I found this at airbnb’s website " Emotional Support Animal: Airbnb defines assistance animals to include Emotional Support Animals. These are animals that are used as part of medical treatment and/or therapy to assist with an individual’s daily functional tasks, but are not limited to a specific type of animal and are not required to be trained to assist an individual in a particular task. These animals are sometimes referred to as comfort animals or therapy animals." According to that statement, an ESA must be part of medical treatment and or therapy to assist with a daily functional task. In US cases, a service dog must be accomodated and you can ask the two questions, but an emotional support animal does not have to be accommodated and you must prove that the esa is valid. Maybe this is another instance of airbnb not having the right verbage?
The relevant section from that page is the one that states as follows:
You’ve received a booking request and now you are wondering if you are required to accept assistance animals. Generally, yes, unless there’s a threat to health or safety. As stated in our Nondiscrimination Policy, Hosts are expected to reasonably accommodate reservations where an assistance animal may be present, even if their listing/house rules state “no pets.”
True, but I indicate it in my house rules. I provide a 50% discount on the animal fee when they provide it. In 5.5 years I have o it had 2 takers.
It’s all so complicated with Airbnb rules, house rules, HOA rules, city rules, state rules and so on.
But Airbnb says that hosts can’t charge a pet fee for service/ESA animals, I think?
Please be aware that under Airbnb’s Nondiscrimination Policy, Hosts can’t charge extra fees to guests with an assistance animal.
But they don’t say you can’t charge an animal fee. They do say you can charge for extra cleaning if needed from a service animal. That was before their new Aor Cover policy came out.
In the US, if you offer public accommodation, which renting rooms short or long term is, you are subject to Federal civil rights laws and disability rights laws, just like a hotel, even if it’s in your home. There is an owner occupied exemption to disability access (which includes trained assistance animals, not “support” animals), but other classes are protected.
Thank goodness Black drivers no longer have to carry a Green Book of places they can stay when driving through the South and many parts of the North.
But what does your response have to do with ESA’s? In my state and many they do not test them like service animals.
actually the real service animal is a dog or a miniature horse. ESA stands for emotional support animal, and that can bed anything in the animal kingdom–that’s one of the reasons why airlines dropped the program a few months ago, a people were bringing turkeys, peacocks, and other creatures on the plane, with a self-righteous attitude to mask the outrage. I welcome dogs to my property, but not cats or other categories. I also have no problem hosting an ESA dog, as long as they produce the documentation, which, even if bogus, at least they went through the trouble to obtain. I am currently fighting with airbnb and the matter is being escalated, but as long as I am one of few hosts that voices the problem, I am likely to just be ignored. Or de-listed if I really push it, which is kind of where I am headed. I am considering taking all my business to VRBO and adding myself to Booking, Expedia and Google, because if airbnb keeps treating hosts like this it will weaken its brand
My service dog goes everywhere I go. People are NOT legally allowed to ask for “certification” and service animals are supposed to be permitted anywhere the owner goes. Emotional support animals are not given the same rights as a service animal.
I was declined booking an Airbnb because I have a service dog. No biggie, it was a home share listing and they may have a fear of dogs.
I was also declined booking a hotel. Again, no biggie, I found another place and decided it was best not to exacerbate my condition by reporting them.
They were kind and apologetic. If I felt the need to report them I would have.
Emotional support animals DO NOT have the same rights as a “Service” animal.
It’s just the law.
Public accommodation laws do not transfer to private homes occupied by the hoster. Also, they do not cover housing in units up to four units. Maybe that’s where this disconnect is happening.
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/assistance_animals
In the US rentals with 4 units or less and private homes occupied by the home owner are exempt from HUD and ADA rules. Not talking about airbnb’s rules, but so that we can educate each other and perhaps get some more sane airbnb rules. https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PA/documents/HUDAsstAnimalNC1-28-2020.pdf
We have dozens of threads on this topic here on this forum. People have been told the difference between the law and the Airbnb rules over and over and over. No one reads the old threads and some people here, like Nordling House, prefer that old threads be closed.
As for Airbnb changing their policy, people should always work towards the change that they seek. Good for you. I’m not optimistic given Airbnb’s record on this sort of thing though so I expect dozens more threads on ESA’s in the coming years.