As most of you know, we are near Los Angeles. We have 6 >2 night >2 people each reservations between now and the end of the year.
The State of California and our county have put out guidelines that suggest restrictions they hope the common folk will follow to decrease the spread and danger of covid19.
The first ones had to do with minimizing all travel to or back into Cali, Ore and Washington. Now they are using stricter language about Thanksgiving travel.
We have at least one booking coming (apparently) from out of state.
I’m feeling a little freaked out and I am considering cancelling all of them, and just shutting down, possibly until after New Years.
High hopes for all of us in Spring 2020:) May the green grass grow again in peace and health.
Help!!!
My shared listings have been closed since March, and will remain so until I’m vaccinated.
If I was in California I wouldn’t be open, even if I was younger and had no pre-existing conditions.
I’ll choose life over money any day.
I don’t feel that it’s up to individual hosts to decide who should be traveling and who shouldn’t.
I have a friend of a friend staying in my Airbnb next weekend, arriving Thanksgiving afternoon from out of state. I don’t think she should be traveling to a wedding. There should not be a wedding. But if I don’t host her she’ll stay in a hotel if she comes (apparently none of her friends here want her in their guest room so some people are being responsible) and I’ll have $200 fewer dollars. If I thought cancelling on her would cause her to cancel her trip, I would though. It’s just clear from messaging that she’s determined to come unless they cancel the wedding.
If it stresses you out to host, then don’t. My calendar is currently closed. I don’t know if I may open it at some point the rest of this year or not.
Gypsy doesn’t have a shared listing. She has a vintage trailer on her property.
I agree, but it still worries me.
Last weekend I had guests, 2 parents and a child. The next day grandparents arrive I am doubting they all live together. People can be pretty stupid.
I have the big cabin booked for a week starting Sunday and I fear it will be more of the same, lets all get a cabin in the woods… At least with the smaller cabin its only couples
RR
Absolutely. Luckily with my rental no people from different households are going to be getting together. And since my room is overwhelmingly used for people driving cross country I like being able to offer a safe place for them to stay.
There’s not one blanket policy that fits every Airbnb.
My xmas dog business is looking like it will be quite busy with 5 different families telling me they will be going out of town so far. This is down from previous years but still seems like a lot of people going about their lives.
If I cancelled all of them, would we be badly dinged and demoted by Air? I cancelled twice in the summer and the Air bookings did slow. If I shut, of course its a non sequitur.
Yes presumably they would all just find another place to stay, and still travel putting themselves, other hosts and people along their way at risk… Problem for them, just nothin’ else like what we offer.
I am with guests for 15 minutes, partially outside, all masked.
Gypsy: are you in one of the more precarious counties? I did check the map yesterday, for my old job, to see if Calaveras county was one of them going into curfew. (its not).
Since your place is a stand alone, I would let those coming still to come. Its their decision as to whether to place themselves into the heightened restrictions from Gov N.
In the UK we are under lockdown so can’t accept guests. We had to advise guests to call Airbnb to initiate a penalty free cancellation .
For some reason they were less keen to accept these from hosts.
In your situation I would contact your guests to ask them to cancel confirming it will be penalty free. Post the relevant gov policy for them to quote to Airbnb.
Our calendars have been blocked but you might want to block yours for the foreseeable.
I know you like to do the full tour but you might consider skipping the inside part. If you have to do it I’d open the windows and doors while you are in there.
the coronavirus restriction level of all California counties as of Nov. 16. Those in the purple tier will be subject to a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Saturday, Nov. 21, under a [new limited curfew order] issued on Thursday, Nov. 19, and running until Dec. 21 unless modified.
LA is one of the “purplecounties”
Yes, the inside part, can leave the guests to find stuff on their own… yes the ventilation is very important. Its about 7 minutes, or less.
Interesting, asking the guests to initiate cancel… the “curfew” is pretty easy for most folks as there is nowhere to go…
Hi there, I hope you are doing OK. Your post made me think … what are your thoughts on Airbnb blocking our calendars here in the UK? I can understand why - company damage limitations/taking the decisons out of the hosts’ hands, but on the flipside (and this is for standalone properties), if I were a contractor needing to book somewhere for work, I’d have to go to a hotel with increased COVID risks, rather than a more “isolated” property. I may be harbouring some miffiness at being told what to do, but do you think their decision was the lesser of two evils… (actually, I think I’ve answered my own question…)
I’m not quite sure this is accurate. Sure, it’s what we’d like to think but obviously it depends on the host. Where a hotel might have ways to check that staff follows protocol Airbnb has to trust their hosts.
Also, if Airbnb blocks your calendar then get bookings on a different site: VRBO, booking dot com and others. Set up your own website and promote your business yourself. If you have stand alone property other platforms work well.
I suppose so - I was thinking that you’d come into contact with more people at a hotel than a standalone property but cleanliness protocol plays a part. Funnily enough, I did get an enquiry through another site, which I had to refuse because it was not essential travel. I just wish Airbnb just gave us a courtesy heads-up that they were taking over our calendars. OK - moan over - I’ll go work on setting up a website.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going as they say.
OK, I’ll bite 
JF
I think blocking out calendars across the UK is madness as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are still open for business @Cafrin
England is the only one with restrictions and even then people travelling for business/work or without a permanent home can still stay.
It was the English government that asked STRs to block UK listings so you would have to ask them for their thinking around this. Sadly I think this was because in the last lockdown some unscrupulous hosts refused to abide by government legislation and continued to take guests for holidays when this was banned.
I stayed at a hotel a few months back and the Covid standards were amazing and I felt very safe. I think they are standards are probably higher than some hosts.
I have some former guests staying with another host as I couldn’t accommodate them because of other booking.
Their current host brings her friends and family into the home (against government legislation), goes out to socialise with friends at their houses (against government regs),doesn’t offer any routines around sanitiser/hand washing when entering the home, cooking etc, doesn’t do regular sanitation of work surfaces/handles/communal areas Yet she has committed to the Airbnb new cleaning regime.
They are definitely not safer in this hosts home then they would be at the hotel I stayed in.
A high proportion of Scotland shut for business as of Friday. That said, up north still open, if you can get there!
JF
I’m in Wales and my calendar isn’t blocked. I’ve turned off instant book though as we can currently only accept guests from within Wales.
Glad to hear it @Daisymead Other Welsh hosts on UK host forums were saying their calendars have been blocked.