It is not in Airbnb’s interest to enforce or otherwise guarantee cleaning standards are met, as they may then become liable for injury. They will likely give a certificate for self-reporting, completion of on-line training, etc.
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I do agree.
This virus is nothing more than a new flu virus.
Once the whole population has been infected it is as bad as a common yearly flu.
And no, a vaccine is not a solution.
A healthier lifestyle is. (95% of people on ICU are obese).
I agree, however to me this is one step beyond “cleaning”. Up till now we’ve had a cleaning routine, call it a protocol if you want. It involved using a lot of soap and water, so to speak, but minimal use of strong disinfectants outside the bathrooms and kitchens.
For example, light switches etc were wiped down using a simple household cleaning solution, but now they will have to essentially be sterilised. Dining room tables were cleaned and polished with Pledge, now they may have to be sterilised post polishing.
Our review scores on cleanliness are excellent, they always have been. The problem now is that we need to “clean” something we can’t see.
The latest information we got today indicates that hotels etc in our province may be able to reopen in a fortnight. We need to think about that one, given the shortages of masks, gloves and sanitising gel in our area. It could be that we’ll hang back a bit, I don’t know…
JF
The world is going nuts…
Fear has always been a good selling tool, now this gets abused again.
There is really no need to sterilize the whole house with special disinfectants. Normal soap is just as effective.
It just like all those people now soaking their hands in all kinds of aggressive fluids. Absolutely no need for that, washing your hands with soap for 30 is enough and a lot better for your skin.
It is as if AirBNB wants to make a statement by overdoing everything again. If they force a 24 or 72 hour window, I will keep my listing blocked and just use BDC or any other channel to fill my gaps.
(Btw I work as a manager at one of the largest manufacturers of hygieneproducts and desinfectants in Europe)
The bleach smell comment reminded me of a spray they used to use in cars to make smell new.
My favorite car detailing supply makes it:
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I just looked at the CDC website, I can not find anything for short term rentals or any other business to wait 24 hours between customers? For example you can sit in an Uber within 24 hours of the previous guest, you can eat in a restaurant at a table within 24 hours of the previous customer, you can use a public toilet within 24 hours of previous guest, you can lay on a sun lounger within 24 hours of previous person, you can use gym equipment within 24 hours of previous person, you can sit on an airplane in the previous customers seat within 24 hours. If an Airbnb guest checks out at 10am, the room is disinfected and windows opened, and another guest checks in at 4pm, is this within CDC guidelines? Are there any medical professionals on this forum who could confirm this???
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This is fun. And also why guests should definitely stay in a highly rated Airbnb instead of a hotel. This is from HospitalityNet, a resource and newsource for hotels and hotel personnel. This is from a recent article titled, “Covid-19, Tips for Hotel Managers”:
Except it looks like they’re saying they will automatically block your calendar for 24 hours when the guest checks out per CDC recommended policy. And that’s if you agree to the enhanced cleaning. If you don’t, looks they’re blocking you for 72. Correct me if I read that wrong.
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Yes.
I’ve always had high marks for housekeeping and I haven’t changed my cleaning routine one bit. If I were to increase cleaning protocol now, it would mean it wasn’t good enough before. I never compromise my standards on cleaning and it always gets done the right way. I don’t have high traffic or huge numbers of guests either so my housekeeping is more manageable than some of you with 5 rooms and 12 guests.
First off AirBnB wouldn’t be able to confirm host are following the protocol so it would be more of trusting host will follow it because they wouldn’t want to put the guest in danger. The problem with that is there will be host who wont think that all that is necessary so wont do it.
The thing is nobody knows nothing for sure, so anything that they recommend will be based on speculation and opinions and not facts. From what I have read the best guess is that the virus stays airborn a few hours indoors and less outside depending on conditions. The time its stays infectious on things like plastic and other materials varies a lot. It does seem that pretty much all the experts agree that cleaning with just soap and water will make it safe to touch so I would think that them cleaning supplies that says it kills 99.9% of germs and virus would be even better in making things safe to touch.
