A clear and simple checkout

Checkout should require very little effort from guests and Hosts. Until now, Hosts had to remind guests of checkout time and communicate about basic checkout tasks, like shutting off the lights or turning down the heat. 

We heard that you wanted an easier way to give your guests checkout details. Based on your feedback, we designed upgrades to make checkout smoother for you and your guests. 

Now you can add checkout instructions directly on Airbnb, similar to the way you enter standard house rules. 

Quickly create a checkout list by selecting from these common tasks: 

• Gather used towels
• Throw trash away
• Turn things off
• Lock up
• Return keys

You can add details for each task. For example, you might specify that guests put trash in one bin and recycling in another. You can also write requests that are specific to your home, such as covering the grill after use.

Guests can access checkout instructions directly on their Airbnb Trips tab. They’ll find them alongside directions to your place, house rules, wifi info, and other important details. Like your house rules, guests can read your checkout instructions before they book your place. 

Remember that guests expect an easy checkout without any cleaning tasks. But they shouldn’t leave your place in a state that requires excessive or deep cleaning, as per ground rules for guests. 

“We want to keep our checkout process as simple as possible,” says Keshav, a Host Advisory Board member in New Delhi. “The cleaner comes in and does everything that needs to be done.”

We’ll send guests an automatic reminder with your checkout time and instructions. This is sent as a push notification to your guest’s mobile device the day before checkout at 5:00 PM in the time zone where they’re staying. 

Guests need to have the Airbnb app downloaded and push notifications enabled to receive this reminder. Once they check out, guests can let you know they’ve left with a single tap or click. 

You might want to emphasize why a timely checkout is necessary. “I tell guests the cleaner will arrive at 11:00 AM to prepare the apartment for the next guests, so they understand why it’s important to leave on time,” says Joh, a Superhost in San Francisco.

Our new checkout cards let you easily send checkout info to guests. Once you enter checkout instructions, you can add a checkout card to a quick reply or scheduled message. The card will link to your instructions.

Though Airbnb will automatically send a reminder to guests the night before checkout, you’re always in control of your experience with guests. You may want to set up a scheduled message to send a checkout reminder directly to your guests’ Airbnb inbox, in case they don’t have the app downloaded or don’t have push notifications turned on.

After guests depart, they can give their Host’s communication a star rating and specify what went well or could have gone better. For example, they might report “excessive checkout tasks” as they review their trip. Listings with repeated low ratings from unreasonable tasks can be removed from Airbnb.

Guests still choose one to five stars for their overall stay. Feedback and star ratings for specific categories, like communication, won’t impact Superhost status. 

These checkout features are part of the Airbnb 2023 Summer Release, featuring 25 upgrades for Hosts. Opt in to Early Access to start using these new tools today.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.