Guide · 17 October 2026
Guests read house rules twice: for ten seconds before they book, and at 11 PM when they want to know if the hot tub is allowed. A rule is only worth its line if a reasonable person could tell it was broken: a time, a number, a yes or no. Here are the eight rules that decide bookings and claims, each as the vague line most hosts write and the plain line that holds.
The house in the examples is invented. A real rewrite uses the host's own eight answers, and the house rules are the last section of it.
One sentence of fact, one sentence of reason, nothing in capitals. The fact is something that can be checked later: a time, a count, a place, a cost. The reason is what makes a guest keep the rule when nobody is watching; “the cleaner arrives at 10:30” does more than “please respect checkout”. If a rule has no consequence you would actually act on, cut it; a list of twenty rules reads as a difficult host, and the eight that matter are lost in it. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a claim about how a platform will decide a dispute; it is about writing lines you can point to.
“Check-in after 3 PM, checkout by 10 AM. Please respect these times!”
“Check-in from 3 PM (the lockbox code works from 3:00). Checkout by 10 AM; the cleaner arrives at 10:30 for the next guests. Early or late by arrangement the day before, if the calendar allows.”
A time with the mechanism behind it (the code, the cleaner) is a time guests believe. The exclamation mark does nothing the 10:30 cleaner does not.
“No unregistered guests.”
“Only the guests named on the booking sleep here (the listing allows 4). Daytime visitors are fine up to 8 PM; tell us first by message. Anyone else staying over is a reason to end the stay.”
A number, a cut-off time and the consequence. “Unregistered guests” is platform language a guest skims; “the 4 named on the booking” is a count they can check against their own party.
“Absolutely no parties or events!!!”
“No parties, events or gatherings of any size; the house is booked for the people on the reservation. A noise complaint from a neighbour after 10 PM is treated as a party. Photo shoots and filming need written agreement before booking.”
The platform already bans parties; what your line adds is the definition (a complaint after 10 PM) and the two cases hosts forget, shoots and filming.
“Non-smoking property.”
“No smoking or vaping anywhere indoors, including the bathroom with the window open. Smoking is fine on the back patio; please use the ashtray and close the door. If the house smells of smoke at checkout, the $250 deep-clean cost is charged.”
The bathroom-window case is the one every host has had. Naming where smoking is allowed makes the indoor rule read as reasonable, and a named cost with a named trigger is the only kind that is ever recovered.
“No pets.”
“One dog is welcome by request before booking (not on the beds or the sofa; the garden gate latches). No cats, because of a guest allergy in the family that uses the house. Service animals are always welcome and are not pets.”
Half of all dog owners ignore “no pets” and hope; a rule that says what is allowed, and why cats are not, is one they follow. The service-animal sentence saves a dispute the platform would decide against you.
“Please be considerate of our neighbours.”
“Quiet hours are 10 PM to 8 AM: no music outdoors, hot tub closed, voices at indoor level. The neighbours on both sides are families who have lived here twenty years, and they will tell us.”
“Considerate” cannot be broken; 10 PM, the hot tub and the outdoor speaker can. The neighbours sentence is the only enforcement most hosts have, so say it.
“Please leave the place as you found it.”
“Before you leave: dishes in the dishwasher and started, rubbish in the outside bin, towels in the bath, doors locked, key in the lockbox. Leave the beds; do not strip them. That is the whole list; the cleaning fee covers the rest.”
Five things a guest can do in ten minutes, and one thing not to do. “As you found it” produces stripped beds and a guest who feels they paid a cleaning fee for nothing.
“Guests are responsible for all damages.”
“Things break. Tell us by message the day it happens and send a photo; a glass or a plate costs nothing. Damage we find after checkout that was not reported is claimed at the repair or replacement cost with the receipt. A note by the door says the same.”
A guest who reports a broken glass is a guest who did not hide the wine on the carpet. The rule rewards telling you, names what a claim is based on (the receipt), and says where the rule is repeated.
House rules keep the wrong guests out; the title and the opening of the description bring the right ones in. Twenty titles that fit the 32-character card, what goes in the first 500 characters, or a full rewrite, section by section, house rules included.
Title, first 500 characters, the full description and the house rules, rewritten from your eight answers within 2 days. One free round of changes.