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.”
Based on my own experience with homeexchange: I don’t want to hire professional cleaners to come clean up my home after hosting guests. I don’t want to clean up after my guests either. I allow them to stay in my home without a cleaning fee, and part of the social contract is that they clean up after themselves.
It’s the exact same as when I allow my friends to stay in my home while I’m away. They clean up after themselves.
Cleaning up after staying in someone else’s home is just obvious common decency. What has happened here is that airbnb no longer is a platform for letting people stay in your home, it’s a platform for running hotels in buildings where people used to live. Some people are still however left on the platform inviting people into their homes without hiring dedicated cleaners, charging cleaning fees, or running a big operation. These people are fucked over by this.
My partner’s grandmother used to lease out a few free rooms in her house using airbnb. She stopped partly because the mess some privileged assholes would leave behind would take her days to clean up.
If friends come over I don’t expect them to vacuum, do the laundry and redo the bed.
They also don’t expect the place to be spotless like a hotel when they arrive.
If they stay for a couple of nights or while I’m around, no. Sometimes I’m gone for weeks and I allow friends to use my home, at which point I absolutely expect them to at the very least vacuum.
Do you charge your friends for their stay? Do you charge your friends a cleaning fee, while still expecting all of that?
Obviously not?
However, I did at some point consider renting out my free room for a few months at a time. In the end I didn’t have to do this as my partner moved in with me instead and we share the rent. If someone paid money to live with me in my home I would still, very much, expect them to clean after themselves. I also expect my partner to contribute to cleaning even though we split the rent.
Last time I checked Ainbnbs also didn’t always charge a cleaning fee; it was up to the host to do so or not. I haven’t used airbnb in years though, so it might have changed since then.
I must say I’m a bit horrified by the seeming reluctance of people in this thread to clean up after themselves. To me this is a minimum fucking standard of human decency, whether it’s a public space, a friends’ place, somebody else’s home, a hotel room, a café, whatever. I can see how being charged a hefty cleaning fee fucks with willingness to tidy up, but these cleaning fees are so high precisely because of people who don’t give a fuck and leave behind an absolute mess wherever they go. These people are the reason we cannot have nice things.
The thing is, the vast majority of Air BnB listings are not just someone looking for a temp roommate. They are investment properties, operated like hotels, without the amenities of hotels, but with all the non-personal service of hotels.
When I stay at a hotel, I don’t have to clean the room, strip the sheets, and do laundry. Housekeeping does all of that.
The same applies to Air BnBs now, and the hosts have nobody to blame but themselves.
And it’s correct, hosts don’t have to charge a cleaning fee. Most do, and come with a chorebook that if you don’t do them, they charge you even more. On top of the 3x what it would cost to stay in a hotel.
So yeah, if you’re charging $300 as a cleaning fee, I’ll be damned if I’m cleaning the unit myself.
Clearly then we are talking about different things. I am talking based on principle and the experiences of the few people I know who have rented out space in their homes on airbnb; I have long stopped paying attention to the different ways in which the platform is enshittifying. If it’s a discussion about airbnb in particular I think the only acceptable thing at this point is to not use it.
Probably. I’m talking about the actual, current landscape of AirBnB, not “What I envision it should be”.
There’s onsie-twosie listings like what used to be there, of course. The vast majority, however, are not. They are just investment properties. Running essentially a hotel, without the regulations covering hotels.
Agreed. I do feel for the people who are still trying to use it as a “i’m out for the month, let me rent my space out” or “I have a spare bedroom”, and hope something crops up like a housing coop or something.
The thing is? Most AirBnB listings aren’t someone’s home. They are just an investment property.
With “most” being an important word. You still have normal people trying to get by, but they are being drowned out.
Airbnb started out as a service that made it easier for people to pay rent, and has transformed into the main reason why people cannot afford it. It is so far gone by now that there’s nothing left to save, but in principle rules like this makes it harder for normal people to make ends meet by allowing people to stay in their guest room.
Last time I checked there were still normal people on airbnb. As there’s no real alternative out there and people need the money I assume they are still around.
There’s still alternatives, if you don’t like Air BnB. Self managing your rentals is still there. Of course, instead of paying Air BnB you need to pay a marketer, probably the local tourism board, etc etc.
I get it, the service went down hill, though, for the people trying to just let out a room while they are away for a week. But the vast majority of Air BnB listings are not that, anymore.
Yeah. I would love to see a service pop up for short-term rentals where people can only rent out places where they actively live at least part time, but I agree that this is not what airbnb is any more. At this point airbnb is little more than a cancer in the housing market.