Airbnb's cancellation and refund rules often favor hosts and the platform, and service fees are non-refundable. It limits liability for stays and uses arbitration in the US.
The clauses that could affect you the most. Read these even if you skip everything else.
US users must resolve disputes through binding individual arbitration and give up the right to sue in court, to a jury trial, and to join class actions.
Airbnb's liability is capped at what you paid/earned in the past 12 months (or just $100), and it disclaims responsibility for personal injury or emotional distress.
You must indemnify Airbnb for claims connected to your use of the platform even where Airbnb's own negligence is involved.
You assume the entire risk of using Airbnb, including illness, injury, or death from stays and activities, since Airbnb is not a party to your contract with the host.
Airbnb decides damage disputes at its sole discretion and can charge your payment method or send you to collections.
Content you post is licensed to Airbnb perpetually and can be sub-licensed/transferred, and this survives account deletion.
Airbnb can change the Terms and fees unilaterally, and continued use means you accept the changes; it can also terminate your account for any reason.
Browse what the terms actually say — filter by severity or by topic.
Broad assumption of risk
🛡️Limits their liability💬 You accept full responsibility for any harm you suffer using Airbnb, including illness, injury, or even death. Airbnb pushes the risk of investigating whether a stay or activity is safe entirely onto you.
“You acknowledge that many activities carry inherent risks and agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you assume the entire risk arising out of your access to and use of the Airbnb Platform and any Content ... Host Services may carry risk of illness, bodily injury, disability, or death, and you freely and willfully assume those risks by choosing to participate in those Host Services.”
Charges to your card for damage claims
📌Other💬 By booking, you pre-authorize Airbnb to charge your payment method for damage claims a host makes against you, without needing separate approval at the time.
“You are also agreeing that Airbnb via Airbnb Payments may charge the Payment Method (as defined in the Payment Terms) used to book the Listing in order to collect Damage Report (as defined in Section 14) amounts.”
Airbnb not a party to your contract
🛡️Limits their liability💬 Your actual rental/service agreement is with the individual host, not Airbnb. This limits Airbnb's responsibility if things go wrong with your stay.
“a contract for Host Services (a "Reservation") is formed directly between you and the Host ... Airbnb is not a party to the contracts entered into directly between Hosts and Guests”
Sole remedy for over-collected tax is with tax authority
📌Other💬 If Airbnb over-collects tax from you, you can't get it back from Airbnb — you have to chase the government tax authority for a refund. Airbnb can also deduct additional tax amounts from your payouts.
“Airbnb may seek additional amounts from Members (including by deducting such amounts from future payouts) when the Taxes collected and/or remitted are insufficient ... and you agree that your sole remedy for Taxes collected by Airbnb is a refund from the applicable Tax authority.”
Perpetual, transferable content license
📄Claims your content💬 Anything you post (photos, reviews, videos) can be used, edited, and re-licensed by Airbnb forever, worldwide, for free, and even passed to other companies. This license does not end when you delete your account.
“By providing Content, in whatever form and through whatever means, you grant Airbnb a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable and transferable license to access, use, store, copy, modify, prepare derivative works of, distribute, publish, transmit, stream, broadcast, and otherwise exploit ... in any media or platform, known or unknown to date”
Automated/AI content tools with no accuracy guarantee
🤖AI training on your data💬 Airbnb may use automated/AI tools on your content and does not promise those outputs are accurate — you are responsible for verifying them.
“You agree that Airbnb may make available services or automated tools to generate or translate Content ... Airbnb does not guarantee the accuracy or quality of generated Content or translations”
Airbnb can change fees at any time
📝Can change terms anytime💬 Airbnb can raise its service fees whenever it wants (with notice), and those fees generally won't be refunded. Your only recourse if you disagree is to close your account.
“Airbnb reserves the right to change the service fees at any time, and will provide Members notice of any fee changes before they become effective. ... Except as otherwise provided on the Airbnb Platform, service fees are non-refundable.”
Termination for any reason / immediate termination on breach
⛔Account termination💬 Airbnb can shut down your account for any reason with 30 days' notice, or immediately with no notice if it believes you breached the rules or termination is otherwise necessary.
“Airbnb may terminate this agreement and your account for any reason by providing you 30 days' notice ... Airbnb may also terminate this agreement immediately and without notice ... if you breach these Terms ... or we reasonably believe termination is necessary to protect Airbnb, its Members, or third parties.”
No restoration of account or content
⛔Account termination💬 Once your account is terminated, you have no right to get your account or your uploaded content back.
“When this agreement has been terminated, you are not entitled to a restoration of your account or any of your Content.”
Airbnb can change or remove services
📝Can change terms anytime💬 Airbnb can add, remove, or change platform features at its discretion.
“Airbnb reserves the right to change our services, including to add or remove features and functionalities or change the types of Listings we accept or allow on the platform”
Terms can be changed unilaterally
📝Can change terms anytime💬 Airbnb can change these Terms whenever it wants. You get 30 days' notice of material changes, but if you keep using Airbnb you are automatically bound by the new terms.
“Airbnb may modify these Terms at any time. ... If you do not terminate your agreement before the date the revised Terms become effective, your continued access to or use of the Airbnb Platform will constitute acceptance of the revised Terms.”
