Little, if anything, remains.
Perhaps you don’t know it or you’ve forgotten, but Airbnb is the contraction of “Airbed and breakfast“, that is a proposition built on a “blow-up mattress” laid on the floor and a “breakfast” upon waking, in the home of a stranger.
If the Californian giant quickly smothered couchsurfing, its cooperative and culturally exchange-based rival, it also rapidly renounced its origins by offering short-term rentals of apartments and entire housing units, without the stay of their owners.
It created a new market and democratized travel.
Yet now, Airbnb seems to be turning away entirely from the uniqueness with which it shaped the tourist industry as we know it today.
“Since the end of last week, something unprecedented has been happening.
It is 10 a.m. this Tuesday morning, and we have already received 60 host requests to be listed on GreenGo. And the emails keep coming; it’s a continuous flow. We will surely reach thousands of requests in just one week.
I have very clear indications to state that something is really happening in the Airbnb host community, testifies Guillaume Jouffre, cofounder of GreenGo, overwhelmed and glued to his phone.
What is happening for thousands of hosts to want to leave Airbnb?
Beyond the testimony of the head of the French startup, many hosts are publicly voicing their dissatisfaction.
It is a first. At the root of the anger of those who helped Airbnb achieve such scale in only two decades lies the publication of its new policy regarding the house rules.
On October 21, 2026, the platform announces that it will no longer be acceptable to “ask travelers to wash and tidy the dishes, but you may invite them to drop their dirty dishes in the sink.”
On social networks, hosts share their irritation.
Some are calling for a boycott of Airbnb, others have blocked reservations from November 20, while a petition demanding the removal of this provision has gathered more than 21,000 signatures. A protest call has even been issued.
The rally is planned for November 20 at 4:00 p.m., in front of Airbnb France’s headquarters.
It is indicated that the owners of accommodations must come with their “dirty dishes” (!) in order to hand them to Clément Eurly, the general manager for the French market.
And others have simply decided to leave the platform altogether to favor more ethically respectful and less directive operators in their guidelines.
This is how GreenGo has seen an unprecedented surge of requests from cottage and bed-and-breakfast owners, all without outreach and without denigrating the world giant.
“We hear from owners fed up with Airbnb’s actions.
We felt something had been brewing for a while, particularly since the shift in the collection method and the amount of the commission.
We do not position ourselves as representatives of hosts or of the discontent, but we have the sense that they have probably crossed a line that now pushes hosts to multiply their distribution channels“, confides the cofounder of GreenGo.
Airbnb’s reaction to the situation:
We have therefore rethought them to make them simpler to consult and we have implemented a new policy designed to ensure reasonable requests, with no unpleasant surprises.”
Hosts can now choose from seven standardized hosting rules and add reasonable requests, all in one place, and the rules are now more visible on the listing page, in the Travelers’ Trips tab, and in booking reminders.
Under the new policy, requests must remain reasonable.
For example, travelers should not be required to wash and tidy the dishes; however, hosts can ask them to drop used dishes in the sink. To learn more about this new policy, see this article.
Penalties imposed by hosts are not allowed. Contracts are only permitted in limited circumstances, notably when required by law or by condominium rules.
Hosts keep control of their rules and their requests, and they can modify them at any time. If a request does not comply with the policy, we will flag the issue to them. They can appeal if they contest the decision.
Airbnb France: a host demonstration on November 20, 2026!
Gîtes de France are also issuing communications inviting hosts to join them around hospitality, common sense and humanity.
“At a time when an international platform aims to decide in minute detail what holidaymakers can or cannot do in accommodation, we want to remind a few simple values.
Hospitality is also a matter of mutual respect.
We believe that when you are on vacation, you should fully enjoy your holidays without excessive constraints. But leaving your dishes clean or respecting the places that hosted you, is it really too much to ask?
After all, good manners should not stop at the door of holidays“, published on social media by the federation of hosting providers.
Thousands of hosts are therefore looking for alternatives that are more respectful, after having acknowledged, following the betrayal, the end of the social contract that sustained their economic relationship.
This contract involved accepting greater professionalization and competition from hotels, in exchange for visibility that would generate steady activity…
For the owner of a cottage we spoke with, the new “requests are astonishing” and have elicited “very strong” responses.
Meanwhile, Airbnb France is reportedly analyzing the feedback received in recent days, not wanting to upset “the host-guest relationship”.
For by angering accommodation owners, the platform risks a lot, starting with the loss of its uniqueness. That is probably what must be looked at, not just the new constraints.
Airbnb: a sharp turn toward hotels to compete with Booking?
Indeed, Brian Chesky’s teams opted for a fixed 15.5% deduction, shouldered only by housing owners.
This change will not be neutral for them, as their incomes declared through the American giant will automatically rise, and some will need to keep an eye on the tax regime they depend on, such as the micro-BIC.
Since October 23, no more surprises for travelers. The price paid includes everything, even the cleaning fees that previously allowed for higher margins. Previously, this charge was separate from the rental price. Now, Airbnb also collects 15.5% on it, i.e., 18.6% VAT included.
And that is far from neutral. Brian Chesky is aligning the model with Booking, as explained by Giuseppe Pentassuglia. A carefully thought-out strategy.
“We could see they had been testing the waters for some time. And now they have decisively accelerated toward hotels. Step by step, Airbnb has encouraged people to professionalize their hosting, the human touch has faded.
Then we reach a turning point where Airbnb asks for hotel-level service. Everything is moving toward extreme standardization of the offering.
They are ultimately bringing their platform in line with the hotel segment, and this is to the detriment of private individual hosts.“, analyzes a business perspective Guillaume Jouffre.
Evidence of this is the recruitment in September of Pepijn Rijvers as chief commercial officer, former strategic adviser to Booking’s CEO.
In France, Cécile Alexandre (ex-Best Western) recalls the turning point Airbnb took in 2026 and emphasizes that “this is only the beginning” regarding the commercialization of the hotel offering.
To speed up, the platform is notably dedicating an entire team to this segment.
