Airbnb’s New Off-Platform Policy (May 2025): What Hosts and Property Managers Must Know Now

Airbnb recently announced important updates to its Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy, effective May 10, 2025. It is stirring debate across the short-term rental industry. The immediate reactions? Worry, confusion, – especially from hosts using third-party tools and concierge software.

But at Rental Scale-Up, we believe this is not a blanket ban on guest tech or communication. Instead, it marks a shift toward:

• Greater fee transparency at checkout
• Tighter control over guest data and privacy
• A nudge toward Airbnb-integrated services, possibly in preparation for the rumored Host Marketplace

Airbnb’s off-platform policy has been around for a while, but it is evolving. We’ll break it down for professional, software-connected hosts—the majority of vacation rental managers using PMSs, channel managers, or Airbnb API tools—quoting Airbnb’s own words wherever possible to remove confusion and ambiguity.

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🔎 Who This Applies To: Professional and Software-Connected Hosts

This article focuses on Airbnb hosts who are vacation rental managers, i.e. most probaly:

• Using Airbnb’s professional hosting tools, and/or
• Software-connected, meaning they use:
  • A PMS
  • A channel manager
  • Or a third-party software integrated via Airbnb’s API

These hosts:

✅ Can add more types of fees

✅ In some cases, can collect some of them off-platform

🚫 But must now disclose fees more carefully and follow updated rules around guest access, communication, and payments

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🧾 Airbnb’s Real Focus: Pricing Transparency and Privacy Compliance

Per Airbnb:

“Failing to include any mandatory fees in the pricing fields provided by Airbnb or otherwise causing the total price at checkout to be inaccurate” is now prohibited.

This means:

• Mandatory fees (e.g. resort, extra guest, cleaning, management, pet fees) must appear in Airbnb’s designated fee fields, if such fields exist.
• If they don’t, Airbnb says:

“All mandatory fees must be disclosed in the appropriate fee field or the nightly price if there is no applicable fee field.”

💡 Translation: If Airbnb doesn’t offer a field for your fee, you must include it in the nightly rate—you can’t just message guests about it later or collect it off-platform.

This also aligns with Airbnb’s broader pricing structure update:

“All other fees are rolled into the nightly price for guests when they book.”

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💳 What Fees Can You Collect Off Airbnb?

While Airbnb prohibits off-platform payments in most cases, it makes explicit exceptions.

From Airbnb’s fee policy:

“Hosts are not permitted to collect any fees related to Airbnb reservations outside of our platform, unless expressly authorized by us.”

However:

“In limited cases, Airbnb might permit select software-connected hosts to collect certain mandatory fees using a payment method outside of Airbnb⁠—as long as they’re included in the listing’s price breakdown at checkout.”

Examples:

• Resort fees (e.g. amenities like pool, gym, or Wi-Fi)
• Utility fees
• HOA/community fees

Also:

“Hotels may collect payment off of the Airbnb platform for optional fees where it is in the course of normal business practices (e.g. parking).”

And:

“In locations where Airbnb does not collect taxes or where hosts are legally required to collect them directly from guests, hosts may collect disclosed taxes off of Airbnb.”

✅ Key point: If you are a professional, software-connected host, Airbnb may allow you to collect some fees off-platform, if:

1. They’re declared in your listing’s fee breakdown
2. They match Airbnb’s list of permissible exceptions

If the fee doesn’t match those categories, and there’s no Airbnb fee field, you must include it in the nightly rate.

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🔒 Security Deposits: Very Limited (and Usually Not Allowed)

From Airbnb:

“Most hosts are not allowed to charge security deposits.”

For exceptions:

“For the small number of listings where security deposits are permitted to be collected outside of the Airbnb platform, hosts must disclose them in the appropriate fee field.”

Hotels are a special case:

“Hotels can also ask for a credit card or cash deposit at check-in to cover the cost of incidentals… [but] this must be disclosed in the listing description.”

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📱 Third-Party Apps and Guest Access: What Airbnb Forbids and Permits

Airbnb strictly prohibits:

“Asking guests to create a separate account or register on another website besides Airbnb.com for purposes of gaining entry to a listing”

“Asking guests to install a third-party app to access a listing”

But allows:

“Keyless entry apps and apps that facilitate a guest’s experience during the stay (ex: Sonos, Nest, concierge apps) as long as they are optional”

And:

“Additional registration or installation of additional apps is permitted where it’s required for legal or compliance reasons… [and] must be included in the guest-facing listing description.”

✅ Interpretation: Apps that improve the stay (like guidebooks or smart controls) are fine—as long as:

• They are not required for access
• They do not gate entry behind account creation
• They’re disclosed properly if legally required

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📧 Guest Contact Information and Email Collection: Watch Out

Airbnb is clear:

“Soliciting guests for their email… using the Airbnb messaging system or email alias after a booking” is prohibited.

Also:

“Selling, sharing, or using guest contact information for marketing communications or signing guests up for contact list” is not allowed.

✅ But there are exceptions:

“You may require additional contact/identity information if it is required for legal or compliance reasons… [and] hosts must include information about what is required and why in their listing description”

“You may use an alternative means of communicating with a guest if requested by a guest after booking”

💬 This is why StayFi, which collects guest email via opt-in Wi-Fi login after check-in, may still be fine. CEO Arthur Colker put it well:

“StayFi captures guest emails during the stay and enables future direct marketing—not the migration of existing Airbnb bookings.”

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🤔 What About Upsells?

This is where confusion remains.

Airbnb says:

“Requesting, sending, or receiving payments outside of Airbnb is prohibited. This includes the cost of the reservation and fee payments related to reservations (e.g., optional fee to heat the pool).”

So:

✅ Pool heat or parking = must be paid via Airbnb, likely through the Resolution Center

🚫 But Airbnb does not mention:

• Fridge stocking
• Paid early check-in not tied to nights
• Babysitting
• Equipment rentals

We believe those fall outside Airbnb’s policy scope. However, Airbnb should clarify whether experience-based upsells (not tied to reservation cost) are allowed to be charged off-platform.

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🧠 Strategic Take: What’s Behind This Move?

This isn’t just policy tightening—it’s platform alignment. As we noted in our 2024 predictions, Airbnb is laying groundwork for a future Host Marketplace, offering third-party services like:

• Task management
• Smart home automation
• Revenue management
• Concierge integrations

For such a model to succeed, Airbnb needs:

• Consistent pricing across listings
• Reduced confusion about guest access
• Clear privacy boundaries