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Hello fellow hosts
I have a guest that arrived in mid march - for a week - due to lock down we have to keep on extending his stay -
he is a lovely family man from India an engineer - who is now learning to cook remotely via his wife - he’s getting pretty good at it
anyone else got a guest who is now more a flatmate or fulltime tenant and what are you letting them do or not do
??? will be super interested to hear from how hosts are coping
I am looking for stories - people who are self-isolating practising safe distancing - high level of cleaning - what are hosts and guests doing
This really depends on where you are and your personal situation. It seems that he has been here longer than a self quarantine so that’s a good thing. If he doesn’t follow the local requirement for stay at home, mask wearing, etc. you, in theory, should be able to ask him find other arrangements. If you or someone in your house is at high risk, he should only be allowed to stay if he goes nowhere. If he refuses, I would contact airbnb. We had a guest who extended in March, but he had been here since early January and the lockdown in our area had yet to begin. I’m very glad he left on March 5th or he might still be here!
I’m personally afraid of this. I have a strict 28 days stay so that they don’t get classified as tenants but they just added a new rule my state about no evictions and I can’t get a straight answer if this applies to Airbnb. My essential worker guests are staying at rates 50 percent below market, which is great now but I don’t them for long and worry about if they stop paying. I might shut down completely.
I had a guest 3 weeks ago and he asked to convert to a non-airbnb. I said ok but when he filled out the tenant application his references just weren’t checking out and none (work or previous landlords were returning my calls.) Nor the letter from his future landlord who said the moving was delayed. Then when I sent him a the notice about only essential workers in airbnb’s I told him he had to leave. Funny how within 6 hours his boss wrote him a letter saying he was an essential working. I felt like it was a squatter in waiting. I now have a couple who are essential workers who are working 12 hour shifts delivering food from warehouses to grocery stores. Very nice but they are not taking this seriously. We share a common front door where I have disinfectant wipes and have asked them to wipe down the door every time. They too want to go off the site and stay longer but I told them 28 days max (and I still worry I could get squatters). They are paid up for 2 weeks and don’t seem to have money yet for the 2nd 14 days. (I may decide to ask them to leave after the 14). I just got my unemployment for my Airbnb 1099 and may decide to just shut down until I feel that it’s safer. (Note - I’m pretty sure (and my doctor agrees) that I had COVID in early February so I’m less nervous about catching it.
There is nothing to indicate that having the virus makes one immune from being re-infected. There is evidence from South Korea that people who have had it, recovered and tested negative, are now re-infected and test positive again. Perhaps some people may develop immunity, but it seems too early to know how widespread this would be.
I think you’ll find this isn’t all that common. If your guest is extending his stay and continuing to pay you a good rate, then you won the Airbnb/COVID lottery, at least compared to almost all other hosts. High five!
I have lost £40k of 2 properties I manage for friends who live work abroad and use the home when here visiting family plus another room £2k a month so am earling about 20% of what I usually earn a month - but yes I know that he is a godsend
i wish i could find others though
I tried with one guy. He stayed with us before. But after 2 weeks he said he has no money to pay us and if can wait. But at that point he already drove me nuts. He stayed home all day obviously . He smoked heavy so every 15 minutes front door was slammed. I developed headache. He walked all day and half of the night like this. Then he wanted to do laundry every other day, I said no. He was very messy.
Overall it was very difficult to have him around…and on top of that he couldn’t pay. So he left.
Hi,
we offer rooms in our own home and presently have 5 separate guests who have all extended since February and after - all from different booking platforms, and 2 by referral.
the great thing is it’s like the United Nations Family here:
we have New Zealand, Ireland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam, and England in the house.
the 2 girls met here, and who are from totally different cultures are now best friends and happy to share a room together - that was their suggestion to be able stay here longer for a slightly cheaper price.
all 3 guys are working in essential services in the area, and are happy to come home to a good dinner which is included in the nightly price,
unless I am out elsewhere, which is not happening these days
I have found cooking relaxing while we’ve been in isolation, they are happy to gobble up all my culinary ‘experiments’
has anyone watched “The Platform” movie ?
everybody has been very careful and respectful of isolation and hygiene rules.
we’ve enjoyed a few games together & I invested in buying “Joke Hazard” for them, and I have a few other board games they’ve tried including “Crimes of Humanity” was also popular for a few days, got too repetitive for me.
but mostly these 5 entertain themselves, with local walks and trips to the grog shop in pursuit of “drinking their way around the world”
(this is when I leave the communal space)
they can get a bit rowdy in the evening, but it’s nice to hear laughter and music throughout the house.
we all can find quiet areas here if necessary.
my other half has just taken our “last man in” guest to see the rainforest bush walk behind our house.
local walks have been very important to everyone in the last few weeks.
we also understand that these guys don’t have much choice of leisure activities at the moment, and can’t return to their own states or countries due to work / study commitments.
