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'We Will Be Leaving Airbnb Immediately': Inside the Host Walkout Before November 20, and Where the Bookings Are Going

Week two of the house-rules backlash is the week some hosts stopped posting about leaving and started doing it. What they say they did, where they say the bookings went, and the hosts who are staying put.

By Jenna Lockwood

A log cabin with a wide front porch in a clearing, surrounded by tall green trees under a blue sky.
Illustrative image. Not a listing from this story. Photo: Clay Elliot on Pexels (Pexels License).

On Saturday, October 24, the owners of a log cabin in East Texas posted on Airbnb's Community Center under a title that did not leave much room for interpretation: "A 5 star Host and home and we will be leaving Airbnb immediately!"

The post itself was short. "We own and operate a luxury log cabin in East Texas. Even with all of our precautions in place, we have had guests that broke rules and damaged our property." Then the line that a lot of hosts have been feeling for two weeks: "I CANNOT imagine the mess that is about to unfold for the HOST side of STR's."

Nineteen replies followed by Monday morning. One of them, from another host, was the most useful sentence in the thread: "So you are cancelling all your future bookings? That will be expensive."

That is the whole story of this week in two posts. The anger is real. Leaving is a lot harder than saying it.

What are hosts actually doing before November 20?

In their own posts, some hosts say they have delisted, some say they are pausing for a few months, some say they are moving to Vrbo or Booking.com, and many say they are staying. Nobody knows yet how many will follow through.

The trigger is Airbnb's new house-rules policy. Help article 4168 says it "applies to all reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026". The rules themselves are covered elsewhere (our home-share piece walks through what the policy says). This one is about what hosts say they are doing about it.

Here is what the last week looked like, post by post. Every line below is a host describing their own listing. None of it is a headcount.

Timeline chart with six dated rows from October 20 to November 20, 2026, listing host posts about delisting, moving to Vrbo or staying, ending with the policy start date.
Chart drawn by Host Stories from the posts quoted in this article. Each row is one host's own account.

Who says they have already left Airbnb?

A handful of hosts say they have already pulled listings, and their reasons are not all the same.

On X, on October 23, one host wrote: "I just delisted my place. I already can’t keep it occupied at the minimal amount I’m charging where the cleaning fee is 100% of the nightly rate." For that host, the rules were the last straw on a listing that was already struggling.

On BiggerPockets, in a thread that had 47 comments by October 26, a host put it in one line: "This is the reason I delisted on Airbnb immediately."

An owner of off-grid backcountry yurts, which run on "hut rules", wrote on October 22 that "AirBnb was my main source of bookings and I've been a SuperHost for years, but with this change I have delisted the property." The same day, a host on the Community Center who has hosted for more than a decade wrote, "After hosting for over 10 years—mostly as a Superhost—I am now taking steps to remove my listings from the platform."

And one of the clearest explanations came from a host who has had vacation rentals since before Airbnb existed. They said the cleaning rules were not the real problem. It was "more about the ban on collecting a rental agreement or any sort of identity confirmation on the guest." They added that all their properties are guest favorites in the top 5% on Airbnb, "but we’ve delisted".

Where do hosts say the bookings are going?

Mostly to Vrbo, Booking.com and direct bookings, according to the hosts themselves. Whether guests follow is a separate question no one can answer yet.

On October 24, a host on X wrote: "We delisted our house in Puerto Rico from AirBnB. Only using VRBO at the moment." Another, who says they have used Vrbo for over 15 years and Airbnb for three, wrote: "I'm actually more successful with @VRBO."

In France, a host opened a thread titled "Bye-bye Airbnb" saying they plan to "mettre en pause mon annonce pour 3 à 6 mois afin de mettre la pression sur Airbnb" (pause my listing for 3 to 6 months to put pressure on Airbnb), and that "je préfère louer sur Abritel et Booking" (I'd rather rent on Abritel and Booking). Abritel is Vrbo's brand in France.

