The short version
- Publish information that is true, that is yours to publish, and that is legal where your property is.
- Never present a paid placement as an independent recommendation — in several countries that is illegal, and the fine lands on you.
- Don't attack, scrape, overload or reverse-engineer the service.
- Report a problem page to abuse@hostbnb.example.com. We act on reports and tell you what we did.
This summary is a reading aid and is not part of the agreement. Where it differs from the text below, the text below is what applies.
Contents+
This policy applies to everyone who uses Hostbnb — hosts, the guests who write on their pages, and partner businesses. It is part of the Terms of Service. We wrote it in plain language on purpose: a rule nobody can understand is a rule nobody can follow.
Content rules
Don't publish, upload or approve content that:
- Is illegal where your property is, or where your guests are.
- Is someone else's — photos, guide text, descriptions — without permission. Listing photos shot by a booking platform's photographer usually are not yours.
- Misrepresents the property: its location, size, amenities, accessibility, safety equipment, or who else has access to it.
- Names, photographs or otherwise identifies a person who has not agreed to it. That includes previous guests, neighbours, and staff.
- Defames someone, or accuses a named person or business of something you cannot back up.
- Is hateful, harassing, or attacks people over race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
- Is sexual content, or anything involving a minor in a sexual context — which we report to the authorities without exception.
- Promotes violence, self-harm, or illegal drugs.
- Is malware, a phishing page, or a link to either.
- Is special category data under data protection law — health, biometric, religious or political information about an identifiable person. See the DPA.
Honesty about money
This one carries real fines, and they land on the host
Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency, the US Federal Trade Commission and the EU's unfair commercial practices rules all prohibit presenting a paid placement as an independent recommendation. Hostbnb labels every paid placement automatically. Removing, hiding or contradicting that label — telling guests a commissioned offer is just your personal favourite — is a breach of these terms and may be an offence.
- Leave the partner and sponsored labels where they are.
- Don't write a host note that implies a commissioned offer is uncommissioned.
- Don't claim a discount, a price or an availability you cannot honour.
- Don't write, solicit, or approve a fake guest tip. Guest tips are meant to be from guests.
- Don't offer anyone a reward in exchange for a positive review or tip.
Running a lawful rental
You are responsible for your own compliance, not us. Short-term rental rules differ by city and sometimes by building.
- Hold the registrations, licences and permits your jurisdiction requires, and display the registration number where it must be displayed.
- Don't use Hostbnb to advertise a property you are not permitted to let short-term.
- Follow the rules on safety equipment, occupancy limits, noise and waste that apply to you.
- Be straight with guests about cameras: never place one anywhere private, disclose any that exists in a shared or exterior space, and never film inside a bedroom or bathroom.
Technical rules
Don't:
- Scrape, crawl or bulk-download the service, or any other host's guest page.
- Try to access an account, property or conversation that is not yours.
- Probe, scan or test the security of the service without our written permission — other than reporting a vulnerability in good faith to security@hostbnb.example.com, which we welcome.
- Get around rate limits, plan limits or the concierge answer allowance, including by opening extra accounts.
- Send automated traffic that degrades the service for others.
- Try to make the AI concierge reveal its instructions, reach another host's data, or produce content that breaks these rules.
- Reverse-engineer, decompile or resell the service, or use it to build a competing product.
- Remove or obscure a "Powered by Hostbnb" mark on a plan that includes one.
Reporting a problem
Write to abuse@hostbnb.example.com with the URL, what the problem is, and how to see it. For a copyright complaint use the process on the Copyright & Content Reports page, which is faster because it collects what the law requires up front.
We review every report. We will tell you what we decided and why, and if we take something down we tell the person who published it, so they can put it right or appeal.
What happens when a rule is broken
We match the response to the problem. In most cases that means asking you to fix it.
- 1A note — we tell you what breaches the policy and give you a reasonable time to fix it.
- 2Removal — we take down the specific content and tell you why.
- 3Unpublishing — a guest page comes off the public web while a serious issue is resolved. Your data stays intact and you keep access to it.
- 4Suspension or closure — for serious, repeated, or deliberate breaches. You can still export your data.
- 5Referral to the authorities — where the law requires it, or where someone is in danger.
We skip straight to the stronger steps only where content is illegal, someone is at risk, or a delay would cause real harm. Every decision can be appealed: reply to the notice we send, or write to legal@hostbnb.example.com, and a person will look at it again.