I am looking forward to when the colleges and schools re-open again, as there are moments when we miss having the house to ourselves, but I am eternally grateful that all these people have chosen to stay on with us studying from home, and continue to pay for their rooms during the pandemic.
they are all allowed to use the kitchen / lounge / dining area / garden areas.
generally everyone helps themselves to a breakfast, and I learned long ago it’s better, and safer for me to cook 1 good evening meal per day for everyone, than to have people trying to cook randomly and separately in our kitchen, although if anyone else actually came up with an idea for dinner for 7,
I would be very happy to support them.
Pigs will fly
not accepting any visitors, or any new bookings until our city gets the “all clear”
our dogs are loving having everyone at home, every day.
this morning was unique when we all woke up super early to honour Anzac Day on our driveway at 6am, with “the last post” played on saxophone.
music rang out all across our valley from a few homes.
a very special time indeed.
Wow. You must have many families around the world out there who are so grateful for your continuing hospitality for their offspring or nearest and dearest.
You sound like the best kind of boarding school housemother! My hat goes off to you.
I have these concerns with current guests. Georgia+my city law shows short term guests turned squatters will develop tenant rights (even at hotels! but after longer than the typical 27-30 day private residence stay) no matter how they became a tenant I.e. Airbnb ect.
I still wouldn’t go outside the app unless you plan on taking a very hefty deposit at least to compensate for possible non pay (typical with traditional private renting) Also look up no contract vs. contract eviction process (however I see no legal reason why the temporary no eviction won’t apply to any person considered a tenant);
Side note: our 90days turned 47days current guests changed their mailing address to our Airbnb address without even asking, we don’t live there but it made me wildly uncomfortable, that said they have no home to return to as they moved into town on a house hunt seemingly several months ago. Uggh😟 I’m watching their rights pile up against my measly Airbnb “accept”. All the uncertainty surrounding Covid has me more alert( paranoid)
I have my state rep trying to get clarification but she doesn’t think Airbnb falls into the same category. The previous essential worker I had seemed scammy and his references weren’t calling me back. The couple I have now seem honest and just happy to have a nice and safe place to stay while they do supermarket deliveries. I’m only allowing 28 days. After that I think I’m going to shut down my Airbnb.
We have two properties that are rented on AirBnB, one in the US and one here where we live overseas (whole house rentals). In both cases they were caught by the travel bans, airline shutdowns or much worse Coronavirus conditions where they live and have been extending since March.
We are giving good discounts since they have limited options and we know we can’t rent to others. So kind of a win-win. Our US tenant had rented for Jan/Feb and is still there!
Both are great guests, helpful and easy going. In exchange for lower costs one guest is now doing pool maintenance and a bit of the mowing.
As retired folk, it is great having the house costs covered during a time when rentals are rare and the rest of the economy is in the toilet with not even the usual dividend income coming in.
I have a traveling nurse who has been here since mid March. Her contract ends in late May , she will leave then. I gave her a huge discount. My Airbnb space is completely separate from our living space. We chat with her in the yard. She has been a pleasure to host and some money is better than no money. I have received an instant for mid June and have many interested guest and some bookings for this summer.
I have two Chinese college students that can’t get home. They’ve been here since mid-March and have extended through mid-June at a highly discounted rate. The apartment is below the house but completely separate, so no worries about germs, plus they almost never leave, even for fresh air! I just met one of them today for the first time, only because I was gardening when they came home from picking something up. So, it’s an unexpected trial of LTR for me. No way I’d do it if they were actually in the same space as me and my family. Not just the germs, but I can’t imagine spending that much time with people I’m not related to I wish I knew if they were definitely leaving in mid-June so I could try and find a tenant for the entire summer, but I don’t want to kick them to the curb if they can’t actually go home.
I wish I knew if they were definitely leaving in mid-June so I could try and find a tenant for the entire summer, but I don’t want to kick them to the curb if they can’t actually go home.