Airbnb service animal policy: what hosts can ask and cannot refuse

Airbnb lets you ask a guest two questions about a service animal. Nothing more. You cannot refuse the booking over the animal, charge a pet fee or set different house rules. An emotional support animal follows your pet rules, except at homes in California and New York.

There is one way out, and Airbnb holds the key. Its Accessibility Policy, as it read on October 10, 2026, lets Airbnb grant a host an exemption at its discretion. The single example it gives is a service animal that poses a direct threat to the health of a host who lives in the listing.

What Airbnb's service animal policy requires from hosts

Airbnb defines a service animal as, generally, a dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. The policy is blunt about it: a service animal is not a pet. A guest can bring one to a home whose rules ban pets.

You may ask two questions, and Airbnb words them for you:

• "Do you require your animal because of a disability?"
• "What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?"

That is the whole list. You may not ask the guest to describe the disability. You may not ask the dog to demonstrate its task either. Guests do not have to show documentation, and the policy tells hosts not to ask for any. That rules out a certificate, an ID card or a training record.

The answers decide how the policy treats the animal.

• A "yes" to the first question plus a described task make the dog a service animal.
• A "yes" without a described task makes it an emotional support animal.
• A "no" to the first question takes the animal out of the policy, and your pet rules apply.
• No answer counts as a "no". You may ask the questions again first.

Guests do not have to mention a service animal before booking. Airbnb's policy says they can choose to tell you before check-in, to avoid confusion.

During a home stay, the policy bars three things because of a service animal:

• Refusing the reservation, unless Airbnb granted your listing an exemption
• Charging extra fees, such as a pet fee or a cleaning fee for animal hair or dander
• Treating the guest differently, for example with house rules other guests do not get

The guest has obligations too. The animal must stay under the guest's control and be housebroken. It cannot be left alone in the listing without your prior approval. It cannot go into areas you have marked off-limits. In spaces shared with people outside the guest's party, it must be harnessed, leashed or tethered.

Exemptions stay in Airbnb's hands. It assesses them case by case, and only when the host contacts its team first with the reasons. An exemption attaches to one listing, not to your account. Airbnb suggests stating it in the listing description, so guests know before they book.

A host who ignores the policy risks more than a bad review. Airbnb says it may take steps up to removing a host or guest who does not comply. Canceling a booking over the animal is also a host cancellation, one of the four numbers behind Superhost status.

Service animals and emotional support animals on Airbnb

Airbnb draws the line at training. An emotional support animal provides emotional support to a person with a disability. It is usually a household animal, such as a dog or a cat. Unlike a service animal, it does not need training for any task.

That difference changes what you may do. With an emotional support animal, Airbnb lets you charge your normal pet fee and an extra cleaning fee for pet hair. You can also decline the reservation if your listing does not accept pets.

Two states change the picture. Airbnb's policy requires hosts in California and New York to accept emotional support animals on home reservations. There, the service animal rules apply in full. No refusal, no extra fee, no other house rules. You also cannot require the guest to disclose the animal before booking, or treat it as a pet.

Outside those two states, the fee for an emotional support animal is a pricing decision. Our guide to Airbnb pet fees and deposits gives the common US ranges. To price the extra cleaning, start from what a turnover costs in the US.

Vrbo service animal policy

Vrbo applies the Service Animals Policy of Expedia Group, its parent company, to every vacation rental booked on its sites. The logic differs from Airbnb's. Airbnb writes its own two questions. Vrbo sends hosts back to the law where the property sits.

Where service animal or anti-discrimination laws apply, Vrbo expects hosts to:

• Accept a guest who relies on a service animal, even if pets are not allowed
• Charge no pet fee and no higher security deposit because of a service animal
• Ask only the questions local law permits, and nothing detailed about the disability

Vrbo also spells out a point Airbnb's policy leaves unsaid. Hosts may still charge for damage beyond reasonable use, caused by the guest and the service animal. Emotional support and therapy animals fall outside Vrbo's policy. Your pet rules and fees can apply to them, though local law may still require more.

The guest must keep the animal under control at all times. A leash is the default. A voice or signal command replaces it when the guest cannot use one. The guest also cleans up after the animal.

For what Vrbo takes from each booking, our guide to Vrbo host fees runs one stay through its commission.

What US law says, and what it leaves open

Two federal laws deal with service and assistance animals. Neither names a home rented by the night on Airbnb.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers businesses open to the public, including places of lodging. The Justice Department's rule defines a service animal as a dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. A dog whose only role is comfort or emotional support does not qualify.

