Airbnb's Terms of Service were last updated on February 5, 2026, and hosts with older accounts had to accept them from April 20, 2026 to keep receiving bookings and using their host tools. The rules that shook hosts in spring 2025 still apply: every mandatory fee shown at checkout, no payments outside Airbnb, no direct security deposits for most hosts. In 2026 Airbnb also moved hosts to a single 15.5% service fee. Here is what the Terms require from hosts today, what changed and when, and how to stay compliant.
AI co-host, channel manager, cleaning automation, smart locks, welcome guide, all at EUR 12/month per property after the trial.
Start free trialUpdated October 2026. Airbnb’s current Terms of Service are dated February 5, 2026. They applied immediately to accounts created from that date, and users with older accounts had to accept them from April 20, 2026 to keep booking stays, receiving bookings and using their host tools. What changed for hosts in 2026:
The rules on fees, payments and guest contact described below come from the 2025 update and remain in force.
In an email sent to hosts in April 2025, Airbnb left little room for ambiguity: as of May 10, 2025, only listings that had agreed to the new terms and conditions would remain visible on the platform. It was a strong signal to its host community, at a time when short-term rentals faced increasing regulatory pressure and platform competition was intensifying.
“You can feel they’re locking everything down. For a long time, we could add extra fees or offer services on the side, without Airbnb commission. That’s over now. And it’s not a minor update: it questions an entire business model,” says Michel A., manager of 14 rentals in Marseille (France).
👉 Here is the link to the Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy, still in force in 2026
Planning a trip involves comparing countless options, and few things are more frustrating than realizing, at the last step, that the price you initially saw doesn’t reflect the real cost. To meet the growing demand for transparency, Airbnb now displays the total price of the stay (excluding taxes) directly in search results.
The idea is simple: put an end to “unfair pricing” practices, where only a base nightly rate was shown, excluding additional fees like cleaning or service charges and giving users a misleading sense of affordability. Previously, travelers had to click into each listing to uncover the real total price, making comparisons time-consuming and unclear.
Since April 21, 2025, this total price display (all fees included, before taxes) has been the standard for guests worldwide, making it easier to compare listings, make informed decisions, and build trust in the platform.
Behind its rhetoric of “transparency and fairness for guests,” Airbnb is primarily focused on eliminating any workaround that allows hosts to bypass its service fees. The goal is crystal clear: maximize all financial flows through the platform to apply its service fee, which in 2026 becomes a single 15.5% fee paid by hosts (16% in Brazil and Mexico).
To achieve this, Airbnb is now locking down three key areas:
This shift aligns with Airbnb’s post-IPO context. Since its 2020 stock market debut, the company is under pressure to deliver consistent earnings. The profitability of a matchmaking model like Airbnb’s depends on its ability to capture the full scope of financial transactions it enables.
Airbnb’s message is clear: everything that can be monetized must go through its system. This now includes fees that used to be at the host’s discretion: electricity, mid-stay cleaning, pet charges, parking, pool heating, and even direct security deposits (now banned except in very rare, clearly defined exceptions).
All mandatory charges must be disclosed in the appropriate fee field, or in the nightly price if there is no field, so that the total at checkout is accurate. This includes:
If there’s no dedicated field, they must be built into the price per night. Exception for taxes: where Airbnb does not collect them, or where you are legally required to collect them directly from guests, you disclose them in the listing description and may collect them outside Airbnb.
Note: Airbnb allows select software-connected hosts (connected through a PMS or channel manager) to collect disclosed mandatory fees and security deposits outside the platform. Airbnb decides who is eligible, and the fees must still be disclosed in the right fields.
Extras like parking, pool heating, or mid-stay cleaning must:
Important: These charges currently remain non-commissioned. But Airbnb can change that policy at any time. So stay alert.
Any modification (dates, length of stay, guest count) must now go through Airbnb’s platform.
In short: Airbnb is sealing every loophole to make sure every transaction is trackable and commissionable.
Word is, Airbnb already uses algorithms to scan messages for suspicious keywords like “wire transfer”, “discount”, or “book directly”.
You can no longer ask for a guest’s email or address before or even after booking, unless the guest requests it.
Airbnb prohibits anything that pulls guests out of its ecosystem. This includes:
Exceptions: Keyless entry, smart home and concierge apps (Sonos, Nest, smart locks) are allowed if they are optional. Apps or registrations required by law, HOA or building security rules are also allowed if the listing description explains them.
Good news: there are plenty of check-in solutions using keycodes or smart locks that don’t require any special app on the guest’s end.
You are no longer allowed to ask guests to leave a review outside of Airbnb. The company wants feedback to benefit its platform, and only its platform.
Most hosts are not allowed to charge a security deposit. Airbnb wants you to rely on AirCover, its host damage protection, which Airbnb states is not an insurance policy.
Where Airbnb does permit a deposit, it must be disclosed in the appropriate fee field, and only select software-connected hosts may collect it outside Airbnb. Hotels may still take a card or cash deposit for incidentals at check-in. For the trade-offs, see why security deposits often cost more than they protect.
Here are the risks faced by hosts:
Recourse is limited, but not zero. In the EU, Airbnb’s Terms for European users provide 30 days’ notice before Airbnb terminates your account for a reason other than a serious breach, and a statement of reasons where the law requires one (see how to recover from an OTA account suspension). With millions of listings worldwide, Airbnb can still afford to lose a few rule-breakers.
Unsurprisingly, these methods are sparking concern among both casual hosts and professionals, who aren’t used to such contractual imbalance.
In parallel, Airbnb seems to be rolling out the red carpet for a different audience: hotel professionals. They benefit from relaxed rules:
Clearly, Airbnb is trying to broaden its host base by wooing the hotel sector. A still largely untapped source of growth. And in a battle against Booking.com and Expedia, Airbnb wants to look like a credible alternative.
The 2025 update of the terms revealed Airbnb’s deeper ambition: to create a fully captive ecosystem. Payment control, communication restrictions, data lock-in… The platform is becoming what some call a “Big Brother of short-term rentals.” Or, more charitably, the central bank of vacation rentals, capturing value at every stage: booking, changes, disputes, insurance, messaging.
In other words: Airbnb is building a super-app. Everything happens in one closed ecosystem, theirs.
These rules have applied to all hosts since May 10, 2025, and the Terms dated February 5, 2026 keep them in place. And as always with Airbnb: not knowing the fine print is not an excuse.
🆘 Need help adjusting? Book your free 30-minute strategy call.
Free trial, no credit card. Onboard in minutes, scale to 100+ properties.
Try Nowistay free
Over 25 years of experience in real estate investing and a recognized expert in short-term rental automation. Bassel helps property managers increase revenue, cut operating costs, and deliver 5-star guest experiences using AI-powered tools he built from firsthand hosting experience.
