Airbnb Bans Guest Checkout Chores From 20 November: What Hosts Should Do

What Airbnb Changed In Its House Rules

On 20 October 2026 Airbnb published "Important changes to House Rules" in its Resource Centre and a new community policy called Reasonable House Rules and requests. The policy page states: "This policy applies to all reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026."

The house rules screen has been rebuilt: Airbnb says hosts can now "choose from 7 standard rules and add reasonable requests, all in one place in the Listing editor", and checkout instructions "no longer appear in a separate tab".

The policy separates two kinds of instruction. A house rule is binding: Airbnb says guests "must follow hosts' house rules". A request is not binding in the same way: guests "are encouraged to comply with hosts' requests". That distinction decides what you can enforce later.

The contracts and guest ID part of the same 20 November update is covered in our separate guide, Airbnb rental agreement and guest ID ban. This article deals with house rules, checkout chores, fines and what they do to your costs.

The 7 Standard Airbnb House Rules

Airbnb's Resource Centre lists the 7 areas in which hosts can now set standard house rules. Two of them, maximum overnight guests and lock up at checkout, are described by Airbnb as new options.

1. Maximum overnight guests: match it to council approvals, insurance and strata limits.
2. Quiet hours: match your by-laws or local noise rules.
3. Events: whether events are allowed.
4. Pets: whether pets are allowed and how many.
5. Smoking: including vaping and e-cigarettes.
6. Commercial photography: whether filming for commercial use is allowed.
7. Lock up at checkout: with optional details on where to return keys.

Everything else goes under Requests, and every request must be reasonable. Your standard rules sit on top of Airbnb's guest ground rules, which every guest agrees to when they book.

What Airbnb Hosts Can And Cannot Ask Guests To Do At Checkout

Airbnb's policy says hosts are generally not allowed to "Ask guests to complete tasks that require significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner, including stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes." The Resource Centre gives paired examples of what is and is not generally allowed. The table below sets them out, with WTP's notes for Australian homes.

Airbnb says it considers context, giving drought-related shower limits and animal-proof bins as examples of requests that may be reasonable.

The ground rules for guests add one more line that hosts should read closely: "Hosts may not charge guest fees for failing to perform specific cleaning or checkout tasks, but they may leave ratings and reviews based on cleanliness."

Why Airbnb Changed The House Rules

Airbnb's statement, reported by the ABC on 22 October 2026, was: "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," and "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 change follows guest complaints. The ABC reported complaints from some travellers about cleaning fees, "which can cost hundreds of dollars", on top of a chore list before leaving. Airbnb's own guest ground rules now say cleaning fees set by hosts are meant to cover the cost of standard cleaning between reservations, such as laundry and vacuuming. In other words, Airbnb has drawn a line between the cleaning a guest pays for and the cleaning a guest does.

It also fits a longer trend. Airbnb says it is transitioning all home hosts to a single service fee, and the cleaning fee is part of the total price guests see. Our reading is that a guest who sees one total and then a long checkout list feels the price has gone up, and that Airbnb expects clearer rules to lift guest confidence, even if some hosts lose a little margin.

How Australian Hosts Have Reacted

The reaction has been loud, in Australia and overseas. The ABC reported on 24 October 2026 that the change had sparked an outcry among hosts around the world, with online petitions launched against the new rules and some hosts planning a "nationwide host blackout" on 20 November by closing their properties to bookings on that day. Closer to home, a Townsville host with three listings told the ABC the change was "infuriating" and that many hosts would "have to increase their prices and then pay someone else to do the whole cleaning".

Others were more measured. Felicity Stevens, who leads Airbnb's Sydney host club, a network of about 800 members, told the ABC: "I don't think it's too much to be able to ask a guest to put the dishwasher on before you leave and to put the rubbish out," while also saying some hosts had gone "too far" with checkout demands.

Our view at WTP: a blackout day can cost a host the bookings that would have come in that day, and it does not change the policy. The practical response is to update the listing calmly, protect reviews and price the extra cleaning time properly.

Fines, Damage And Smoking: What Replaces The "$500 Fine" Rule

Many listings carry lines such as "$500 fine for parties". Under the new policy, hosts are generally not allowed to "Impose fines or other penalties on guests." The policy points hosts to AirCover instead, which it says "provides protection for hosts in the rare event that their place or belongings are damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay." The tools now look like this:

A flat fine is a penalty. A smoke-damaged couch that needs professional cleaning is a cost with an invoice, and turnover photos plus a timestamped cleaner report make that claim easier. Our guide to Airbnb wear and tear versus guest damage covers what is reasonable to claim.

Strata By-Laws, NSW Rules And Local Requirements

Australian hosts have obligations that sit outside Airbnb. In New South Wales, the NSW Government's host obligations page says "A host must provide the following information", which includes "an electronic or hard copy of the Code of Conduct" and "by-laws that apply to the premises, common or association property if the premises are within a strata scheme or community land scheme." It also says "The host must take reasonable steps to ensure that guests comply with their obligations under the Code."

Airbnb's policy wants rules and requests in the listing's designated section at booking, not added later by message, signs or in person. The sensible way to satisfy both is to put the substance in the listing and keep sending what the law requires:

Rules differ by state and council. See our Airbnb rules by state guide and, for apartments, strata rules for Airbnb. Confirm the current position with your council, your state's short-term rental register and your strata manager.

What It Costs: A Worked Example For A Holiday House

The cost is the extra time your cleaner spends on tasks guests used to do. The figures below are illustrative, not a quote, average or forecast.

On those assumptions the extra cleaning costs $27.50 x 80 = $2,200 a year. Nightly income before fees is $280 x 240 = $67,200, so the extra cleaning is about 3.3% of nightly income.

