Thanks @clifhirtle As I recall, we had similar requirements during our lockdown. I had longterm guests, so I only needed to report to my local Sheriff that they had been there for more than 2 weeks and that everyone was well.
@Annet3176 I believe the only way around the two payment option is to change your cancellation policy to strict.
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Yes. And now worrisome evidence regarding so called herd immunity. I’m very pessimistic and the ostriches who are making things worse are infuriating.
And it has shown itself to be unpredictable in other ways. People who test positive but have none of the known symptoms are experiencing long-term effects- neurological damage, exhaustion, vascular problems, organs damaged.
This virus is not at all like “the flu”. It’s a rogue entity that they keep finding out new things about. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if you were designing a biological weapon to wreak havoc on the world’s population, this virus would qualify.
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@KKC 102degF in Redding? Oooh… sounds like fire-ready conditions to me.
Are you prepared for the now-inevitable power outages that will got with fire danger warnings?
I’m confused. Why did you tag me in this message?
I thought you were in northern California? There was a msg with a graphic showing 102 in Redding which struck me as unusual and a fire hazard. Amiright?
No, I’m in El Paso TX. It’s hot here, 110 yesterday I think. But fires aren’t a problem usually because there are no woods/forest/prairie to burn.
Yes!!! We have a questionnaire (similar to this one but we ask even more details) that goes out just after booking and then again a week before arrival.
We also have an addendum to our standard rental agreement stating that they take responsibility for their health and the health of their guests, will follow New York and local laws regarding distancing and mask use, bring as much of your own food and supplies (like toilet paper) as possible, etc.
Can they lie, sure. Some guests are OK with that. But these forms cover our butts in case something happens, someone gets sick, or local government wants to know what we’re doing to prevent the spread.
to that end, we felt it necessary to change some policies to protect our owners, our guests, our cleaners, and ourselves:
We increased our minimum from two nights to a week. And we no longer do back-to-back rentals. There must be a full day in between.
We have a template we use for replies so people understand why they have been declined.
And adding two nights before and after a rental for prep to our Accommodations Restrictions seems to not always work. So i must sometimes decline and explain.
95% of the guests we decline write back and say they understand and thank us for being so careful. The other 5% say they wish they knew about the one week minimum ahead of time but they still understand and are thankful that we are so careful. (
Not knowing where this pandemic was going, we were reluctant to change all of our properties to one week minimum thinking we might soon enough have to change them back. “Oh, ha ha” to us.
Now all of our properties are one week minimum even though New York State has the lowest overall numbers, is 100% in Phase Four, and as of Monday had a death rate of ZERO! We’ll wait and see before we return to normal, whatever that was (seems like so long ago!).
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I’m not doing a questionaire.
I have taken onboard the extra disinfecting rules and removed all the non essential items (e.g. no longer providing salt and pepper cellars etc) for Covid reasons.
Despite telling them that disinfecting all the handles and switches etc etc takes longer, they still want to check in early and check out late!
I reopened two weeks ago and all the bookings are for one night and are from locals - and it seems that what is happening is that people want to get together with their friends and are eating in --> despite my asking them to please take their rubbish / belongings with them so as to avoid infection, I had a group who clearly had had a party, left glasses and bottle and rubbish everywhere, and although it’s obviously non smoking, they even smoked in the bedroom putting their cigarette ends into a cereal bowl.
I sent them an e mail saying how disappointed I was that they had disrespected my property in this way.
Sometimes, in this business, you do start to think about just how awful quite a lot of people are.
Funnily enough, I was just talking to my OH about how good the guests we’ve had since we reopened. Had both apartments check out this morning and they are spotless. One guest got all in a flap when she realised she hadn’t taken her rubbish out, which was one little bag with hardly anything in it!
Check outs last week were the same, place left spotless and it was pretty obvious they’d tidied and swept.
Ok, it doesn’t mean less cleaning, but it’s nice to wander round and see that folks haven’t trashed the place.
And on the flip side, sometimes you just think how nice some folks are.
Incidentally, these guests were all Spanish, and from experience, Spanish guests are often not the tidiest, or cleanest!
I just hope I haven’t put a hex on our upcoming bookings now 
JF
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It sounds like you are doing back to back bookings with tons of people. Frankly it sounds like a space I would not want to enter. I hope you are young, healthy and wearing gloves, mask and eye protection while cleaning.
Hello KKC,
The check out time is 10am and the check in time is 5pm. That’s 7 hours for a small flat, that normally takes only 3 hours to clean and make ready for guests.
Obviously I have removed all non essential items that cannot easily be disinfected and guests are being informed in advance that they will not have salt and peppers pots, or anything that is not absolutely brand new for them. Everything they get (dishcloths, scourers, etc) are brand new for them and everything has been washed fully at a high temperature.
