Setting helpful house rules

Help protect your home and create a better experience for guests.
By Airbnb on Dec 1, 2020
2 min read
Updated Mar 9, 2023

Your house rules set expectations for guests and give them a preview of your hosting style. The rules also help guests evaluate whether your space is a good fit before they book it.

Selecting your standard house rules

Hosts can choose from a set of standard house rules in these areas:

  • Pets
  • Events
  • Smoking, vaping, and e-cigarettes 
  • Quiet hours 
  • Check-in and checkout times
  • Maximum number of guests
  • Commercial photography and filming 

Your house rules are featured prominently in four places: on your listing page, on a screen when guests book your space, in guests’ Pack Your Bags email, and in the Arrival Guide guests receive ahead of their trip. 

How house rules help protect you

With ground rules for guests, any rule you choose from the list of standard house rules can be enforced. If a guest violates a house rule, your first step should be to communicate with the guest and try to resolve the issue directly. If you’re unable to come to a resolution, contact Community Support for assistance.

Writing additional rules

If you have special requirements that aren’t included in the set of standard house rules, you can write them under additional rules. It’s best to avoid overwhelming guests with too many rules, but you can add anything important about local customs or health and safety. A few examples from Hosts:  

  • “We don’t have pavement, we have mud, so we ask that shoes are removed because the house is carpeted,” says Juliette, a Host Advisory Board member in Nairobi, Kenya. 
  • “Please close and lock all windows and doors when you leave the suite,” say Dave and Deb, Hosts in Edmonton, Canada.
  • “Please do not keep any food in the bedroom,” says Momi, a Host in Honolulu.

All additional rules must align with Airbnb’s policies and terms, including our terms of service and nondiscrimination policy.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.

Airbnb
Dec 1, 2020
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