Sharing an article that popped into my news feed.
A friend has a massive beach house, sleeps 18. She will be affected by the 16 person limit.
Here’s the link followed by screen shots of the article in case the link doesn’t work.
Good. I’m all for it. Places that take 16 or 18 guests are a bane to neighbors and usually end up trashing the house. And COVID isn’t going away by July 4th, no matter whether restrictions are lifted or not.
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I agree! Covid will never go away if people still congregate in large gatherings in close quarters!
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Oh Man! I wanted to have a Bachanal July 3-4-5 PLEEEASE
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I (the queen of advocating masking, distancing, and vaccinations) am conflicted.
My friend’s lovely, large home can sleep up to 18 but now shows max 16. Her price point of $5,500/week, deters partiers. Her clientele tends to be Grandparent sponsored family vacationers.
If everyone is vaccinated and they mostly dine at home, spend a substantial amount of time enjoying the outdoors, the risk seems like it is fairly low.
Close quarters, bar partying is the highly risky behavior. I know you can’t say in your listing, “ if you are a homebody and avoid crowded places like bars, mask when out & about, AND all are vaccinated, you can have a large group”, but I wish we could.
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Bless Airbnb’s hearts. Risky travel isn’t limited to large gatherings in homes.
The last two nights I’ve had the kind of guests I never have: two young women who apparently came to El Paso from New Mexico to party. I had no idea people did that anymore. It used to be common when the drinking age was 18 in TX and 21 in NM. Now I’m assuming it’s the “TX is open for covid” policies compared to NM’s policies.
They arrived at 5 pm, napped and went out at 9:30 and returned at 2:30. Yesterday they slept until mid afternoon, then a man came and picked them up for a couple of hours. Then it got quiet again so I assume they napped again. They went out at 10:30 pm and returned at 3:30 am. Today is check out and my next guest arrives Friday. They’ve already asked for early check in and I won’t be surprised if these women are late check out.
They aren’t wearing masks, not even in the car. The fellow who picked them up wasn’t wearing a mask. They hugged him when he dropped them off so it doesn’t look like they are following any kind of covid protocol. They could be vaccinated but given their apparent ages of under 30, my guess it that they aren’t.
This introduced to me a level of anxiety I wasn’t expecting. I’ve had one jab but I’m going to follow the same protocol I did in the teeth of the pandemic: open the window/door, turn on extractor fan and ceiling fan and clean tomorrow. I’ll wear a mask and gloves and disinfect high touch surfaces today.
It’s occurred to me that I’m not that comfortable having people stay here who are going out to see family or whomever and dining indoors, partying indoors, etc and then breathing in my enclosed space all night. I closed the vent into my bedroom yesterday after I turned off the AC. I have no judgment about what these gals do in their free time but they aren’t a good fit for my listing.
Anyway, I set my limit to one night stays for now.
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Here is my side of the one shared duct with the Airbnb suite’s HVAC system. I actually cut up a popcorn tin and aluminum-taped it to the duct hole inside there, and replaced the vent cover with a nice shadow box with a buddha sitting in there (he’s in there now but you can’t see him).
However, the duct is not well sealed and forced air was still flowing out, so I just grabbed what I had to seal it.
So they checked out on time and a quick look indicates all is well. Truth be told they are probably above average guests, particularly if we’re talking stereotypes. That is, only minimal amounts of makeup residue, no hair dye or tattoo ink, no wine stains or other stains on the bed. They bagged up all their trash and left it sitting in the entry and they didn’t use up everything I’d left for them or take it with them.
As they were leaving a dog client arrived with his dog so there I was, meeting them the first time, asking how everything was, hearing that they loved it and…inviting them to stay again anytime.
In the winter I had my duct sealed off into my bedroom. In summer when the swamp cooler is on air is pushed from outside through the house and I’m not worried about any shared air. But when the blower is off, yes some virus could wander through the vent work into other parts of the house.
I think I’ll stick with one night guests for another month or so until I’m two weeks past my second jab.
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