Airbnb indefinitely suspends its services in Cuba

04-04-25

The Airbnb platform has indefinitely suspended its services in Cuba, affecting more than a thousand hosts offering accommodations and experiences who can no longer receive payments within the country. Although Airbnb has cited new U.S. government regulations as the cause, it has not issued an official statement or provided a clear timeline to resolve the situation.

Since early 2025, Cuban hosts began to notice that their calendars were disappearing from the platform and their experiences were being marked as “paused.” Airbnb stated that it would process pending payments but required that all future payments be made through foreign bank accounts, effectively removing the previous option of using Cuban MLC (freely convertible currency) cards.

The measure has caused chaos among the host community, especially in WhatsApp groups where many reported receiving vague responses from the support team. The U.S.-based company VaCuba, which managed Airbnb’s financial transactions on the island, reportedly attempted to demonstrate that the payments were not going to the Cuban government, but received no response from the platform.