Plans in light of vaccine distribution

We do what we have to do. Good luck with the new tenant. In addition to my short term Airbnb I have two long term tenants on my property. One has been there for 17 years with no significant issues and another for about 12. Our relationship is very different than that with STR guests, but has its own rewards.

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praying for everyone!

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“I oversee operations for the 2nd largest portfolio on airbnb.”

Then don’t expect a cozy welcome from many on here, including me.

Allowing large scale operations to advertise on Airbnb signalled the death knoll for the original concept, and to a lesser extent I believe, influenced how Airbnb began to treat hosts. Is it any wonder that many large operators are often described as “slumlords”, by grass roots level hosts.

JF

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But the nurse that had the adverse reaction had NEVER had any allergies or adverse reactions before.

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Re my previous post about villages: Yes, the National Guard and Coast Guard will indeed vaccinate villagers en mass at the village airstrip. Right now the push is to vaccinate Village Health Aides, who run the (usually) 3 room village clinic and connect to a regional hospital via satellite telemedicine links.

Here’s how it’s done for them:

These villages, which hardly anyone has heard of unless they live here, are anywhere from 25 to 100 miles apart along rivers.

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I just read of a second health care worker who had a bad reaction.

I guess you mean the one in Alaska? The first two in the UK had epi-pens with them. But I did hear that about the nurse in AK. It’s possible that she is allergic to something that she just hasn’t been exposed to before. And some allergies are developed later in life so she could be unaware for that reason as well.

I get anaphylaxis from saffron. I had my first reaction when I was 17 and because of where I grew up, people always asked, “well, how do you know?”, since it’s not used in Tex-Mex or Chicken Fried Steak. Short story is my mom spent her childhood in Indonesia and always cooked the food but didn’t use saffron because it was so expensive and then splurged one day when I was 17. The first time was concerning but the second time, our neighbor had to use his epi-pen on me. Though I still know people who haven’t ever had saffron, as an example.

I think there’s a lot of stuff we’ve all never had so it’s possible to not know, but it is also concerning. Personally, I would have felt better if they said, “these people are all allergic to eggs” or something equally specific, but “anyone who has had a reaction” is frustrating at best. That is why I am definitely going to be in the last group to get a vaccine :grimacing:

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It’s if you have food allergies such as peanut allergies or allergies to particular medications that you should check @

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Hi All, it’s been a while since I have responded. Miss you all. I shut down in May. I just started getting too many sketchy people and many wanting more than 28 days and I was worried about squatters due to no evictions. I learned a few things of interest. My home insurance is $1,200 less, my water bill is $100 a month less, my electricity is $75 a month less (no ac and less usage) and my heat/hot water (because I like it much cooler than my guests is about $100 less in the winter and about $50 less in the summer. So that means that’s about $375 in utilities/insurance that I have to cover. My peak season is May - October so I’m just not sure if it will be worth it in 2021. I too am afraid of still getting sketchy folks. If I do open up, I’m going to do a 2 days minimum and raise my rates. Also, since party of my unemployment is coming from not running the Airbnb it’s not worth it for me to consider until that runs out too. We’ll see. The longer I go with an empty second floor, the longer I like my privacy.

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Me too Christine! The money is useful but good company is far more important! I am closed atm but hope to ne open for Easter. I am in North Wales and we have just been slammed with a stringent closedown.
So many people blaming government for problems instead of looking at their own actions.

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So true! So many people in government have never dealt with a problem like this of such magnitude.

We too are like all of us watching this closely. We are home share as you discuss. We share our home (the entire second floor). So we are absolutely concerned, We had guests in the summer here in Traverse City Michigan which is high vacation period. But when we offered our home share Covid numbers were way down, almost non existent in northern Michigan. We had no problems whatsoever. But that changed this late fall with the covid surge. So in Michigan our season is summer. Really no demand in winter as hotels go from $300 to $40. So next summer my wife and I expect to be vaccinated and will hopefully will feel safe to offer up our airbnb in Traverse City. But we are also fighting our Twp who opines that our home share is illegal. The public hearing continues tomorrow night via Zoom. We fight on. Regards, Curt Peterson

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Yes! I always do off-season quality checks in the upstairs rooms a few days at a time. But now I’ve become enamored of the room above my room, and I’ve been there since October. I also like having the extra fridge and freezer space.

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Best of luck with your hearing. We live across the street from our Town Hall so we can’t go under the radar with anything that we do. Fortunately years ago our home was zoned for limited business which limits restrictions.

I’ve also cut way back and am really enjoying it. I’ve had 3 guests in the last week for the first time in over a month and then I’m closed until at least after the holidays. I’m spending less so don’t feel the need to hustle to be booked as much as possible. Old ideas of trying to get 100 reviews a year don’t currently interest me.

However, the vast majority of guests are a plus. One regular guest has become a friend and she brought me gummi bears from Germany last week. And another recent guest messaged me this:

"Thank you so much again, Dusty for everything! It was great to stay at your place and it made us so happy and feel safe/seen with your homes signs.

🙌🏾🌈💫

I have a “hate has no home here” and a sign that includes a BLM message. This was a black guest and in these fraught times knowing that I’m providing not just a clean, comfortable place but also a place that feels safe goes beyond money value.

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Same here - I’m currently enjoying my ‘time off’. I now fully appreciate having my place to myself. If I go back to Airbnbing I’ll set my price to take this into account a little more, as well as reflecting the extra cost of utilities more accurately. I think we’re probably all guilty of underestimating (or ignoring) just how much extra people add to our bills

The way I set up my listing to start with always meant that aside from a few really busy times at the height of the tourist season here, I never really felt overwhelmed having guests around, even though they share my kitchen and we usually hang out quite a bit, especially in the evenings.

Minimum 3 days, max 2 weeks, always one day prep time. 2 day advance notice. I never really got continuous bookings, which was fine with me. And the nature of my area is that I almost never got guests from May-early Nov. There are tourists here that time of year, but it’s super hot and humid, so they want a place with AC and a pool, neither of which I have. Last winter I had a fully booked calendar from late Nov. to the first week in March, and I did breathe a sigh of relief when the last guest checked out and I closed due to COVID.

Of course, the level of bookings I get wouldn’t make someone who was reliant on the income happy, but it was always a sideline for me so it was just as much business as I really wanted to handle.

I’ve been sleeping in my guest room for the past 3 months now, as I have some renos to do on my room. But I am missing hosting.

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In my city 65 year olds have been given the vaccine. I’m not 65 and even if I were I’d be hesitant to jump to the front of the line this soon.

The roll out in the US is going predictably poorly. Hopefully things will start moving better after we get a new group in charge.

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And all of this is to say that if the roll out in the US doesn’t speed up then my optimism isn’t warranted. I’ve been eyeing attending a concert in another city on 9/11/2021. But I can’t buy tickets yet because things are too uncertain.

Travel won’t be “back to normal” this summer (or shouldn’t be) without both doses of vaccine in wide distribution.

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I am in line behind 30K people in my county and over 12 million statewide. So getting it right away is not an option for me. I am a firm believer in vaccines, being a habitual back country off pavement loving international traveler. I am also like @muddy in that (fortunately) I do this for reasons other than survival income.

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