When you book an Airbnb Experience that includes animals, you’ll be guided by hosts who have committed to adhere to our Animal Welfare Guidelines. These guidelines were created in consultation with World Animal Protection, an organization committed to improving the lives of animals.
Airbnb does not allow experiences involving intentional direct contact with wild animals in the wild including, but not limited to: petting, feeding, or riding animals, except for certain Social Impact Experiences in which the validated non-profit is conducting conservation research.
Airbnb doesn’t allow sanctuaries to host experiences if they:
There are exceptions for certain Social Impact experiences where a validated non-profit is conducting rehabilitation or rehoming.
When interacting with working animals (horses, mules, yaks, camels, and donkeys), experience hosts commit to:
Airbnb prohibits any activities or experiences that cause animals harm. These include things like:
Read the full guidelines.
We encourage hosts and guests to think carefully about their role and responsibility in ensuring animal welfare, which in turn keeps guests and hosts safe as well.
Wild animals can be unpredictable and dangerous. We recommend that all guests use their judgement and maintain a safe distance from wild animals during experiences and follow their host’s guidance for safe interaction with the animals during the experience. For experiences that include domesticated animals, follow your host’s guidance on how to appropriately interact with and care for animals during your experience.
Photos should not be captured at the expense of a wild animal, even in captivity. Airbnb prohibits experiences where there is direct contact with wild animals or wild animals are restrained for a photo (ex: a selfie where an animal is close enough to potentially hurt you).
We want all hosts and guests in our community to respect the animals they interact with. We prohibit any form of animal abuse such as hoarding, shooting, throwing, or beating, from hosts or guests.
All experiences include 24/7 community support. We also maintain $1,000,000 USD of liability insurance under our Experience Protection Insurance program, in order to provide hosts and guests with peace of mind (certain exclusions apply). Additionally, in the event of a life-threatening injury, we also have partnered with an emergency medevac provider that may be activated to reach an injured party to support a medically necessary evacuation.
If you come across an experience that violates the Animal Welfare Guidelines, threatens the safety of our hosts or guests, or risk the welfare and/or conservation of animals, please contact us. If applicable, make a note of the date, time and location, as well as the type of animals involved in the experience.
If we are made aware that an experience and/or host violates our platform policies, community standards, or terms of service, we take action including permanent removal from our community if warranted. We’re constantly reviewing and revising our platform policies and protections in order to make our community safer and higher quality.
The World Animal Protection name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, express or implied, of any product, service, company, opinion or political position. For more information about World Animal Protection, please visit worldanimalprotection.org.