At first I was following the 3 days empty between guest and then do a a thorough cleaning the day the guest check in. That didnt work that well because I would have to go in and block dates manually and the system was still allowing them to be booked and BnB was making it so difficult to cancel it just wasn’t going to work (even after you would tell CS that you were cancelling because the system screwed up by letting it get booked and you wouldn’t be able to follow the 3 days recommendation of being empty they would still say you were going to be penalized and then you have to fight with them in order to not get penalized) So now what I am doing is I no longer allow check ins on the same day someone checks out, which gives 29 hours of the house being empty in between guest. So what I do is I open up all windows and turn on all the fans as soon as the guest leaves and then about 4 hours before check in I go in and do a thorough cleaning and then after that I go around and spray and wipe everything a person might touch with Lysol disinfectant. Every door knob, light switch, handles, faucets, arms of chairs and couches, even remotes and keys, anything a person might touch gets wiped down. I am the only one that goes in the house and I wear gloves the whole time.
In doing this. I also only have the minimum amount of dishes, that way I can throw everything in the dishwasher before each stay. So as long as what they say is true and the the cleaning products do what they say they do I should be providing a virus free environment for my guest to stay at.
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I wonder if Airbnb will handle complaints about cleaning the way they handle complaints about bed bugs? Shut the host down on the guest’s report and ask questions later. What about a guest who claims they got covid at your rental? I know it sounds ridiculous but there are ridculous guest claims. I see Airbnb forcing a block on your calendar as a “covering their @$$” measure.
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If they go down that road, we will simply snooze our listings on Airbnb. We get very little domestic guests from Airbnb, and for the foreseeable future that is our sole market. We will happily rely on direct bookings and BDC.
JF
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There is a serious problem with long-term rentals and the 24 hour rule. Airbnb is trying to push hosts to long term rentals. In many cities like Boston a long term rental legally has to be 30 days or more. However 30 days + 24 hours means you could be renting a property with availability starting on the 2nd of the month, I don’t know anyone who wants a monthly rental to start on the 2nd of the month (nearly all start on the 1st day of the month), so the 24 hour rule will mean people renting on a monthly basis could lose an entire MONTH of rental income between guests! How can hosts switch to longer term monthly rentals like Airbnb are asking us to do, if we can not rent for 30 day periods anymore???
I recently thought about that too! It definitely seems short-sighted.
Well, maybe the 2nd, but after a few guests, it will be the 11th or something. In a couple of years, you might get back to the 1st. 
There are already several reasons Airbnb is not favorable to doing LTR and this can be added to that list now too.
If you really want to use Airbnb, you might consider alternating with rentals from another source so that you can keep your calendar straight. They require 24 hours between guests so they might end up getting 30 days between guests 
There is also a major problem with short-term rentals and full 24 hour rules, for example, if a guest checks out on Sunday, and you already have a one day reservation on Tuesday and another one day reservation on Friday, then you can only rent your property for TWO out of SEVEN days. Unless you cancel the Tuesday and Friday bookings to try and get a 3 or a 4 day booking instead. Ultimately it does not make sense to allow a 1 or 2 day booking on Airbnb anymore with a 24 hour rule? So will Airbnb allow us to cancel all our 1 and 2 day bookings for free so we can replace with 3 or 4 day bookings?
Gstarz, the timeline problems you’ve identified are indeed perplexing. I can’t imagine STR is more profitable than LTR is you are only able to rent 2 out of 7 days in a week.
As for AirBnB’s move to more LTRs: in addition to the new “downtime” policies, I don’t really see the appeal in using AirBnB as a platform to find long-term tenants when you have platforms like Craigslist or Furnished Finder. AirBnB does not sufficiently screen would-be tenants for credit or rental history. The damage deposit is only symbolic gesture and not actually collected or held. Their price recommendations are often under market rate. Without a lease, the guest gets tenants rights after 30 days in many municipalities. There is no reason you can’t have your AirBnB guests sign a lease or rental agreement, but many naive hosts won’t, thinking AirBnB will look out for their best interests.
We’ve had hosts here post that the guest’s credit card was declined and they were on the hook for the bill. Some years ago, there was a host here who was stuck with a professional squatter and it was a very ugly situation.
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Telling us how to clean now! I could tell Chesney what to do with Bleach! after all his President suggested it!!
Excellent point! I’m in Massachusetts. I haven’t found our state senator in Boston to be particularly effective in advocating for short term rentals. When I went to his office hours before short term rental law was passed last year, his aide wasn’t helpful. That was surprising because hosted Airbnbs on the Cape. Although I am pretty pleased with how our Governor has handled the COVID crisis, I don’t expect much help in navigating the impact of new laws and policies.