Updated Emotional Support Animal Policy!!!!!

[Amanda1775]

Hi Everyone - does anyone know when this ESA policy changed?!

• Hosts are allowed to decline the presence of emotional support animals from a stay or Experience

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869/accessibility-policy

[Colleen253]

@Amanda1775  Interesting. That isn’t the Assistance Animal policy,

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/1869/assistance-animals

which remains unchanged, and seems to be at odds with that policy on accessibility. I’ve not seen that page before. The page on accessibility below links to the Assistance Animal policy and the Nondiscrimination policy also remains the same and still lumps ESA’s in under the AA category. 

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2166/how-airbnb-supports-accessibility

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2867/nondiscrimination-policy

[Amanda1775]

Well, that is a significant problem if ABB's policies contradict each other. I was assuming the ESA was changed when ABB significantly changed the pet/animal policies recently.

[Amanda1775]

@Colleen253 

I just noticed that your links are airbnb.ca - could Canada have different laws and thus ABB rules?

[Colleen253]

@Amanda1775 Not that I’m aware of. You can look up the AA policy yourself though, to see what it says.

[Amanda1775]

@Colleen253 

Thanks. I went to the Airbnb help homepage and typed in "Emotional Support Animals".

This search returns the first link as: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869/accessibility-policy and now includes a miniature horse as a service animal so I'm thinking this is the most up-to-date policy.

[Colleen253]

@Amanda1775 You need to look up ‘assistance animal policy’ specifically.

[Amanda1775]

Just did that and the search returns the same first link. I even searched for the non-discrimination policy and in that page, I get the same eventual link. Perhaps the new policy is rolling out in the US first?

[Marie6762]

Just read ABB updated ESA rules.  “What the ?!*#!  we are to allow a “miniature HORSE ” ESA? ?!?!  The mind mind runs wild with scenarios… 😵‍💫

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Colleen253 

Especially in California and New York.

[Carly142]

And charge pet fees for ESA! Finally!!!!

[Pat271]

What difference does this make if the guest can just claim their animal is a service animal? We aren’t allowed to ask for documentation, nature of disability, etc., so we just have to take their word for it, right?

[Amanda1775]

@Pat271 

We can only do the following (what to do with that info, ABB doesn't say!):

Hosts are only allowed to ask the following about a guest’s need for a service animal:

• Whether the guest requires their service animal because of a disability
• What work or task the service animal has been trained to perform

But I think the big picture is that ABB follows the ADA law, at least in the US: 

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html

[Pat271]

@Amanda1775  Right, I know - and the ADA laws say:

In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability.

So, I guess I don’t understand why we are even talking about, or expressing pleasure with, the change in Airbnb’s Emotional Support Animal policy. The guest can just lie and say their pet is a service animal, and there no way for hosts to determine whether it is true or not.

[Mark116]

@Pat271  I think this will weed out some of the ESA liars.  They have to provide some kind of answer as to what task the dog/animal is trained to perform which will lock them in, it is also still true that the service animal is expected to be with the handler and not left alone, and that also, in my experience, weeds out at least the first level of fake ESA's...once I have cited this part of Airbnb's policy, that the expectation is that the dog will not be left alone in the apartment, all the ESA requests vanished.  

It is also easier to prove a fake service dog is fake because any misbehavior by the dog pretty much equals that it isn't a trained service animal.

It may be a small step, but is definitely a step in the right direction.

Also, in the US a handful of states are looking at making fake ESA's a criminal act, and that will go a looong way to protecting landlords from abusive fake ESA claims.