Airbnb limits what chores guests can be asked to do

The days of being told to vacuum the floor, wash the dishes - and then pay a cleaning fee on top of it - may be numbered for Airbnb guests.Airbnb has updated its policy covering the rules hosts impose on guests, and says any requests to hosts must now be "reasonable"."For example, guests shouldn't be asked to wash and put away dishes, but hosts can ask them to put used dishes in the sink."It said any tasks required should not require significant effort or time, or typically be things that would be performed by a cleaner, such as stripping the bed or taking rubbish away.Host-imposed fines are not allowed and contracts are only permitted in some circumstances such as when required by law.Hosts could not restrict access to any feature of a property that was advertised as part of the listing."House rules help guests understand what hosts expect, but we've heard from our community that they can be confusing, onerous and hard to manage. So we've redesigned them to make them easier to discover and clearer to set, alongside a new policy that keeps requests reasonable, with no surprises," a spokesperson said.Hosts would be able to choose from seven standard house rules to add to their reasonable requests. They would also be displayed more prominently on the listing page.Consumer NZ spokesperson Jessica Walker said guests would welcome the change."People should leave premises in a reasonable state even if they have paid a cleaning fee, but on the other hand we completely understand why people are frustrated that they pay a cleaning fee and then have a whole list of chores to do before they leave a property."Bodo Lang, a marketing expert at Massey university, agreed."It comes down to expectations, and these are an important consideration. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction occur when consumers' expectations are exceeded or are not met. Guests who pay a cleaning charge may ask themselves why they are then asked to wipe surfaces clean and take linen off the beds. Those expectations are partially driven by the 'give and get' component of the system. Guests pay a cleaning fee, and they expect to receive the convenience of being able to simply leave their rental," he said."So far, so good. But, as always, outliers will test the system. Most guests and hosts would probably have some threshold in mind beyond which a rental is too dirty or messy, and reality falls well short of what most users think is reasonable. One only needs to think about what can occur in a bathroom if guests have a black and white interpretation of what it means to leave a place clean and tidy."These outliers are likely to result in disappointment for hosts. Negative reviews can help correct such behaviour, but hosts, particularly those who are new to Airbnb and don't have many reviews, may be reluctant to leave a negative review of guests because they fear the guests will retaliate with negative reviews of their own. So the built-in reputation system may not fully correct outliers."He said Airbnb seemed to have become more like a commercial provider of accommodation rather than a peer-to-peer platform."This is because some guests' expectations are driven by commercial accommodation, such as hotels. Therefore, some guests are treating Airbnb as if they are staying at a commercial property, not someone's residence. Airbnb's policy strengthens those expectations, encourages more transactional and commercial behaviour by guests, and subtly shifts Airbnb away from its peer-to-peer origins."Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make and spend money