On BiggerPockets, the most honest version came from a host who is not leaving: "I'll be honest, I "KNOW" I need to focus more on direct bookings." That host still calls Airbnb a primary booking source.

If you are thinking about a second channel, the setup work (calendar sync, matching the listing, avoiding double bookings) is laid out step by step in The Booked Host's guide to adding Vrbo or Booking.com without double bookings. Your photos and description are the part of the listing you take with you, so it is worth getting them right once and using them everywhere.

Can a host just walk away from confirmed bookings?

Not for free. Airbnb says unlisting does not cancel confirmed reservations, and cancelling them carries penalties.

That "That will be expensive" reply in the East Texas thread is right, and Airbnb's own help page says why. Help article 476 says: "If you unlist, you’ll still host your guests for any confirmed reservations." If a host cancels instead, it says "host cancellation fees and other consequences will apply".

So for most hosts, "leaving immediately" really means stopping new Airbnb bookings and hosting the guests who already booked. That is a slower exit than the thread titles suggest, and it is one reason nobody should read the number of angry posts as the number of empty calendars.

Is the backlash already hurting bookings?

Some hosts believe so. There is no data yet that shows it either way.

In an open letter to Airbnb's CEO on the Community Center, which had 38 replies by October 26, a top reply said "the backlash of this publicity is already affecting my bookings." That is one host's read of their own calendar. On BiggerPockets, another host pointed at the coverage itself: "Every national news article has taken the guests' side."

The slowdown predates any of this for plenty of hosts. If your calendar went quiet before the rules did, our earlier piece on whether an empty calendar is the market or your listing is the better starting point.

Some hosts on the forums have also floated blocking November 20 as a one-day protest. Whether that happens, and whether it matters, is unknown. We are not tracking it as a movement, because nobody can say how many hosts are in it.

Are some hosts staying, and why?

Yes. Some of the most-liked host posts this week say the rules change very little for them.

On October 25, a host replied on X: "Superhost with 18 units. We don't ask our guests to do anything except put the keys back." That post had 143 likes when it was checked on October 26.

On October 26, another host listed exactly three rules (no loud music after 10, return the parking permit, make yourself at home), said they clean the place themselves and do not charge a cleaning fee, and finished with: "99% of guests still leave the house super clean."

Even the host with 30 listings who started a thread called "going to delist my properties" wrote that they were "seriously considering pulling all 30 of my listings off the platform". Considering. One reply in that thread said, "Just delisted mine while I investigate my options." Those two sentences sit side by side, and that is roughly where most hosts are.

So, is this a walkout?

It is a lot of hosts saying they are done, a smaller number saying they have acted, and a large number deciding quietly. That is the honest answer.

The hosts leaving are not imagining their reasons. A cabin with past damage, a rental with no way to check who is coming, a listing that was barely covering its cleaning fee. Those are real businesses making real calls. The hosts staying are not wrong either. Eighteen units and a request to put the keys back is a real business too.

What nobody has is the count. Airbnb has not published one, the forums cannot produce one, and the threads are loudest exactly where people are angriest. Watch what happens to calendars after November 20, not what happens to thread titles before it.

FAQ

Are Airbnb hosts really leaving in November 2026?

Some hosts say they have delisted or paused, in posts on Airbnb's Community Center, BiggerPockets and X. Others say they are staying. There is no published count of how many have left.

What changes on November 20, 2026?

Airbnb's house-rules policy in help article 4168 applies to all reservations booked on or after November 20, 2026.

If I unlist my Airbnb, do I still have to host booked guests?

Yes. Airbnb's help article 476 says that if you unlist, you will still host guests for any confirmed reservations, and that host cancellation fees and other consequences apply if you cancel.

Where are hosts moving their listings?

The hosts quoted here mention Vrbo (Abritel in France), Booking.com and direct bookings. Those are their own accounts, and many keep Airbnb running alongside.

Sources

Reply, comment and like counts are what those pages showed when they were checked on October 26, 2026. Bookings, ratings, listing counts and reasons are the posters' own accounts.