I try to reassure guests that surfaces have been cleaned and disinfected if appropriate, all soft surfaces have been sprayed with disinfectant etc. I am sending this in my greeting message the week of arrival.
Here is my question: I have a couple from Paris arriving next week. My Airbnb is the guesthouse behind the house I live in in Los Angeles. I clean the house myself and often interact with guests. I am a little concerned about their visit since cases of COVID-19 in Paris are increasing. I will be ok if they cancel their reservation. I’m really grappling with whether I want to cancel tho. We are starting to have diagnosed cases in LA now. My husband is high risk for contracting the disease and I am at slightly higher risk.
I would appreciate input from other hosts to gauge whether I am overreacting.
Thank you!
Reactions are mental/emotional. Your brain may also react to the rational inputs. Based on what we know there is no rational reason to cancel just because you have guests flying in from Paris. They just as easily could be flying in with flu or other infections. If it were me I would honor their booking.
But you are not me. If you are going to be anxious and uncomfortable then perhaps you should cancel. Maybe you should shut down future bookings until things settle more. Maybe look into having a cleaner clean for you since you are high risk.
If you are really fearful then you should quarantine yourself in your home for the foreseeable future since we know little about it at this time.
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Have you reviewed your insurance policy closely? I have a traditional innkeeper’s policy and I believe that not getting paid in accordance to my booking policy would be covered. I would at least try it based on this provision in my policy:
“Accounts receivable: We will pay all amounts due from your customers that you are unable to collect.”
That doesn’t help for lost revenue for people not booking, but it may be worth a shot to try to have your insurer honor your cancellation policy if Air won’t.
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Thank you! Just what I needed to put things in perspective. I’ve been chatting about rational responses to COVID-19 in my community but apparently couldn’t stay rational on this topic. We are nowhere close to quarantine. I will keep doing what I’m doing by mitigating the risks with good hygiene practices.
Thanks again!
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I unfortunately was dropped from my innkeeper policy after the fires so now I have the basic one that just covers structure and some contents. I have been doing this since 2004 and it has never been so hard to be a vacation rental owner until this last year.
Does Air still have the option of hosts paying an extra 10% on top of the service fee to guarantee that you will be paid if there is a cancellation for any reason.
EC trumps that too…,
I can’t agree @muddy hosts who rely on their STR income for their day to day living, should never rely on one marketing channel for their STR business as a general rule of thumb, but particularly now.
There is no reason that hosts can’t develop a marketing strategy to market their STR to those who don’t have to fly. That doesn’t just have to include just relying on STR platforms. Lots of other ways to market your business.
……having said that people are still continue to fly widely here in Europe ….including me.
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Hi @Mandy
I am ‘high risk’ for developing the virus, but am continuing to welcome guests from around the world in my home.
I just follow the NHS advice, I linked to earlier in this thread.
I think if you are truly worried about welcoming guests from Paris, then logically you would also be concerned about guests from the US, where many more have died than in France. Why is Paris a particular issue for you, or is that you don’t have guests booked from other countries at the moment?
As I mentioned to another host that had expressed concerns, it’s all about the level of risk you feel comfortable with?
I am comfortable to continue to welcome guests from anywhere in my home, others may not be.
Do what feels right for you and your family. I agree if you are concerned, you may be better snoozing your listings as I would imagine most of your guests come from countries where the virus in present.
I do not just use Airbnb. I use other sites as well. All I am saying is that Airbnb is probably the worst at backing up hosts. And thank you for your sympathy. Geez. Must be so hard to be perfect hosts with a perfect strategy and not have to depend on your rent for your bills on the vacation rental. As I mentioned before this is not a part time thing or part of my house. My place is a entire house rental so that is a little different then renting a room for extra income. I see the comments on this thread and other threads and I really am sad that the first thing people want to do is shame the hosts for feel bad about a situation instead of being supportive.
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I am really sad too. Many people take their time to be helpful only to have their comments and advice disregarded or dissed.
Just because you didn’t hear what you wanted to hear, doesn’t mean members here are shaming you. We are stating facts. The Airbnb policies are well known. They are a booking and payment company, not an insurance company. You really expect Airbnb to take money from guests, give it to hosts who did precious little work and be able to stay in business? The entire travel industry has suspended normal policies. They are rescheduling and refunding in ways that they don’t in normal times. Our seemingly hard to swallow advice is simply being realistic. We are all potentially in the same boat.
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I think I was reflecting my husband’s concerns more so than mine. Our international guests have wanted and we are mostly booked well into July with domestic visitors (last year was opposite).
At the most I may consider hiring a housekeeper to do the heavy lifting, which I had been considering before. I am cutting back on some other activities where I work heavily with the public.
For a moderator you just don’t get it. It’s fine. Don’t know why I would expect kindness from you When yours are the comments I keep reading from everybody else’s posts that are unkind. Maybe you think it’s your job to do Toughlove on this forum but that was not my understanding of its purpose. I thought this was a place for cohesiveness and a safe place to be able to talk among other hosts. You may think you’re doing somebody a favor by being what you think is direct ( and in your opinion honest ) but you’re not.
I’m not impressed by that “for a moderater” crap. I’m a volunteer who has spent hours here over the last 5 years. Some of those hours are appreciated by others, some aren’t, but I gave them freely. How many helpful posts and comments have you made on this forum?
I didn’t give up my right to an opinion by taking on moderator duties. Use the scroll button to avoid hearing painful truths.
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I got email from Airbnb saying that the full refund policy will only impact hosts who are hosting in—or welcoming guests from—mainland China, South Korea, and certain locations in Italy (i.e., “severely impacted areas”).
Of course, the definition of “severely impacted areas” can change any hour now. Sigh…
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I was replying to @muddy who felt that proactive marketing wouldn’t have an impact on booking during the Corona Virus outbreak.
Why do you feel the need to have a go at me in response @Danielle_Alexander ?
I wasn’t talking about you. Or your circumstances.
I await your apology 
I don’t ‘rent a room’ for a little extra ‘pin money’ dear. I do it like you do to help pay the bills.
Apparently their practice and their policy aren’t the same.
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Right. I believe Paris/France is headed toward being heavily impacted based on reporting in the last day or two. I haven’t done the math but worked with statatitions for many years and will say that per capital cases in that area are much higher than in the U.S. though don’t know if it will stay that way. I’m looking at reported cases rather than deaths since that is a much better indicator of the future.
Snoozing my listing isn’t gonna happen since I am booked into July and we just don’t know what is going to happen. The reality is that we probably need to be more concerned about the flu since that has a very high kill rate and hits every year.
I appreciate the feedback and while not all was helpful, I was able to reassess my perspective. I think the better course is to contact my guests and discuss.
Thanks again.