Airbnb's House Rules Change: The Listing Audit to Run Before November 20

Airbnb announced on October 20 that it is limiting what hosts can put in their house rules. The change applies to bookings made on or after November 20, 2026. Bookings made before that date keep the rules that were on the listing when the guest booked.

From that date Airbnb enforces 7 standard house rules. Everything else becomes a request that guests are encouraged, but not required, to follow. Fines, surprise fees, checkout chores, and most rental agreements and ID checks are out.

Some of those were real protections, so the frustration is understandable. Airbnb spends millions marketing listings and, like Marriott or Hilton, it runs one set of policies across all of its inventory. For an owner with one property this is an afternoon of editing. Our team manages 300+ properties across 50+ cities and 7 countries, so for us it is the same edit on every listing, plus two things that now have to carry the weight the rules used to carry: the cleaner checklist and the damage claim process.

Here is what changed, and what we are changing on the properties we manage.

House Rules and Requests Are Now Two Separate Lists

Every listing now carries 2 lists. Airbnb's help center puts it simply: guests must follow hosts' house rules, and are encouraged to comply with hosts' requests.

The difference shows up when something goes wrong. If a guest breaks a house rule, you can cancel the reservation without a penalty. If a guest ignores a request, you cannot.

Everything also has to be on the listing before the guest books. Airbnb says hosts may not communicate new house rules or requests in other sections of the listing or after booking. A checkout message reminding guests to lock up is fine. A laminated sign on the fridge that introduces a new rule is not. If you have rules living in a welcome book or a check-in message rather than on the listing itself, they are not rules at all now.

The 7 Rules Airbnb Will Enforce, and the Edit Each One Needs

1. Max overnight guests. Keep it, but drop language like removal without a refund. Airbnb handles refunds when you cancel.
2. Quiet hours. Keep it. Our team uses 10pm.
3. Events. Keep no parties. Small pre-approved gatherings move to your requests.
4. Pets. Allowed or not, and how many. Use Airbnb's pet fee field instead of writing a fee into your rules. Size, breed and crate preferences become requests. Service animals are always allowed, which is worth understanding properly before you set this one.
5. Smoking and vaping. Keep the rule, remove any flat charge attached to it.
6. Commercial photography and filming. New for most hosts. Turn it on if you do not want photo shoots at your property.
7. Lock up at checkout. Also new. Say how keys get returned. Lockbox codes stay in your check-in instructions, not here.

Exterior camera disclosure is not one of the 7. It stays in your listing's safety section, where it has always belonged.

Everything Else Becomes a Request

Rules that do not fit the 7 move to requests. Asking locals or guests under 23 to contact you first, asking guests to report cleaning issues within 2 hours, asking guests not to light candles: all still worth including, none of them binding.

Chores get a specific limit. Airbnb says hosts generally may not ask guests to complete tasks that require significant effort or time.

• Still fine to ask: put dishes in the sink, gather used towels, sort trash into indoor bins.
• No longer fine: wash dishes, strip beds, start laundry, take trash off-site.

This is the part that costs money rather than time. If your cleaning fee was priced on the assumption that guests strip the beds and start a load of towels, that assumption is gone. Either the cleaner's checklist grows or the fee does. Work out which before November 20, not after the first turnover that runs long.

Fines and Surprise Fees Come Out of Your Listing Text

Airbnb's policy says hosts generally may not impose fines or other penalties on guests, and any fee for an advertised part of the listing has to be included in the price shown at booking.

On a lot of listings that means deleting a $200 smoking charge, a $50 late checkout fee, a mailing fee for forgotten items, or an extra cleaning fee for an excessively dirty unit.

• Paid late checkout can stay as an optional add-on in your requests.
• Damage waivers still work on Airbnb, but the cost has to sit inside the nightly rate rather than appear as a separate line. We went through where a waiver fits and where it quietly costs bookings in our piece on waivers versus deposit authorizations.
• Security deposits: industry reports say many hosts can no longer charge one. Check your listing settings, and if a deposit was part of your protection plan, read our breakdown of what a deposit actually protects.

How You Still Get Paid for Damage

Without a flat fee, you recover the real cost after the stay. The sequence is the same one our team runs on every claim:

1. Photograph everything before you clean or repair it.
2. Within 14 days of checkout, request the money in the Resolution Center.
3. Send the photos and the invoice. The guest has 24 hours to pay, pay part, or decline.
4. If they decline or go quiet, escalate to Airbnb for an AirCover review.

AirCover covers guest damage and specialized cleaning such as smoke odor, pet accidents and stains. It does not cover normal turnover cleaning, wear and tear, or stays booked outside Airbnb. Our full guide to what AirCover actually covers goes through the gaps, and if you want the filing steps as a working document, download the AirCover Claims Checklist here.

A $200 smoke claim can still be paid. The difference is that a $200 invoice now has to back it up. That is an operational change more than a policy one. Somebody has to photograph the damage on the day, hold the invoice, and file inside 14 days, every time, or the money is simply gone. It is the same standard we wrote up in our piece on turnover documentation, and this change makes it the only thing standing between you and absorbing the cost.

Rental Agreements, Guest ID and Local Law

Airbnb now says hosts generally may not ask guests to sign a separate contract or rental agreement. The exceptions are agreements required by law or an HOA, optional amenities such as a golf cart, stays of 28 nights or more, and Luxe listings. If you keep one, upload it to the listing. It is public, so strip out anything personal.

The same goes for personal data. ID copies, contact details, background checks and required third-party sign-ups are out, with limited exceptions. Keyless entry apps are fine as long as guests can ask for another way in.

Local law still wins. Airbnb allows collection where it is needed to comply with applicable law or a documented community association rule. In Riverside County, California, the county requires a copy of guest ID and a signed Good Neighbor acknowledgment, so our team keeps collecting both for the property we manage there. If you collect something for a legal reason, say what and why in your requests, and keep the ordinance on file.

Your Direct Booking Site Is Untouched

None of this applies to your own site. Your full rental agreement, your deposit and your ID check all stay exactly as they are on direct bookings.

Worth noting that this is the second platform change in a month that owners had no say in, after the Vrbo host fee. Neither one is a reason to leave the channels, they book your calendar. They are a reason to make sure the channels are not the only thing booking it. If one platform's policy can rewrite your protections overnight, that is worth reading as a dependency signal, and the case for a direct booking site gets a little stronger each time it happens.

What We Would Check Across a Portfolio This Week

Which listings still carry penalty language inside the 7 enforceable rules. Whether everything else was moved into requests rather than deleted, because a request still shapes behaviour even though it is not binding. Every dollar figure in your listing text, since that is where the fines hide. Whether the cleaning fee or the cleaner checklist absorbed the chores guests will no longer do. Whether the two new rules, commercial filming and lock up at checkout, are switched on at all. Whether anything you collect for a legal reason is named, explained and documented. And whether your onboarding template was updated, so the property that goes live next month does not inherit the old rules.

None of it is complicated. It is a short pass per listing, multiplied by however many listings you have, and the deadline is fixed. If you run more than a handful of properties, write the wording once and apply it across the portfolio rather than editing each listing from scratch. The rules are standardized now, so your copy may as well be.

Want help setting up your STR for long-term performance? The team at Corzly manages properties across multiple markets and helps operators build the systems that drive results. Reach out here.

This article was inspired by this episode of the Short-Term Rental Riches podcast.