The ADA allows the same two questions as Airbnb's policy. It bars any surcharge for a service animal, even where pets pay one, and a pet deposit must be waived. A business that normally charges guests for damage they cause can charge for damage caused by a service animal.

The rule's definition of a place of lodging is where the doubt starts. It covers inns, hotels and motels. It also covers facilities rented for stays of generally 30 days at most, run under hotel-like conditions such as a reservations service and housekeeping. It excludes an establishment with five rooms or fewer for rent, where the owner lives.

The Fair Housing Act covers housing, which the law calls dwellings. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enforces it. On September 17, 2025, HUD withdrew its 2013 and 2020 guidance on assistance animals. A HUD memo dated May 22, 2026, limits HUD's pet-policy cases to animals trained for a task tied to the disability. Private lawsuits under the Act remain possible.

Neither the ADA rule nor HUD says whether a private home rented by the night on Airbnb is a place of lodging or a dwelling. That point is not settled. State and local laws can also define a service animal more broadly than the ADA does. Before you lean on either law, ask a lawyer in your state, then check your city's short-term rental rules. Airbnb's policy applies to you either way.

How to write your house rules so they hold up

A house rule cannot override Airbnb's policy. The safe wording states the exception itself. This line bans pets without refusing a service animal:

No pets. Service animals are not pets and are welcome: please tell the host before check-in.

The request to tell you before check-in stays a request. Airbnb's policy lets guests disclose the animal before check-in without requiring it. Do not add a demand for papers, a vest or a registration number. The policy forbids asking for documentation, so a rule that demands it already breaks the policy.

The limits that hold for every guest can stay in the rules. Off-limits rooms, no animal left alone without your approval and a leash in shared spaces all come from Airbnb's own policy.

The house rules generator writes that "No pets" line when you leave "Pets allowed" unchecked, on the PDF and on the printable sign. Our Airbnb house rules template walks through the other rules worth writing down.

Rules work when guests read them. Put them in the listing, then in the digital guidebook guests open on arrival. Writing them in four places is one of our hosting tips for better ratings.

When a guest arrives with an animal

Most cases start in the message thread. A guest mentions a dog, or simply arrives with one.

If the guest has not said what the animal is, ask Airbnb's two questions in the Airbnb thread, word for word. Take the answer as given. A described task makes the dog a service animal under the policy. Then point to the house rules every guest follows, such as off-limits rooms and the leash in shared spaces.

Keep the exchange inside Airbnb messaging. If anything goes wrong later, the thread is your record.

Some messages put you in breach the moment you send them:

• "Is that a real service dog?"
• "Please send me the certificate."
• "Can it show me what it does?"
• "There is a pet fee for that."

Each one asks for something the policy forbids. The leash rule belongs in the message every guest receives, not only in the one to the guest with a dog. The check-in instructions generator and our automatic message templates give you that base.

If the animal is out of control or not housebroken, the guest is breaking Airbnb's rules. Contact Airbnb with the facts and the times, rather than settling it at the door.

Damage needs evidence. Photograph the listing at each turnover and keep the dated pictures. Airbnb's accessibility policy is silent on damage caused by a service animal. Vrbo's policy allows a charge for damage beyond reasonable use. The ADA allows one where you normally charge guests for damage.

For the claim itself, our page on insurance for Airbnb hosts explains what AirCover pays and what it leaves to your own policy. A written agreement signed before arrival adds a damage clause that applies to every guest. The rental agreement generator writes one.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All read on October 10, 2026.

• Airbnb Help Center, Accessibility Policy (article 1869): service animals, emotional support animals, the two questions, exemptions, enforcement.
• Airbnb Help Center, Nondiscrimination Policy (article 2867): no pet fee for a guest with a service animal.
• Airbnb Help Center, Hosting guests with accessibility needs (article 1962): service animals regardless of a no-pets rule.
• Vrbo, Service Animals Policy: the Expedia Group policy for partners and travelers.
• ADA.gov, ADA Requirements: Service Animals, last updated February 28, 2020: definition, the two questions, fees and damage.
• ADA.gov, Title III regulations: 28 CFR 36.104 (service animal, place of lodging) and 36.302(c).
• HUD, Notice of the Withdrawal of FHEO Guidance Documents, September 17, 2025: notices FHEO-2013-01 and FHEO-2020-01 withdrawn.
• HUD, Enforcement Guidance on requests for an animal as a reasonable accommodation, May 22, 2026.