Because Airbnb's 15.5% fee comes off what the guest pays, a host who wants to recover $27.50 a stay needs to add more than $27.50. $27.50 divided by 0.845 is about $32.54, so the example rounds up to $33.

Options B and C recover the same money on a 3-night stay. A higher cleaning fee hits 1 and 2 night guests hardest; a higher nightly rate is fairer to short stays but collects more from long ones. Some hosts will use a mix, with dynamic pricing recovering the rest in peak weeks.

Should You Raise Your Airbnb Cleaning Fee?

Not automatically. If your cleaner already re-washes dishes and checks every bed anyway, the real extra time may be smaller than you fear.

If you have been thinking about dropping the cleaning fee altogether and building it into the rate, our guide on removing the Airbnb cleaning fee without losing revenue walks through the maths, and how cleaning fees affect bookings covers guest behaviour. For your payout, see how Airbnb's 15.5% host fee works.

How To Rewrite Your House Rules And Requests, Step By Step

Airbnb says non-compliant requests "will be highlighted in the Listing editor", with an email, tips and a chance to appeal. If an issue is left unresolved, "Guests may see an alert on your listing, such as 'includes cleaning requests'". That alert is the real risk: a listing that looks fussy can lose clicks.

1. Copy your current rules and checkout list. You will use the old wording to brief your cleaner.
2. Set the 7 standard rules first. Maximum overnight guests, quiet hours, events, pets, smoking, commercial photography and lock up at checkout.
3. Sort everything else into three piles. Keep as a reasonable request, move to the cleaner's scope, or delete.
4. Rewrite requests in plain, friendly language. "Please pop used dishes in the sink and gather used towels in the bathroom" reads better than a numbered list of demands.
5. Give the reason for any unusual request. Water restrictions, septic systems, tank water or wildlife-proof bins are the kind of local context Airbnb says it considers.
6. Remove fines and penalties. Keep the rule. Add notice of any strata or council fine where relevant.
7. Check every advertised amenity. If the pool, spa, fireplace or air con is in the listing, guests can use it, and any fee for it must be in the price shown at booking.
8. Delete rules from other places. Airbnb says rules should not be written elsewhere on the listing, in messages or on signs in the home. Move house manual content that reads like a rule into the listing.
9. Save and look for highlights. Fix anything flagged, or appeal with your local reason.
10. Update your automated messages. Scheduled checkout messages should no longer ask for chores.

Your digital guidebook still matters for how-to information. Our digital house manual guide shows how to keep it useful without turning it into a second set of rules.

A Reasonable Checkout Message Example

Here is an example of checkout wording that stays inside Airbnb's examples. Adjust it to your home and check how the Listing editor treats it.

Notice what is missing: no bed stripping, no washing up, no laundry, no wheelie bins and no penalties. A two-minute checkout is the point of the policy, and it is good hospitality.

Briefing Your Cleaner For The New Turnover

The change lands hardest on your cleaning team. If they expect stripped beds and a clean kitchen and find neither, turnovers run late. Brief them before the first booking made on or after 20 November checks in.

Our guide on how cleaners make or break an Airbnb goes deeper.

Does This Change The Airbnb Versus Long-Term Rental Decision?

For investors weighing up an Airbnb against a standard lease, the honest answer is: slightly, and not enough to flip a good property. Long-term rentals are a sound investment with low workload, and nothing in this policy changes that. A well-chosen, well-run short-term rental can still earn materially more from the same home, and the owner keeps control of pricing, length of stay and personal use.

In the illustrative house above, the extra cleaning is about 3.3% of nightly income, and close to neutral once priced in. What the policy rewards is operation: hosts with a short checkout and a professional cleaning team change very little, while hosts who relied on guests to do part of the clean now carry that cost.

Also check how your manager is paid. Many managers charge a percentage of the full booking. If the cleaning fee rises by $33 across 80 stays, a generic manager taking 20% of the full booking (an illustrative figure, not a quote) would collect an extra $528 a year on money that goes straight to the cleaner. WTP's full management fee is worked out on what the home earns after platform fees and cleaning, so cleaning costs are not part of the base.

Related Reading On WTP

• Airbnb rental agreement and guest ID ban from 20 November 2026
• Airbnb's 15.5% host fee: what Australian hosts should do now
• Airbnb's new host tools: the September 2026 update
• How to remove an Airbnb cleaning fee without losing revenue
• Airbnb management fees explained: what full service really costs
• WTP resources and calculators

Sources And Dates Checked

All sources were checked on 28 October 2026. Airbnb policies change, so confirm the current wording in the Airbnb Help Centre before acting.

• Airbnb Help Centre, Reasonable House Rules and requests (applies to reservations booked on or after 20 November 2026).
• Airbnb Resource Centre, Important changes to House Rules (published 20 October 2026).
• Airbnb Resource Centre, Ground rules for guests (20 October 2026).
• Airbnb Help Centre, Ground rules for home guests and Ground rules for home hosts.
• Airbnb Help Centre, Limiting host-imposed contracts and other requirements.
• Airbnb Help Centre, Airbnb service fees (single fee: most hosts pay 15.5%).
• NSW Government, Host obligations in short-term rental accommodation (updated 22 September 2025).
• ABC News, Airbnb scraps check-out chores for guests under new rules (22 October 2026, updated 23 October) and Airbnb hosts launch online petition against check-out chores ban (24 October 2026), for Airbnb's statement and host reactions.
• WTP full management fee calculator and revenue management fee calculator, live prices read 28 October 2026.

This article is general information. It does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting, get advice from a licensed financial adviser, a registered tax agent, a solicitor and, for any lending, a licensed mortgage broker or lender. Worked examples use illustrative figures and are not a forecast of any property's income or costs.