Ground rules and safety requirements for service and experience hosts

Services and experiences must be high-quality and safe. That’s why we require hosts (including co-hosts) to honor reservations, describe their listing accurately, be prepared to host, respect property, and meet certain safety requirements.

Learn more about safety and quality expectations for homes.

Review ratings

Hosts and their listings should deliver reliable and high-quality services and experiences and should avoid too many low ratings. We’ve found that service and experience hosts who get great reviews tend to honor reservations and refunds, have listings that are accurate, be prepared, and respect property.

Honoring reservations and refunds

Hosts should honor confirmed reservations and honor their promises to refund or compensate guests in a timely manner.

• Cancellations: Hosts should not cancel confirmed reservations, unless there are certain valid reasons beyond the host’s control that make hosting impossible. Even in these cases, hosts should do their best to cancel with as much lead time as possible and contact Airbnb if they need help. Hosts may not ask the guest to cancel the reservation on their behalf.
  
  
• Promised Refunds: Hosts should honor their promises to refund or compensate guests (ex: offering a refund to a guest to compensate for a service that wasn’t completed on time, etc.) in a timely manner.

Accuracy

Hosts must deliver the service or experience that they promised to guests. This includes being accurate about the following:

• Host identity: The person providing the service or experience must be the specific host or co-host disclosed to the guest in advance of the activity, unless Airbnb designates the host as an exempt business host.
• Assistants: An assistant may be present for the activity, but this must be disclosed to the guest before the guest’s free cancellation period ends. The disclosure must state that the assistant is solely selected and supervised by the host. This disclosure is not required for exempt business hosts.
• Location information: Guests should be able to find the service or experience.
• Guest requirements: The listing should disclose any guest requirements (ex: skill level or equipment requirements).
• Start and end time: A service or experience must start and end at the times advertised to guests.
• Booking details: The host may not change confirmed booking details (ex: price, time, date, and location) without the guest’s prior consent, and must honor any commitments made to the guest.
• Promised activity: The listing page should accurately represent the service or experience provided. Any content that misrepresents the listing or misleads guests violates policy. We will ask hosts to remove content if AI or other digital technology has been used to edit flaws, hide damage, add amenities or attributes that are not part of a listing, or otherwise misrepresent the listing.

Preparedness

A host must be prepared to provide the service or experience. This includes doing the following:

• When the host selects the venue, the host must ensure that it's appropriate for the activity, clean, and ready at the start time.
• The host must supply any equipment or other materials that are necessary for the activity, except for items that the host specified the guest should bring before booking. These equipment and materials must be clean and in good working condition.

Respect for property

Where the guest provides a venue or the service or experience takes place in a public place, the host must refrain from damaging property and must clean up after themselves.

Safety requirements

To promote the safety of services and experiences, hosts must:

• Provide all necessary safety equipment, and ensure all the equipment provided is hygienic and in safe, working order.
• Arrange for safe and hygienic venues and address any safety hazards in host-selected venues (ex: fix electrical hazards or switch to a safe venue).
• Disclose safety hazards that are inherent to the listing (ex: accessible bodies of water or high heights) and that guests wouldn’t expect to be present.
• Deliver proper training and instruction to prevent injury.
• Behave responsibly and not endanger participants.
• Have a plan for dealing with emergencies.

Additional expectations for specialized activities

Quality and safety considerations may vary depending on the type of activity, and hosts are responsible for ensuring their specific offerings are high quality and safe. We've provided additional expectations for hosts delivering the following types of services or experiences:

• Family activities
• Activities involving food or alcohol
• Cosmetic and wellness activities
• Animal activities

Enforcing these rules

When violations of these rules are reported, hosts or their listings may be suspended or removed from the platform. Hosts are accountable for violations by their co-hosts and assistants.

Airbnb may also take other actions, such as educating hosts about this policy, issuing warnings, canceling an upcoming or active reservation, refunding a guest from a host’s payout, or requiring hosts to provide proof that they have addressed issues before they can resume hosting.

In addition, a host who cancels a confirmed reservation, or is found to be responsible for a cancellation, may face other consequences like cancellation fees. Airbnb may waive cancellation fees and, in some cases, other consequences if the host cancels because of certain valid reasons beyond their control. Details can be found in our Host Cancellation Policy for Services and Experiences.

Appealing violations

Hosts may appeal decisions under this policy by contacting us directly or through the link provided in the enforcement email to start the appeals process. In reviewing appeals, we’ll consider additional details the host provides, such as new or corrected information, violations of our policy on authentic and trustworthy reviews, or other relevant circumstances.

Reporting a violation

Airbnb encourages guests to promptly report violations. When a guest is dealing with a violation of the ground rules for service and experience hosts, we ask that they:

• Communicate with the host—the host is in the best position to quickly resolve issues.
• Document the issue using the Airbnb message thread, photos, etc.
• If the host can't resolve the issue, contact us to report the issue directly or request a refund through the Resolution Center.
• Leave an honest review with feedback so that the host can improve for future guests.

In the unlikely event of a safety issue during a reservation, we’re here to help:

• If there’s an emergency in progress, please contact local emergency services or law enforcement authorities for assistance. If you're unfamiliar with local emergency services phone numbers, you can use Airbnb to dial emergency services now.
• Otherwise you can contact Airbnb through our dedicated 24-hour safety line.