Accepting Return Guests Only—Who Are Vaccinated?

  1. Can I safely stipulate this in our description? Would it be defensible?

“We are both fully vaccinated, and we we accept reservations only from return guests who are also fully vaccinated.”

  1. I’m rusty on inquiries vs. requests to book. I have Instant Booking turned off. If someone I don’t know inquires, I can block a night and say we’re no longer available. Right?

  2. And if someone I don’t know requests to book, can I then block a night? Or does the request prevent me from doing that?

Apparently you can ask for health information; is a vaccination record also a health record?

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I suppose that’s a start, but it isn’t enough for me. People can feel perfectly healthy and have no idea that they’re carrying COVID-19. They have no certain way to know when they’ve been exposed. And even if they knew, they could easily lie.

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It is my understanding that the same is true for a vaccinated person. Being vaccinated keeps you from dying; it doesn’t guarantee that you will not catch the virus and transmit it. Until the numbers are down in the whole population, even vaccinated people need to continue with the other layers of prevention

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Another thing - those “I am not vaccinated, I do not believe in their safety / masks are a denial of freedom” folks are NEVER welcome in my place - their arrogance and entitlement, their selfishness and thoughtlessness are the earmarks of their politics. I do not want those folks - I am sure that they do not want to be here either, surrounded by multicultural and caring people…

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I hope that you saved the actual email addresses of all of your guests so that you can email them directly. I doubt if Air is going to allow you to restrict bookings on their system only for your prior guests and might penalize you for refusing to book the unvaccinated, so direct marketing and direct booking (avoiding Air’s booking fees and using your own credit card processor) is the way to go for that restriction.

I won’t be opening for a few weeks and that is one of my quandaries too.

Yes, I have email addresses for past guests. Also cell phone numbers.

I really wish there were specific guidelines from the CDC (in the US) for people in our situation.

Regardless of what the CDC says, state and municipal requirements might vary. If you want to keep doing this through Airbnb, keep IB off. You can decline without blocking but your acceptance rate will eventually go down. We like going through Airbnb for the tax collection and records. One technique we have used is to tell the repeat guest to call us. We go online simultaneously. I open a blocked night. They book immediately. It has worked.

We don’t plan to open to the general public until July. We have done a direct contact with repeat guests because we trust what they say about their status.

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Ah @RebeccaF I’ve been kinda biting my tongue here. I get where you’re coming from, and to be frank maybe it’s a bit early for you to open up on Airbnb.

You’ve been hosting for years, and I suspect built up an cracking wee mailing list of precious guests. Forget Airbnb for now and concentrate on your direct/repeats, they’ll get it when you say you’re only accepting folks who’ve been vacced.

If you can get enough business to keep you ticking over from them then the dirty unwashed public can wait :wink:

Just do what you feel comfy doing…

JF

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Hi all, Last year we did just of couple of bookings here in Traverse City Michigan when the covid numbers were extremely low. We also added two portable air purifiers in our house. We plan to open up this summer for bookings. My opinion, and I am not an expert in medicine, but looking at the statistics for those of us that are vaccinated the chance of us getting covid (here in US) is about 0.007% vs. 9% for unvaccinated. So as a vaccinated host your chances of getting covid are about zero chance. It is so refreshing being vaccinated. Regards, Curt Peterson

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Interesting watch from the BBC in the UK in respect of how the vaccination is running into stumbling blocks, from several sectors of the population in the US.

This is one perspective in slightly more detail:

JF

The answer!! Religion - making life miserable for everyone since time began…

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Better get your tin hat out mate :rofl:

Interestingly, there seems to be a similar issue in the UK with certain ethnicities, the last stats I read showed a fairly large disparity in vaccine take up rates.

JF

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Yes, there has been a big drive to get our ethnic minorities vaccinated in the UK. They seem to have a bigger chance of being infected than lighter skinned folk. Apparently vitamin D intake helps in fighting the infection but the darker the skin tone is the less vitamin D is absorbed by the skin.

My primary care doc sez that anyone living north of 45 degN should be taking at least 2000 IU of Vit D every day since it’s too dark in the winter.

How do you know if a prospective guest is an anti vaxer/masker?

What vaccinations will you require them to have. And are you going to tell them all of the vaccinations you are up to date on!!!
Seriously???

In this time of death by Covid, if I had my way I would require my guests to have been fully vaccinated. And, of course, I’m proud to tell everybody who books in my Airbnb about my vaccinations. For me, pride in lack of vaccinations, like wearing not wearing a mask to help my fellow citizens, are not an expression of some (misplaced) understanding of freedoms. It shows a cruel misunderstanding of what good citizenship and patriotism it’s all about.

Outing themselves quickly with questions like this makes it easy to identify folks who I would not want to share my living space,

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I am not apposed to vaccinations and I have been sadly affected by covid death in my family—— but I guess I am on a different page, for sure, when it comes to what I will ask my guests concerning their medical and private lives, and about their family and or friends‘ medical and private lives during their stay.
However, I don’t think it will be long before we will all be checking a box concerning vaccinations on any sort of hospitality stay and then who will be lying… and who will tell the truth. Possibly we will all have a number for our proof… and on and on and on… and then there will be something new——no thank you!
When hosting is no longer enjoyable and driven by more regulations and fear, I will find a new hobby/business to masks money and fill my time.
I know this is not the forum for vacs or no vacs, but that is not our difference here… it is requiring a guest to be on the same page and believe the same as we hosts.
Some people have been told not to get vaccinated right now because of health issues. Some people have already had covid and are encouraged not to get the vaccine yet.
I guess you can screen all your guests, and hope they are telling the truth.
Anyway, I plan to carry on and enjoy hosting. I sure wish this whole thing would be different. I love really chatting it up with guests and sharing a meal and I look forward to being able to do that again. And even if my guests are not vaccinated from covid -19
I will share a meal with them.
I have never asked everyone if they have had the pertussis vaccine(which is proven to work) even though I have had a friend whose son died from whooping cough. I don’t fear for my grandkids lives. I sure hope they get their vaccinations, but I will still be with them if they don’t.
My elderly mother has not had the vaccination but I will for sure be with her as much as I can.
Ok I am done. I love this forum and hope we can continue to have differing opinions.