How to delete your Airbnb account permanently

By Otabek Mamadaliev · Sources last reviewed 22 August 2026 · What this means

Settle your reservations before you start. Airbnb lists upcoming reservations among the things you must resolve before deactivating — along with any open Customer Support or Resolution Centre issues, and any outstanding request for your personal data. Finish or cancel trips deliberately, on your own terms and inside the cancellation policy, rather than leaving Airbnb to sort it out.

Other guides claim that deactivating auto-cancels your bookings and treats you as the canceller. That rule belongs to accounts Airbnb suspends or deactivates, where reservations can be cancelled with no compensation. It is not what Airbnb documents for closing your own account.

Deactivate your account

1. Click Menu → Account settings → Login & security.
2. Under Account, click Deactivate.
3. Choose a reason, then Continue.
4. Click Deactivate account.

Coming back requires a phone call. Airbnb keeps your data so you can reactivate — but the only route it documents is contacting them by phone. There is no reactivate button, so deactivating is reversible in principle and mildly annoying in practice.

Delete your Airbnb account

Deletion lives somewhere else entirely, which is why people miss it:

1. Click Menu → Account settings → Privacy.
2. Under Data privacy, click Delete your account.

Airbnb verifies your identity before it accepts the request.

Deactivate rather than delete

Deactivation is temporary and reversible. Deletion closes the account for good — Airbnb erases your account and personal information apart from what it must keep for safety or legal reasons, and you cannot reactivate, recover data or regain access. Returning means building a new account from nothing.

For a host, review history is the whole asset — years of five-star ratings cannot be rebuilt or transferred, and a new account starts with no booking priority. Deactivation is almost always the right choice.

Hosts can also deactivate an individual listing without touching the account at all, which is the lightest option of the three.

What happens to reviews

• Reviews you wrote for hosts generally remain, becoming anonymous. Airbnb notes that after deactivation some information, reviews included, may still be visible to others.
• Reviews you received disappear with your profile — and with them your standing.
• Superhost status cannot be transferred or restored.
• Payout details — make sure any pending payouts have landed before deleting.

Airbnb retains booking and transaction records after deletion where required for legal, tax and safety reasons.

Hosts: three levels, and only one is drastic

Because a host account carries a reputation that took years to build, it is worth knowing that Airbnb gives you two lighter tools before the permanent one.

1. Snooze or unlist a single listing. Stops bookings on that property, keeps everything else. This is the right answer for a place you are not renting this season.
2. Deactivate the account. Everything is hidden and preserved. Reversible, though only by phoning Airbnb.
3. Delete the account. Reviews, ratings, Superhost status and booking priority are gone permanently and cannot be transferred to a new account.

Settle the money before any of them. Pending payouts need to have reached your bank, not merely to be scheduled. Also download your earnings summaries and any tax documents — rental income is reportable, and Airbnb's records are the evidence for it. Once the account is deleted you cannot pull a statement.

Guests: what you are actually giving up

A guest account looks like it holds nothing, but two things on it are worth more than they appear:

• Your review history as a guest. Hosts screen bookings on it. A new account with no reviews is meaningfully harder to book with, particularly for well-rated places and last-minute stays.
• Your identity verification. Deleting means going through it again from scratch on any future account.

Reviews you wrote for hosts generally stay up, anonymised, so deleting does not withdraw your contribution to their standing — only your own.

If the reason for leaving is marketing email or the app on your phone, neither requires deletion. Turn off notifications, remove the payment method, and delete the app. Deactivation covers almost everything else, and it is the only one of these decisions you can undo.