Airbnb Bars Hosts From Making Guests Strip Beds, Wash Dishes or Take Out the Rubbish on Bookings From 20 November: What It Means in Portugal

Airbnb has rewritten what hosts may ask of guests. Under a new "Reasonable house rules and requests" policy, which applies to reservations booked on or after 20 November 2026, hosts generally may no longer ask guests to strip beds, start a wash, wash and put away dishes or take rubbish off the premises. Earlier bookings keep the old rules, even for later stays.

This is Airbnb's own policy, announced on 20 October on its host pages and reported in Portugal on 22 October by DN, citing The Guardian and the BBC. It is not an EU ruling or a Portuguese law.

What hosts can and cannot ask

Airbnb now sets seven standard house rules: maximum overnight guests, quiet hours, events, pets, smoking, commercial photography and filming, and locking up at checkout. Guests must follow these, and a host can cancel without penalty if one is broken. Everything else is a "request", which guests are only encouraged to follow, and requests must be reasonable. Airbnb's examples:

• Dishes: used dishes can be left in the sink, not washed and put away.
• Laundry: guests can gather used towels, but should not remove sheets or start a load.
• Rubbish: guests can sort waste and recycling into indoor bins, but should not take it off-site.
• Utilities: guests can be asked to switch off the air conditioning on leaving, not to avoid using it.

Hosts also generally cannot fine guests, restrict an advertised feature or charge for one outside the price shown at booking. All rules must appear in one section of the listing before booking, and none can be added later by message, sign or in person. Separate contracts and ID requests are barred except where the law requires them and in a few other cases.

What is binding, and on whom

The policy binds hosts through Airbnb's terms, not by law. Airbnb will flag non-compliant requests in the listing editor and hosts can appeal. If a problem persists, guests may see a notice such as "includes cleaning requests", and the listing can lose search visibility. Cleaning fees stay: Airbnb's guest rules already say they cover standard cleaning and that hosts may not charge guests for skipping checkout tasks.

Price display is older ground: in 2019, after action by the EU's Consumer Protection Cooperation network led by the Norwegian Consumer Authority, Airbnb began showing the total price, including cleaning charges and local taxes, in search results.

What it means for alojamento local hosts

Portuguese law already covers much of this. The alojamento local (short-term rental) law, Decreto-Lei n.º 128/2014, requires every unit to keep an information book on its internal rules, including waste sorting and noise, in Portuguese, English and at least two other languages. Asking guests to sort recycling therefore stays allowed.

The legal exception matters too. Under the foreigners' law, Lei n.º 23/2007, anyone renting out accommodation for payment must report each foreign guest, EU citizens included, to the GNR or PSP within three working days, so hosts may keep collecting those details. Owners are separately drafting their first white paper on short-term rentals.

Where guests can complain

A problem with the property goes to the host first. Every alojamento local must keep a Livro de Reclamações (complaints book), on paper and online at livroreclamacoes.pt, and complaints go to ASAE, the economic and food safety authority. A dispute with the platform is with Airbnb Ireland UC in Dublin, its contracting company for European users. The Direção-Geral do Consumidor (Directorate-General for Consumers) advises complaining to the trader in writing first, then turning to a consumer arbitration centre; the Centro Europeu do Consumidor (European Consumer Centre) handles cross-border cases. The same routes apply to Booking.com.