From 10am check-out to QR menus: the rubbish rules that need trashing

There you are, 10 minutes before checkout, on your hands and knees fishing a teaspoon out from under the couch of your Airbnb. The bed is stripped, the dishwasher is humming, and you're hauling three bags of rubbish to a bin at the end of the street while trying to remember the lockbox code.

This would be the polite thing to do if you were staying at a friend's house. But you're not. It might even be understandable if the next guests were about to walk straight in. But they're not. A cleaner is about to walk in, and you've almost certainly paid for that cleaner with the cleaning fee sitting right there on your bill.

So thank goodness Airbnb finally changed the rules last week! Under its updated policy, house rules must be "reasonable", and hosts generally can't ask guests to do anything that takes significant time or effort, or that a cleaner would normally do. Stripping beds, taking rubbish offsite and washing and putting away dishes are all named specifically. Rules also have to be disclosed when you book, which means no more surprise laminated signs on the fridge.

It's a small victory for travellers, and it got me thinking. If one corner of the travel industry can admit a rule is stupid, why stop there? Perhaps there are a few more silly travel rules that deserve to go out with the rubbish (which thankfully is no longer your job).

Let's start with Australian hotels, where check-in is at 3pm but you often have to check out by 10am. That's not a night's stay, it's a long nap with a deadline, and even on the days you're not leaving, you'll have to set an alarm to get to breakfast before it finishes at 9.30am.

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Then there's the great wifi paradox: a roadside motel will give it to you for free, while a five-star hotel makes you join their loyalty program to get something that may not even load an email. And don't get me started on resort fees in the US, where you have to pay the mandatory nightly charge for a pool you didn't swim in and a gym you didn't visit. If a fee is compulsory, then just put it in the price.

Rental car companies aren't much better. Return a car an eighth of a tank short and you'll be charged as if they refilled it with vintage champagne. I think it's time to get rid of the rule that you need to return it full - just charge us a fair rate for the fuel that's missing. Renting a car, with all the add-ons and excess fears, can feel like a spam folder of scams. But one of the worst is the extra driver fee, a daily charge for letting your partner share the wheel. Two rested drivers are safer than one exhausted one. If anything, the rental company should be paying us.

Airlines, of course, are the grandmasters of the pointless rule. Book a ticket as "Jon" instead of "John" and fixing it can cost anything from an admin fee to an entirely new fare, as if you might sell your seat to a stranger with a suspiciously similar name. Surely it's time to get rid of the 100ml liquid rule for international flights, which has claimed more barely-used $60 face serums than any thief. And let's also lighten up about weighing carry-on bags at the gate. If you're hauling a suitcase, fine, but if I can have it on my back without grimacing, just let me through. And while we're at it, let's scrap the fees some airlines still charge to sit next to your own travel companions, or to print a boarding pass at the airport. Being fined for not owning a printer is a very particular kind of humiliation.

Eating out abroad has its own traps. A basket of bread appears unbidden, you assume it's hospitality, and it turns up on the bill as a line item. If I didn't order it, it's a gift. That's how gifts work. And being greeted at the table by "still or sparkling?" should be banned. The rule here should be simple - unless you order it off a menu, you don't pay for it. Oh, and while I'm on this topic, I hate the rule that you have to order with QR codes or (even worse) an app. Have those as an option, sure, but I didn't fly 20 hours to eat somewhere charming and spend the first 10 minutes zooming in on a blurry PDF. And do I even need to mention tipping? No, I don't... you know what I'm going to say.

We do need to talk about tipping on cruises, though, because another rule that needs to go overboard is mandatory gratuities added to your account every day, whether you liked the service or not. The staff deserve to be well paid, but just include that in the fare and don't pretend the gratuities are optional. Also, can we ban formal nights on cruises? If someone wants to wear a tuxedo, let them, but that shouldn't be the rule. The suit takes up more space in my bag than a whole week of T-shirts. Perhaps the worst rule on cruises is a drinks package that some companies require everyone in a cabin to buy. Thankfully this is starting to disappear, which is good as more people become sober-curious.

Airbnb threw out its silly chores because it realised customers were so fed up, they were moving to competitors. It has stripped the rules like we used to strip the beds, but now it's time for the rest of the travel industry to catch up and take out its rubbish. Frankly, the whole system is long overdue for a spring clean.