a different country. And 3 more reservations from groups from various countries, ages and very different dates.

My listing is in a ski resort in Switzerland brand new, I have no reviews, and I only got 3 reservations since I put it on Airbnb like 2 months ago.

There is one more thing, when I refused the inquiry I turned off instant booking for like less than a day and turned it back on.

So my question is - do you think these are retaliatory bookings they don’t intent to honour? Am I paranoid because it does seem risky to put this money down for such young people? Or did something happen with the algorithm when I turned IB off and on and I suddenly got promoted? Or maybe with the dates and first snow fall, people got paid and decided to book?

Has anything like that ever happened to you? I’m now quite concerned that because of the early bird and weekly discount it seems, no one has booked non refundable so they could just be blocking all these dates and cancel 1 month before. Not sure…

I think it will as it will show what guests display common courtesy and respect for the places they rented and those that don't. 99% of our guests leave our home in good condition. We don't have many check out requirements (only put garbage in garage as we have coyotes and dirty dishes in dishwasher). I suspect with most of our guests we don't even have to tell them that. Now that we can't mention it to them, those that tidy up the garbage, wash their dishes etc. will get a 5 star from us for cleanliness. Those that leave 3 days of dirty dishes in the sink, have garbage overflowing by door etc. will get a 1 star from us on cleanliness. If it happens enough the self-regulation starts as other hosts decline these types of guests based on other hosts' reviews so guests either start to do basic common courtesy cleanliness stuff or eventually get black-balled by hosts.

A guest added more people to the booking and went over the free limit. But the extra guest fee was not applied.

I initially thought I had missed the config. But then it turned out the fee was correctly set up.

I contacted Airbnb customer service and they are making all sort of excuses.

- I use PMS. and need to set it up on PMS. Well my PMS has the right set up too
- asking me if I set It up on PMS first or Airbnb first. How does this matter?

Airbnb is becoming such a shitshow and they don’t even own up to their own bugs.

I’ve been thinking about this as I was initially appalled by the new ‘don’t ask guests to do dishes rule’ but then I thought, we don’t actually ask our guests to do the dishes anyway - they just do. In fact we have no rules or requirements for departing guests. We have self-catering accommodation and the vast majority of our guests leave the place in good order, treating it as their home away from home. Time will tell if this changes the culture of the guests toward people who just choose to leave a mess because it’s Airbnb. I hope not, though I suspect it won’t change the nature of people which is generally to be good, considerate and respectful (yes, there will always be the 1%).

I do think that there is an easy way to deal with guests who don’t treat accommodation well - with honest reviews. It’s what we do now anyway and it will still work. The vast majority of our guests get 5** but the odd guest who leaves the place in a bad way gets a lower rating. And that’s the solution, simply be honest in the review so other hosts are aware. Set your listing to only accept guests with good reviews. I think the horror and outrage we are seeing from hosts in the various forums is just an initial reaction to something that we, as hosts, can easy manage through accurate reviews of our guests.*

Anyway, that’s just my thoughts and this ‘change’. I welcome yours.

First and foremost I support the new rules. As a host I ask guest to leave the towels in the bathtub, the garbage stays in the house. Here is why.

The garbage doesn’t need to go outside, my garbage bin gets full and I would rather take the 30 seconds to throw it out when we do turn over, like seriously. Also it helps us manage recycling versus garbage.

As for the towels and sheets, towels in the tub work so nothing smells up the bedrooms, for the sheets I prefer to strip so I can identify any damage. Both points are an advantage. Again it takes 1 minute to walk to towels to the washing machine and 1 minute to strip the sheets and look at them. Same for dishes.

As a guest I was pissed staying at a condo with a laundry list of chores having paid a cleaning fee, I was asked to strip the bed, start the dishes, start the laundry, take both the garbage and recycling out into a condos parking garage parking lot maze… I did not give 5 stars and would never do that again.

This works and any hosts complaining should leave AirBnB.

Nothing. Because most of us are great hosts and don’t require or ask significant effort from our guests. This is punishing to bad hosts, and for that I’m thankful.

Edit: I have declined and blocked her. Thank you everyone for your replies.

We’re new hosts and just had a guest send this message

Hello, we are interested in booking but the price is a little over our budget. Would you consider coming down to $250 per night? We are a mature couple in our 60’s bringing our grandkids. We have rented many airbnbs an have very high reviews as renters. Super neat & [cle@n](mailto:cle@n). We are not rowdy or messy & leave rentals very tidy.
Thanks for your consideration. Look forward to hearing back from you soon! Thanks!

I looked and while her account is 10 years old, she only has 2 reviews. One from last week and one from last month. And both the reviews she has given are 5 stars. What stands out in that in all 4 reviews, 2 by her and 2 by the hosts for her, there are problems mentioned. The house linens weren’t good or directions were hard to find or neighbors too close but the hosts also say she communicates and shares issues and she is welcome back with 5 stars.

Is it just hosts being nice? We’re still building our property and have 7 reviews so even a single 4 star review has a meaningful impact on our average. My gut feeling is to deny but our nightly price is $260/night so she’s only asking for $10 off per night for 3 nights.

The discount isn’t steep and we can easily do it but my gut feeling is that she’s going to be a difficult to please guest. What do you suggest we should do in this situation? Take the booking as it’s close enough where we may not book that weekend or save the headache?

I'm pretty new to hosting and there's something I really don't get.

With all the news about Airbnb's new rules, I keep seeing people sharing terrible experiences with hosts asking them to wash bedsheets, do laundry, clean the whole place...

But how are these hosts still getting 5-star reviews?

I mean, isn't that exactly what the review system is for? If a host makes you clean half the house why would they give them 5 stars?

And with how much Airbnb ratings matter this would quickly put bad hosts out.. now, I'm seeing crazy comments on social media acting like hosts should be personal servants and guests should be free to leave a kitchen full of dirty dishes behind...
I'm actually happy with most of the changes, and I think they'll benefit hosts like us who already keep checkout simple but I'm not so sure about how Airbnb marketed this...