Some hosts are threatening to strike, while others are plotting ways around Airbnb’s new restrictions. Guests, meanwhile, are celebrating.

AIRBNB HOSTS ARE melting down over a new policy banning them from making guests complete tasks that “would typically be performed by a cleaner,” like “stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes.”

The change, which applies to all bookings made on or after November 20, quickly sparked outrage after it was announced in an email to Airbnb hosts on Wednesday. Many began fuming online about losing the right to make their guests clean up after themselves.

“As hosts, we have a responsibility to protect our investments, our homes, and, in many cases, our personal living spaces,” one person wrote in Airbnb’s official forum for hosts. “The problem is that Airbnb increasingly expects hosts to accept the risks while limiting our ability to protect ourselves.”

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[–] -4 points 2 days ago (11 children)

I'm not saying there aren't unreasonable demands at some airbnbs/vrbos/etc, but every time I hear people talk about this it's just things like dishes and trash, and maybe stripping the bed. Pretty much every vacation in my life that I have been on I have had to do these things. They aren't difficult and they don't take long. If you're staying somewhere for a while, you're probably doing the dishes anyways because you run out. I just don't get why people complain about these super minor things.

And just to reiterate what I said in the first sentence, I know some rentals take it way further than this and do have truly unreasonable demands. It's just that a lot of times when I hear people talk about this it's something simple like that. It takes like two minutes to strip a bed. It takes like five minutes to load and start a dishwasher (which you're probably already loading it as you go anyways, so less). Taking the trash out is usually easy too since you're leaving anyways, it's sort of on the way usually.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    when the comparation is hotels those are outrageous demands

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (2 children)

    I have stayed in condos/cabins generally, not hotels. The idea of doing the dishes in a hotel doesn't even make sense, a hotel room doesn't even have a dishwasher or a even a kitchen. It's a totally different concept.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    there are hotels with suites that have kitchens

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    Yes, and those are the exception, not the rule. Even apart from that though, you're sort of expected to be somewhat tidy in a hotel. You aren't meant to be a slob and just trash it. You should have trash in the receptacles and such. So in a suite with a kitchen, "rules" aside, I think most people would consider it polite to at least have dishes in the sink, and probably rinsed off. Like if all the dishes were covered in hard crusty food and all over the place, that would be considered rude. I don't see an issue with codifying expectations like that into rules, and I don't think that rinsing the dishes, loading the dishwasher, and starting it is honestly that difficult of a task. It's just things I would do anyways after eating. I don't want a bunch of nasty dishes hanging out in the sink.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (6 children)

    Pretty much every vacation in my life that I have been on I have had to do these things.

    You have?

    I go on vacation, and the places I stay have housekeeping services do all of that.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (5 children)

    Things like cabins in the mountains and condos at the beach don't have house keeping services that come in every day.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    That sounds like a problem for the investor to solve. They certainly CAN have housekeeping coming daily, if the investor chooses to do so.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    I mean, obviously. They can choose to do anything. They could choose to make it free too, if the investor chose to do so. It's just very different going to some cabin in the mountains versus a bunch of rooms in a hallway. And again, I'm only talking about the idea of small things like doing the dishes. I've seen some things I do consider unreasonable, but I don't think dishes are unreasonable. Asking me to wash the bed sheets and remake the beds, that's an example of something that I find unreasonable. Just wanting all the used sheets and towels in one pile, that's easy and doesn't take any time.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (2 children)

    See, none of these would likely be an issue, if there wasn't also an additional $300 cleaning fee attached.

    Would I do the dishes, even, if I knew there was a $300 cleaning fee? Nope. Same with stripping the beds. Have the cleaner that is supposed to come through after each turnover, and handle it. That's what that cleaning fee is for, isn't it?

    Regardless, I don't care about the parasites having to figure out how to solve the issue. I'll sleep just fine. Is it more expensive because it's some tucked away cabin? Yep. But, like anyone who chooses to operated a business in such a location, that's a problem for them to solve, and I, again, do not care about their business problems.

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