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Airbnb’s new cleaning rules have sparked internet fights, with hosts whining that they can’t make guests wash dishes and do laundry anymore and guests celebrating the controversial move.
“Running the dishwasher and taking the trash out isn't hard. It's the courteous thing to do,” Joe Peters, who identifies himself as a “short-term rental pro” on X, wrote.
“Airbnb hosts are so out of touch with how the world works,” one X user hit back. “Customers are increasingly avoiding the platform because they don’t want to deal with cleaning responsibilities.”
The social media feuds have sprung up in the last few days after the vacation rental site announced plans to rein in hosts after guests complained about arriving to a list of chores at their temporary home—all while hosts charge a cleaning fee.
Starting November 20, hosts can only make reasonable requests for guests. For example, guests can be asked to put dirty dishes in the sink, but they shouldn’t be asked to wash them. Hosts can also ask guests to gather used towels, but they shouldn’t be asked to strip the bed or start a load of laundry.
Some Airbnb hosts are up in arms over the new changes, with one saying they thought the notice couldn’t have been real, but instead “a malicious cyberattack on the platform.”
“I cannot accept that guests who lack common decency should be within their rights to leave a place dirty,” the host who goes by Marie from Mulhouse, France, wrote on an Airbnb community forum. “So, for the time being, I have suspended my listing, signed the petition, and expressed my dissatisfaction to Airbnb.”
Another host, Stuart from Campbell River, Canada, wrote on the forum: “As hosts, we have a responsibility to protect our investments, our homes, and, in many cases, our personal living spaces.”
But Airbnb guests and real estate experts aren’t buying it.
“Too many people with zero customer service skills decided they wanted to run a single Ritz-Carlton and provide Motel 6 service,” one X user who says they’ve been in the real estate business since 2001 wrote.
Another X user said she was “vindicated” by the new rules after complaining in a December 2024 post about a cabin she had rented that she said had “like 20 things to do before check-out.”
There were some social media users who defended hosts, saying that cleaning rules some find excessive are things people should normally do.
“Putting the dishes in the dishwasher, taking out the trash, pulling the sheets off the bed....they are just standard things any normal person would do when staying at a house,” one person wrote on X. “Why wouldn't a host be allowed to say that?”
Another replied: “Because they’re not houseguests. They’re paying customers.
“The same way no one helps the restaurant cleanup or do dishes after dinner is over, even though that would be totally normal if you went to a friends dinner get together.”
One X user speculated that Airbnb’s new changes were because the company was losing guests over how hosts were treating them.
“I think the Airbnb hosts need to realize that Airbnb aren't changing the rules out of the goodness of their hearts,” the person wrote. “Your poor treatment of guests is making them lose money. They are losing customers because you want to have your cake and eat it too.”
While Airbnb reported strong earnings for the second fiscal quarter in August, with $3.6 billion in revenue, the rental site had help from their expanded services. Airbnb now offers grocery delivery, car rentals and even some boutique and independent hotel listings — slightly detouring from its original goal of being an alternative to hotels.
But most U.S. travelers still prefer a traditional hotel over short-term rentals such as Airbnb, according to an October 2025 survey by Upgraded Points, a website that helps people maximize their travel rewards.
The survey found that about 60 percent of U.S. travelers preferred hotels. When asked why Americans prefer hotels, another roughly 60 percent said it was because of no cleaning rules or fees.
Airbnb has said that the rule change was based on customer demand.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
“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.”