Airbnb decides damage disputes at its sole discretion
📌Other💬 If a host claims you caused damage and you dispute it, Airbnb alone decides who's right, and can charge you (and even send you to collections) if it sides with the host.
“if the Damage Report is escalated to Airbnb and Airbnb determines in its sole discretion that the Damage Report is valid and you are responsible for the Damage Report, Airbnb via Airbnb Payments can collect the amount of the Damage Report from you.”
Platform provided 'as is', no verification guarantee
🛡️Limits their liability💬 Airbnb makes no promises about the safety, legality, or quality of hosts, guests, or listings, and 'verified' badges don't guarantee anyone is trustworthy or safe.
“The Airbnb Platform and all Content are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind ... we do not warrant that verification, identity or background checks conducted on Listings or Members (if any) will identify past misconduct or prevent future misconduct.”
Liability capped at amounts paid or $100
🛡️Limits their liability💬 Even if Airbnb is at fault, the most it will ever pay you is whatever you spent (or earned) in the past year — or just $100 for others. This is a very low cap given risks like injury during a stay.
“in no event will Airbnb's aggregate liability ... exceed: (A) to Guests, the amount you paid as a Guest during the 12-month period prior to the event giving rise to the liability, (B) to Hosts, the amount paid to you as a Host in the 12-month period ... or (C) to anyone else, one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).”
No liability for injury or emotional distress
🛡️Limits their liability💬 Airbnb disclaims responsibility for a wide range of harms, including personal/bodily injury and emotional distress connected to using the platform or dealing with other members.
“Neither Airbnb ... will be liable for any incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages ... or for any damages for personal or bodily injury or emotional distress arising out of or in connection with ... the use of or inability to use the Airbnb Platform”
Broad indemnification regardless of Airbnb's negligence
🛡️Limits their liability💬 If Airbnb gets sued because of something connected to your use of the platform, you may have to pay Airbnb's legal costs and damages — even in situations involving Airbnb's own negligence.
“you agree to ... indemnify, and hold Airbnb ... harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses ... You agree to indemnify and hold Airbnb ... harmless from and against any of the aforementioned claims ... regardless of Airbnb's responsibility for negligence and howsoever the same may be caused.”
California law and San Francisco venue
📍Jurisdiction💬 For US users, disputes not covered by arbitration are governed by California law and must be filed in San Francisco, which may be inconvenient if you live elsewhere.
“the laws of the State of California and the United States of America will apply ... Judicial proceedings ... must be brought in state or federal court in San Francisco, California”
Mandatory binding arbitration
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 For US users, you give up your right to sue Airbnb in court (except small claims) and must resolve nearly all disputes through private individual arbitration.
“You and Airbnb mutually agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms ... or any use of the Airbnb Platform, Host Services, or any Content ... will be settled by binding arbitration on an individual basis”
Class action and representative action waiver
🚫No class action💬 You give up the right to join with other users in a class action or group lawsuit against Airbnb; you can only bring claims individually.
“we are each waiving the right to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, private attorney general action, or any other representative or consolidated proceeding.”
Mass action waiver and batching
🚫No class action💬 If many similar claims are filed, they can't be coordinated as a mass action, and instead get processed in slow batches — which can delay resolution of your claim for years.
“you and Airbnb agree to waive the right to have any Dispute administered, arbitrated, or resolved as part of a Mass Action ... the parties shall group the arbitration demands into batches of no more than 200.”
Jury trial waiver
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 You give up your right to have a jury decide any dispute that goes to arbitration.
“You and Airbnb acknowledge and agree that both parties are each waiving the right to a trial by jury as to all arbitrable Disputes.”
Short claim deadline / statute of limitations
⚖️Forced arbitration💬 You must start your claim within California's legal time limit or lose it permanently — and you must first send a formal written pre-dispute notice by mail before arbitrating.
“you must make any demand for arbitration under the Arbitration Agreement before the expiration of the statute of limitations provided under the laws of the State of California. Otherwise ... you forever waive the right to pursue any claim”
You cannot assign, but Airbnb can
📌Other💬 Airbnb can freely transfer your agreement to another company; you cannot transfer yours without permission.
“You may not assign, transfer or delegate this agreement or your rights and obligations hereunder without Airbnb's prior written consent. Airbnb may without restriction assign, transfer or delegate this agreement”
No responsibility for third-party services
🔗Shares with third parties💬 Links to outside websites/services are used at your own risk; Airbnb takes no responsibility for them.
“Airbnb is not responsible or liable for any aspect of such Third-Party Services and links to such Third-Party Services are not an endorsement.”
Background and criminal record screening
📥Data collection💬 Airbnb may run identity and background checks on you, including criminal and sex-offender record searches, where permitted by law.
“we may, but have no obligation to ... obtain reports from public records of criminal convictions or sex offender registrations or their local equivalents.”
Note: Users can delete their account at any time (Section 12.2). US users can opt out of amended arbitration terms within 30 days (Section 23.17). Promotional email opt-out is available (Section 28.11). Data access/portability rights are handled through the separate Privacy Policy, not these Terms.