The criteria for becoming an Airbnb are pretty minimal so basically, almost anyone can become a host, but not everyone can become a profitable host. There are a series of requirements to be met and high standards to be met before you can become a successful host and, in this section, we discuss the basic requirements expected out of an Airbnb Host, just the bare minimum.

As an Airbnb host, you must be responsive to guests and maintain a high response rate. Airbnb expects its hosts to respond to guest inquiries within 24 hours. Any response after 24 hours will count as a late response and increase your response time in your Airbnb Host dashboard. This would prevent you from attaining a “Superhost” status even if your reviews are top-notch.

Airbnb expects you to accept most of your bookings provided that your calendar is free on those dates. Pay special attention to keeping your booking calendar updated especially if your property is listed in multiple booking engines. It also helps to block out time ahead for times when your property won't be available for bookings such as time between bookings so as not to annoy potential guests.

Airbnb takes cancellations seriously and recommends that hosts avoid canceling out on their guests. You can find yourself subject to penalties, even financial ones if you cancel a confirmed booking. There are however a few conditions that allow hosts to cancel their bookings such as extreme weather conditions (such as storms and earthquakes) or civil unrest (sometimes soon after government elections in some countries) in your locality.

As a host, you are expected to maintain a clean environment for your guests before they arrive.  Airbnb expects you to clean every room that guests can access including bedrooms, bathrooms, and the kitchen. Make sure you clean all rooms, change bed linen, towels, refill toiletries, and empty trash and left-over items from previous guests between each stay so that your property looks as good as new for the next guests that arrive.

At the end of their stay, guests have the opportunity to rate your service. Airbnb uses this to evaluate you as a host. You will be evaluated by the overall rating of your listing. This is the average review score from all the guests that they have hosted. 

In order to keep track of how you’re doing and avoid penalties, you can always check your performance dashboard in your Airbnb host profile. Airbnb will tell you what areas you can improve on by comparing your performance to the average of all hosts.

According to Airbnb’s Terms of Service, you must be 18 years or older to host on the platform.