I have a reservation I haven’t accepted or rejected yet, but I made an update to my house rules. Will the new rules apply to the guest or will the old set of rules apply?
My opinion… the rules that you HAD when they booked your place apply to them.
If your changes/updates are important for you, you should contact those guests and ask them to read and agree to your new policies.
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Hmmm… This is my first long-term booking request, so I’m thinking that if the old rules apply, I would actually have her cancel and resubmit the request so the new rules apply. Airbnb would side with her 100% if the old rules showed up with the booking should something go awry.
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No… New rules will apply to your new booking. If it’s a material change though, make sure to inform the guest.
Wait… You accepted her? Or not yet? If not yet then the new rules should apply. Or if you feel better redoing it then you should.
Are you for sure sure? 
I haven’t accepted it yet.
Interesting question. Okay, just to be safe, really safe. Tell her there are new rules you need her to agree to that you just changed. Get that confirmation from her through the air system. I understand and agree to these rules.
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I did something like that with a guest… had an apartment hunter agree to not cancel… guess what… she agreed over messenger and Airbnb still refunded her. Just changed my terms to moderate cancellation. I think I’m pretty much done with considering Airbnb as a form of income.
I believe your old rules and everything else are locked in regardless if it’s a request you approved or haven’t. I’ve been in this situation before. I told the person I was going to withdraw my approval and they should resubmit their inquiry or request.
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I’m pretty sure that the house rules function much like any other sort of contract or arrangement. Which is to say that whatever rules are in place when the actual booking takes place is the set of rules that applies to that booking. So if you’ve changed rules in the meantime and they have not yet booked then your revised rules will definitely apply.
You’ve probably done this already, but I changed my cleaning fees but then noticed an inquiry had arrived the night before. The old cleaning fee was on the reservation. They don’t changes and shouldn’t. I rejected the person’s reservation and kindly asked them to resubmit it and that I would accept it right away. He did so and the fee adjustment was on the reservation. So the house rules should be no different.
Just wondering what rule change you implemented.
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One thing I realised is that when a guest cancels, they immediately get a bunch of Airbnb recommendations for alternatives.
So the risk of asking them to cancel and book again is that upon cancellation they’ll see another delightful place and book that instead.
As a result it is on the very rare occasion that I would request a guest to cancel and book again!