Accessibility Policy
Our community is built on the principles of inclusion, belonging and respect, which includes welcoming and supporting people with disabilities. In general, guests who require reasonable accommodation and services should not be discriminated against or denied service while using Airbnb.
In some jurisdictions, legal requirements may expand or limit the reasonable accommodation a Host must provide. Hosts and guests must comply with these legal requirements.
Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals
Service Animal: A dog or miniature horse that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.
- What we allow:
- Guests are allowed to be accompanied by service animals during a stay or Experience and are not required to disclose the presence of a service animal before booking. A Host may qualify for an exemption in certain circumstances – for instance, if the service animal directly threatens their health or safety.
- Hosts are only allowed to ask the following about a guest’s need for a service animal:
- Whether the guest requires their service animal because of a disability
- What work or task the service animal has been trained to perform
- Hosts and guests are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable national and local laws, rules and regulations.
- What we don’t allow:
- When a guest is accompanied by a service animal, Hosts are not allowed to:
- Refuse a reservation
- Charge pet fees or other additional fees
- Apply differential treatment
- Use discriminatory language
- Hold guests to different rules
- A guest’s service animal must not be:
- Out of control
- Not house-trained
- Left alone at the listing without prior approval
- Allowed into areas that are considered unauthorised to the guest
- Allowed in a public space without being harnessed, on a lead or tethered and not under the guest’s control
- When a guest is accompanied by a service animal, Hosts are not allowed to:
Emotional Support Animal: An animal that provides companionship, relieves loneliness or helps with depression, anxiety or certain phobias but is not required to have special training to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities
- What we allow:
- Unless the reservation is a stay in New York or California (USA) or another location where applicable law prohibits it:
- Hosts may charge pet fees for a guest who is travelling with an emotional support animal
- Hosts are allowed to decline the presence of emotional support animals from a stay or Experience
- Unless the reservation is a stay in New York or California (USA) or another location where applicable law prohibits it:
- What we don’t allow:
- For jurisdictions where Hosts are required to accept emotional support animals (unless the Host has an exemption), a Host cannot:
- Charge pet fees, decline a guest or apply different rules, treatment or behaviour to a guest travelling with an emotional support animal
- Ask for information or documentation about a guest’s emotional support animal beyond the questions outlined above for service animals
- For jurisdictions where Hosts are required to accept emotional support animals, a guest’s emotional support animal must not be:
- Out of control
- Not house-trained
- Left alone at the listing without prior approval
- Allowed into areas that are considered unauthorised to the guest
- Allowed in a public space without being harnessed, on a lead or tethered and not under the guest’s control
- For jurisdictions where Hosts are required to accept emotional support animals (unless the Host has an exemption), a Host cannot:
Reasonable Accommodation
We encourage Hosts and guests to communicate in advance of a booking about reasonable accommodation. Hosts should try to accommodate a guest’s reasonable requests around accessibility needs.
- What we allow:
- Guests are allowed to request reasonable accommodation at a stay or Experience that would help them access a stay/Experience, communicate during a reservation, or participate in an Experience. Hosts are allowed to make a reasonable counter-offer to a guest’s original reasonable accommodation request.
- Hosts are allowed to refuse certain unreasonable or unattainable requests that:
- Increase the safety risk to the Host or others
- Fundamentally change the nature of an Experience or affect it for other guests
- Require a structural modification to a building or listing
- Require the Host to take on added responsibilities that are time-intensive or put a significant physical or financial burden on them
- Ask a Host to violate local laws or HOA/building requirements
- What we don’t allow:
- Hosts are not allowed to refuse a guest’s reasonable request for accommodation when the request is specific, clearly expressed, made with sufficient notice, and is not unreasonable or unattainable. (Check out our list of requests that qualify as unreasonable or unattainable above.)
- Hosts are not allowed to commit to providing reasonable accommodation and fail to fulfil it at the time of the reservation.
- Additional considerations:
- A Host will not be penalised if the Host’s failure to make reasonable accommodation is deemed out of their control or if the Host has objectively shown why the request is unreasonable or unattainable for them.
What happens when a Host or guest does not comply with our policies?
We ask our community to work together to make Airbnb as accessible as reasonably possible. Airbnb may take steps up to and including suspending or removing the Host or guest from the Airbnb platform if they are unwilling to comply with our policies.
Related articles
- Guest
Welcoming guests with accessibility needs
We welcome and support people with accessibility needs. These members of our community should be able to trust that their Hosts will provide… Airbnb’s commitment to accessibility & disability inclusion
Find out what we’re doing to make it easier for people with disabilities and other accessibility needs to travel on Airbnb, and how we’re wo…- Guest
Searching for pet-friendly places
Check the house rules section of the listing description to find out if you can bring your pet or if the Host has pets on the property.