The Portuguese Tourist Board (or whateverâŚ) has already come up with one for licensed rentals. I saw it a couple of times when researching stuff about STRs/B&Bs in various areas.
Our state has short term rentals, except for essential employees, slated for our second phase. We just started phase 1 today. The state is putting out requirements, guidelines, checklists and best practices for every category as well as a general template for any they miss. It will be interesting to see how much compliance evolves when we do open.
If a hotel discovers a worker cutting corners he or she can be fired or otherwise reprimanded/retrained/made an example of. If a single host doesnât follow the protocol the chance of being caught is low. They could be reported by a guest and removed from the platform. I suppose there might be an increase in guest attempts at blackmail.
I would rather take my chance with a single-owner host with many good reviews than the random housekeeper in a corporate chain. But obviously guest perceptions will vary. Bottom line is that although I trust an individual owner-host more, I think chains have more accountability.
Having grown up in the hotel industry and considering how little time some of those big hotel groups give to the housekeeping staff to turnover a room - I wonder how much this new cleaning regime will add to their costs and then affect the tariff.
I would too. I wonder how the badges and other carrots that the OTAs plan to dangle will affect listings. It sounds like, if you donât opt in, you will be in the grey area of âIs this house really clean?â just because you donât have a little squiggly by your listing, but for those of us that were spotless before ⌠? I canât opt-in until at least August bc I have a couple back to back listings but if anyone was to ever doubt the cleanliness of my home, Iâd lick the floor as proof (and then promptly clean up said floor licking, and doubt my sanity âŚ)
Even worse, some hosts wonât be able to opt-in to the cleaning protocol (and badge) if they already have reservations in the future that are back to back. It puts hosts in the position of possibly being better off by cancelling future reservations.
I had 2 reservations that were back to back in October. I happened to cancel them last week, but if I hadnât it appears that I couldnât have the cleaning badge until after October. And it was going to be just fine to clean the apartment back to back for that particular reservation but no others? It supports the idea that the cleaning protocol is merely a PR push.
That is our situation. We arenât booked like we were but the few stays we have back up to each other. We canât opt-in but, dang it, my house is immaculate, there are antibacterial soap at all sinks, etc. I can put that in the listing of course, but if Iâm not part of their program it goes unseen.
Just another OTA idea that got implemented with only a modicum of thought. Or as my dad would say âThrow crap at a wall and see what sticksâ
I realized that there is another wrinkle in the Airbnb plan for preventing back-to-back reservations. I have three rooms in a shared home. I donât think that AIrbnb has any mechanism to flag when I have more than one room rented at the same time or back-to-back. If I didnât care I could create a checkerboard of open days between the rooms and have guests everyday during busy season.
I wish I could like this a thousand times!
I read that this protocol does not apply to in home private room rentals.
This protocol was supposed to take effect May 1st. They said that reservations would automatically block the day before and after a reservation.
I was never approached to opt in. I live in SC and have been going strong with back to back reservations for two weeks. I am not sure if this protocol is going to be enforced since we are three weeks into May.
Ultimately, the guests reviews will keep hosts complying. They will be quick to state on the reviews if it was not cleaned to the point they felt safe. They will not return to that listing. They may report a listing to Air.
Forcing a host to block off a day before and after a reservation doesnât make much sense if you are sanitizing the room Thoroughly. It would not make sense to accept one night reservations. I rent a suite over our garage which is much like a duplex. We put up a door that separated our part of the home from that suite.
Hi Everyone
I am new to this forum (its great!).
I have seen the new outlines for Air BnB hosts with regards to extra cleaning in order to receive a âcall outâ badge against my listings. I am just wondering what everyone is doing about this? I have ordered a fogging machine and some Covid19 tested products which come with a certificate I can display for the guests peace of mind.
I will let you all know how it is when it arrives. Would love to know if anyone is doing anything similar?
Thanks
Welcome to the forum!
RR
I am leaving a 24 gap. Surface sanitation does not clear the room Air of the virus.
According to the CDC, droplets can hang in the air for 18 hours or more. Now more information is available, the CDC says the greatest risk for spread is inhaling droplets, not touching surfaces. The two ways to rid a room of airborne droplets are:
- Wait 24 hours for the droplets to fall out of the air
- do a complete air exchange. In a home that means opening windows and perhaps using fans to vent the air outside. Outside, droplets mix with the greater volume of air and drop to a non-contagious level.
Side note. The combination of the 1 night gap between check out and check in has killed my Mid-week rentals. Guests tend to book long weekends. I have a 3 day minimum so there are not 4 available days between rentals.
Because I am listed on Airbnb and Airbnb recommends the 24 gap, I feel that not having it puts my guests and me at risk both for illness and me at risk for legal action
I suspect you may be over thinking things here. With an incubation time of up to fourteen days, itâd be impossible to pin down an infection to your property. You personally maybe (and I sincerely hope thatâd never be the case) but not your furnishing etc.
In any case, what they going to sue you for?
Exact same as we are doing, Iâve literally just made the changes in our channel manager to block off a day post booking, and disabled same day reservations.
Good luck, hope the bookings pile in.
JF
I probably am. The USA is a litigious society. I can see if a guest contracts Covid-19 and it is a serious case, either they or the family left with monsterous medical bills would seek any financial options available.
A host not following platform recommended processes could not prove they were acting in the best interest of the guest.
The guest couldnât prove they got it at the residence however they could allege a hostâs lack of regard for platform policies was deliberately negligent and put them at higher risk. People sue hoping to get an out of court settlement (cheaper to settle than pay an attorney).
Regardless of potential for legal action, since I canât vent the room to the outside between guests, the 24 hour wait is what I will do.
Hosts that zoom in immediately after a checkout to clean may be putting themselves at risk. Masks & gloves donât guarantee protection; it is estimated 20% of medical staff caring for Covid-19 patients have been infected.
Iâd previously posted that I will no longer be doing that, especially if I rent this winter. Iâll be leaving a day or two between guests and will probably go in and clean the next day. I can usually air out the room well most times of the year.
Iâm closed until late July or August at the minimum and have no idea what things will be like if I try to restart.
How would anyone be able to know where they picked up the virus?
People seem to be doubting that a guest could possibly sue but this was news in the US recently:
ââIf theyâre practicing the rules and regs and guides that they should be, and regrettably someone â a customer or an employee â regrettably, gets the infection or is infected by the virus, I donât think there should be a lawsuit.ââ
Obviously if there is a lawsuit the plaintiff has a burden to offer evidence. But itâs not anything that anyone wants to go through even if the suit is without merit.