Airbnb host floats 'dishes and utensils fee' as guest chore ban sparks debate

It began with three air mattresses on the floor of a San Francisco apartment and two young men looking for a way to make extra money to help pay their rent.

Almost two decades later, Airbnb is a multi-billion-dollar company, with 9 million active listings across more than 220 countries and regions.

The global accommodation giant is embroiled in a dispute over who should wash the dishes, strip the beds and take out the rubbish when guests check out.

This week, Airbnb announced that from November 20, hosts would no longer be allowed to ask guests to complete a check-out chore list, having already paid a cleaning fee.

The changes sparked an outcry among hosts around the world, with online petitions launched against the new rules and some planning a "nationwide host blackout" on November 20, by closing their properties to bookings on that day.

Felicity Stevens leads Airbnb's Sydney host club, a network of about 800 members who rent out some of the world's most expensive properties.

She runs a cottage in Sydney's northern beaches that she has been renting out through Airbnb for 14 years.

"We pay a lot for the housekeepers because it's a job that's not a regular nine till five Monday to Friday job," she said.

She is far from alone.

A community centre chat on Airbnb has been flooded with frustrated posts from hosts reacting to the announcement.

"I find it completely unacceptable and utterly disrespectful to us hosts, who bend over backwards to welcome our guests in the best possible way … we are not our guests' servants," Sandy, from France, wrote.

Andrea from New York City said she would put up her prices.

"We could start charging a "dishes and utensil fee" for guests who don't want to use paper plates and plastic utensils," she wrote.

One woman, who owns three listings in Townsville, told the ABC earlier this week she was considering banning the use of her kitchen if guests were unwilling to clean their own dishes.

Ms Stevens said she understood why Airbnb had made the decision and that some hosts had gone "too far" with their check-out demands.

"You're on holiday … you're not there to water the plants, you're not there to be a caretaker," she said.

From home-sharing to a global business

In 2007, Airbnb's founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were struggling to afford their San Francisco apartment when they came up with an idea to make extra money.

With hotels booked out during a design conference, they offered visitors somewhere to sleep on air mattresses in their living room, with breakfast included.

The concept became Airbed & Breakfast, which officially launched in 2008. A year later, it was renamed Airbnb, and the business began expanding beyond spare rooms to entire apartments, houses and holiday properties.

Last year the company reported annual revenue of US$12.2 billion (A$17.4 billion) and had more than 9 million active listings.

Tourism and consumer behaviour researcher Sara Dolnicar said the platform had gradually moved away from its original home-sharing concept.

"It's slowly assimilated. It became more and more like hotels. And this is almost just the next step of assimilating," Professor Dolnicar said.

She said the growth of the platform had also changed what travellers expected from their accommodation.

"When Airbnb first started, everyone who booked knew, 'Oh, I'm in someone's house, it's not going to be perfect,'" she said.

"Now, as it became more perfect, the expectations also increased alongside that."

In a statement, Airbnb said the changes were designed to make house rules clearer and check-out requests more reasonable, while allowing hosts to continue setting and updating their rules.