When the cleaner arrives, with her mask and gloves of course, she immediately opens all the windows and doors - the windows are in fact all doors which open front and back and are 3m high. The flat gets aired for hours. She is a professional cleaner.
We used to allow guests to drop off bags, but not anymore, because of the infection risk. The keys are disinfected and picked up from a lock box that is also disinfected, so no one meets anyone in person. Hand sanitiser and soap is provided and a notice of all covid measures is on the wall.
We have adopted all of the protection measures that Airbnb and other holiday accommodation requires, including all of the UK government advice. Everything is fully disinfected, including switches and handles and everything that can be touched.
I have signed up for and passed the Airbnb test for accredited covid cleaning policies. Also, following the advice of booking.com and Airbnb, I have put on my listings exactly what all the measures are that I have taken to ensure the property is safe for guests.
So, I don’t understand what your concern is? Do you think that the Airbnb guidelines on cleaning protocols for holiday accommodation is inadequate? And if so, in what way?
I only wish that I had “tons of people” - there is no one booked now until a week from now, and only for two days. Usually I have occupancy of about 97% and it is rare for there to be a day with no one in the flat.
My gripe was that the guests don’t seem to understand that they have to check out by 10am and that they cannot check in until 5pm - I am trying to explain to them that the 7 hours are needed to make sure that the flat is fully aired and fully disinfected. But some guests seem not to care.
I wouldn’t use that as confirmation of anything, I let one of the geckos we get on our south wall do ours, passed with flying lizards 
JF
I already stated it clearly. It’s not a space I would want to enter. And I don’t have to so it’s all good and well. I’m not here to tell someone else how to run their business.
I think it’s well meaning and well above what many, maybe most, hosts do. The science changes and we get more information. Once I learned that the risk from touching things is low I felt confident to open back up. I have some concerns about the aerosols and droplets. In some places I would also add concerns about HVAC and ventilation. All of this changes constantly as more studies are done.
Let’s just assume there’s a group that parties in your rental and one or two of these youngsters are infectious. They are in there breathing, talking, maybe yelling, maybe coughing for hours and then as soon as they leave the cleaner comes in because you have another check in within 7 hours. I’m not personally comfortable with that. If your cleaner is that’s her business.
I wouldn’t do back to back rentals because I think more than 7 hours is needed between guests. Someone else thinks only 3 hours should be needed. I’m not surprised.
Sorry. When you said you’d been open for two weeks but had one night bookings from locals you made it sound as if you’d had a lot of bookings and you have a lot of problems with the partying.
I have friends who have a holiday house at the beach. They only accept one week rentals and changeover day is on a Saturday. They have asked guests to check out by 9am and the new guests can arrive at 5pm, and they have to cleaner a large 3 bedroom house that sleeps 6 people.
But based on what you have said, presumably you would not feel comfortable renting that property either, even if it had been fully aired and disinfected?
If they were to have a clear 24 hours between guests, then no one would stay there at all, all summer, because people coming to the beach on their summer holidays except a Saturday to Saturday rental.
Luckily, it is actually fully booked until mid September, so it seems that most people are actually happy to arrive the same day. Phew, else this really would be the end of holiday accommodation.
Yes. It seems that people are unwilling to put their normal lives on hold for a few months due to a pandemic. You’re right, I wouldn’t want to go there either.
I’m going to back out of this thread now before I go off on one of my rants.
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What is interesting is that if you wanted to stay in my flat in London, you could pay to book the previous night, knowing that it would have been disinfected by 5pm, and then not show up until the next night, thus paying to ensure 24 hours of a disinfected empty flat before you arrive.
But all the people asking to check in at 2pm or 3pm etc, when I suggest that maybe they might want to pay for the night before too, and then check in as early as they like, well, they don’t want to part with their own money for this.
So, for all of those who happily check in at 5pm, I don’t need to waste a whole day on a money-losing empty flat that they do not appreciate. And for those more risk-averse people like yourself, well they don’t seem to want to book the extra night before (even though the rates are currently about 50% of normal rates), and so they are not actually putting their money where their mouth is.
At the end of the day, renting out a property as a holiday let is a business, and a business means carrying out an activity with a view to making a profit. And if I comply with all the safety rules, then I need to make money and ideally as much money as possible. And people can decide for themselves whether they wish to pay for an extra night beforehand, when the flat is empty, or whether they are happy to come on the same day that someone left 7 hours earlier.
You don’t owe them an explanation. “I am sorry we cannot accommodate check-in before 5:00 pm. “. Make sure it is in your rental description that early check-in is not possible.
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