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Has anyone else done the Committment to Cleaning quiz? I did it today and thought I should report back. It’s, as some of us thought, a bunch of fluff. They tell you right away that it’s an open book quiz, that you should download the Cleaning Guide pdf to find the answers, that you can take as long as you like and that you can re-take it if necessary. I think it was about 10 questions. I didn’t look at the Cleaning Guide pdf and got all the answers correct the first try - it was very much common sense stuff (when in doubt choose “all of the above” ). All in all it was a 1 minute project.
I then got a screen saying congrats or something and that I had earned the Cleaning Commitment badge. I got to choose which listings to apply it to - which I thought odd and of course applied it to all 3 listings.
I then got an email noting that the badge would appear on my listing “in a few weeks”. Wtf. Lol. So, anyway, no rush if you haven’t done it.
Another note is that they have dropped the mandatory 24-hour period between guests. They say that it’s recommended to wait 24 hours before entering but if it’s “not possible” (e.g. back to back bookings is good for them too) then you should wait 3 hours before entering. If you don’t commit to the cleaning protocol then you have to have 3 days between guests.
Also they give you a silly sign to download that you can post in your listing (so that your guests assume you didn’t clean that well before ,)
Right? Left to our own devices on that. I have some “crime scene” tape I think
I feel like the sign should say, “Now that there’s a pandemic I’m cleaning like I’m supposed to. Last time you stayed there was likely Ecoli and MRSA on the light switches, but no more!”
This is what I suspected all along. They keep saying that agreeing to the cleaning protocol isn’t “mandatory”, but the way they worded the original statement, it sure seemed to me that if you didn’t agree, your calendar would be blocked for 3 days between reservations.
It’s so typical Airbnb- it isn’t mandatory, but if you don’t do what we prefer, there will be punishments. Hey kids- you can choose an 8 o’clock bedtime or a 9 o’clock bedtime, totally up to you. But if you choose 9, there won’t be any dessert.
@JJD Where did you find this Cleaning Quiz? Can you post the link? Because hosts on other forums are asking when the protocol and badges will be rolled out, but it seems they already have.
Thanks, @JJD. Now, you got the impression that if you don’t agree, that Airbnb will automatically block your calendar for 72 hours, right? You seemed to say that, but on that page, they still make it sound like both the cleaning protocol and the 72 hour block are optional.
BTW, how do you manage to find this stuff? Do you just look for anything new every day? Why the hell are they hiding it, if they want hosts to sign up for it?
No, actually, it does look more like an option now. When it was first announced they said it would have to 24 hours if you committed or 3 days if you didn’t. Now they have dropped the 24 hours requirement if you commit to the protocol as well as forcing the 3 days. However, if you commit to the protocol you get badge/highlight on your listing. Alternately, if you sign up for the 3 days in between guests, you will get a notation about that on your listing. Presumably, hosts will want to have one or the other on their listing so as to create confidence about their cleanliness. I think they’re just trying to force it one way or the other by offering these badges.
I check the “Updates” page most days. I’m pretty sure there’s no badge for it though
I’m so glad I removed the carpet and drapes last summer. I also replaced the wood desk with a melamine drop down table. I had applied a clear film to the tops of the wood beside table and wood bookcase to make them waterproof and that makes them sprayable with disinfectants as well.
I am not going to spray my wood tables with anything other than lemon oil. I do not see how a clean table would be a vector, I prefer guests who do not lick the tables anyway.
I’ll be cleaning and disinfecting but not allowing to air dry, all high touch surfaces including the wooden drawers and knobs. Between the fact that my guest is probably not shedding virus, the wait time between guests and the cleaning, the risk to the next guest is very low. And some of them are probably going to come in with their wipes and ruin my wood surfaces anyway. My efforts to make as many things as possible waterproof is part of guest proofing my rental.
Did you mean to say that you aren’t going to allow the disinfectant to air dry? Most disinfectants need to air dry so to be effective. There’s no point in just wiping it on and wiping it off right away.
That’s exactly what I mean and I know they need to air dry. That’s fine on hard surfaces that I can go back and re-wet and polish but not on wood. So I’ll be depending on cleaning and then drying on wood. That’s not going to stop a health professional from coming in as swabbing everything and ruining my wood but it is what it is. If the stuff gets ruined I’ll get new metal, stone or plastic.
It’s all moot point since two months from now when we open it will probably be different again.
I had a roomie for 5 years who was a nurse. Every time she wiped down the counters and appliances she left them to air dry. The smudgy haze on everything all the time drove me nuts. But I appreciated her fastidious cleaning.
That’s the normal thing to do with wood. We use Murphy’s oil soap. Though we do have a wood shelf in the bathroom and a wood dining table in the kitchen, both of which obviously need to be disinfected, so we did a few coats of clear poly on them. You can’t even tell that they are coated but they can be disinfected without any harm.
What I was really getting to was that disinfectants shouldn’t be applied to anything unless they are going to be allowed to air dry. Otherwise, it’s added disinfectant to the environment for no reason (and superbugs are an enormous public health issue).
Not sure if you’re saying this because I’m a health professional or not, but for the record, the Airbnb cleaning guide is more stringent than I’ve ever witnessed or participated in in a healthcare setting, outside an ICU. Nursing homes have wood furniture too.
All I have read says that the virus doesn’t survive on porous surfaces like cardboard, paper, cloth and wood for more than 24 hours. And it may not even be viable as far as posing an infection risk long before that. It’s non-porous surfaces like plastic and metal that are the main things to be concerned about. And since soap and water does the job, I don’t see any reason you couldn’t just put some soap on a cloth, rub it over the surface, then quickly rinse and dry. That shouldn’t damage the wood.
). All in all it was a 1 minute project.
So, anyway, no rush if you haven’t done it.
