Airbnb announced a significant policy change on October 21, 2026 that affects how hosts can structure checkout requirements for their guests. If you manage a short-term rental on Airbnb — or oversee hosts who do — this update requires a review of your listing's house rules and checkout instructions. Non-compliant requests are now flagged by Airbnb before guests even book, which affects how your listing is perceived and can affect your standing on the platform.
Here's what changed, what you can no longer ask of guests, and what you can still include.
What Airbnb Changed
The core of the new policy is a clearer boundary between what counts as a reasonable checkout task and what Airbnb now considers an excessive chore burden on guests. Airbnb's position — consistent with years of guest feedback — is that guests pay a cleaning fee precisely so they don't have to perform significant cleaning work before they leave.
Under the updated policy, hosts are prohibited from requiring guests to perform what Airbnb categorizes as significant checkout chores. The specific examples Airbnb has cited include stripping beds, taking out trash or recycling bins, running the dishwasher, mopping or vacuuming floors, and loading or starting laundry. These are tasks that, when bundled together, effectively make guests do a meaningful portion of the cleaning for which they already paid.
What You Can Still Ask Guests to Do
The new policy isn't a blanket ban on checkout instructions. Airbnb distinguishes between significant chore requirements and basic courtesy tasks that are reasonable to expect from any guest.
Hosts can still ask guests to: check out by the stated checkout time, return keys or access devices if applicable, turn off lights and lock the doors, consolidate trash into bags (without requiring them to take bins to the curb), and treat the property with general care during their stay. Asking guests to leave the space in a reasonable condition — not requiring a deep clean — is still within bounds.
The line Airbnb is drawing is between "please be considerate" and "please clean the place." The first is still acceptable. The second is what the cleaning fee exists to cover.
How Airbnb Is Enforcing the Change
Airbnb is implementing this through an automated review of checkout instructions. Listings that include prohibited checkout tasks are flagged — guests see a notification before booking that the host's checkout requirements may not comply with Airbnb's policy. This is visible to potential guests and creates a friction point that can reduce bookings.
Hosts who receive a flag need to update their house rules and checkout instructions through the Airbnb dashboard. Once updated, the flag is removed. Repeated non-compliance can have broader implications for your listing's visibility and your account standing, so it's worth addressing this promptly rather than waiting to see whether it affects your bookings.
What This Means for Cleaning Fees
Some hosts structured their cleaning fee calculations assuming guests would handle a portion of the work — stripping beds, running the dishwasher, taking out garbage. If those tasks are no longer permissible, the full cost of turnover cleaning falls to your cleaning team, and your cleaning fee may need to be recalibrated to reflect that.
This is a useful moment to review both your cleaning fee and your cleaning service's scope of work. A cleaning fee that made sense when guests were expected to strip beds and run a load of laundry may be thin if your cleaner now arrives to a unit that hasn't been touched at all. Getting ahead of that now avoids the scenario where your cleaner's costs creep up while your cleaning fee stays static.
How We're Handling This for Our Managed Properties
At Coasting Properties, we've already begun auditing the checkout instructions and house rules for all of the short-term rental properties we manage. Any instructions that fall under Airbnb's prohibited categories are being updated. We're also reviewing cleaning fee structures with our cleaning partners to make sure they reflect the actual scope of work going forward.
If you're self-managing an Airbnb listing, log into your hosting dashboard and review your checkout instructions now. Look specifically for any tasks that involve laundry, dishes, floors, or trash removal beyond bag consolidation. Update or remove those items, save your changes, and verify that any compliance flags have cleared.
Managing an Airbnb listing and keeping up with platform policy changes?
This is exactly the kind of update that's easier to stay ahead of with a management team in your corner. We track platform policy changes, update listing configurations, and keep your property compliant — so you don't have to watch for every announcement yourself.
Talk to Us About ManagementOr learn more about our short-term rental services on our services page.