Morning folks. The hotel said they take out all the pillows from each room and wash and dry them after each guests stay. We had six (!) pillows in our room. Maybe the only jobs increasing after Covid are laundry jobs.
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In addition to all the great comments above,
I use King Size Pillowcases only, on Standard size pillows.
On the edge, I tuck the long extra fabric inside to create a pillow case covering the pillow with no opening.
This way hands, or faces, canāt touch the inside pillow, or pillow cover.
I have thrown out every standard size pillowcase in the house.
I agree, that we will see more guests coming with their own pillows now, and likely with all of their own linens for drive-to locations. They will come in and strip the beds of what we provide, and put on their own ( like the old days ).
This might be a great option, and perhaps a discountable line item. I know my cleaning staff would love never having to strip, change, or redo a bed again.
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I stayed in the DFW Airport Hyatt and there were only pillow cases. And the corner of one of my pillows was yellowed and twisted. It looked like it had been sucked on, I kid you not! I showed it to my friend who was rooming with me and he agreed thatās what it looked like.
I donāt believe that. Maybe right now during covid but I donāt expect it to last.
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The pillow cases I have from Peru Pima have that kind of opening with an inside edge that tucks in about 4 inches. For the guest to touch the inside they would have to reach into the pillowcase in an unnatural way.
If it makes anyone feel better, current thinking is that the virus spreads primarily from person to person in proximity to one anotherinside, in churches, restaurants, cruise ships, meetings, homes. This is why social distancing and avoiding inside is so effective. Itās also why viruses spread more in winter when we are indoors cooped up breathing in other peopleās exhaled breath. Going straight into the rental as soon as the guest checks out (like @jaquo and I used to do) is a practice that should be dropped. Thatās more important than washing a pillow to protect the cleaner. Disclaimer: this is just my opinion, Iām not an expert.
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I too use protectors and wash them along with all the other bedding.
I heard, long ago, that putting pillows in the sun is a good thing to do (and it kills germs?) so have double the pillows I need for each so each party of guests gets a just-been-sunbathing pillow.
I have no idea if that is an old wivesā tale or if itās true but I do it anyway. It may be that it kills off some nasties, especially here in South Florida with the pretty warm sun, but itās probably not enough to kill off the coronavirus.
Like others, I donāt like the idea of sleeping on lysol-sprayed pillows but maybe lysol plus airing in the sun would be an answer.
I wash pillows periodically but I do see replacing them as a necessary expense as washing them seems to shorten their life. But there again, new pillows are a lovely thing for guests. Putting a tennis ball in the dryer with pillows (or duvets) seems to prevent the lumpiness by some weird sort of witchcraft.
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The shredded foam pillows I got with my mattress had enough foam in them to make almost double the number of pillows. I thought they were way overfilled. This shredded foam also doesnāt lump up compared to polyfill. I personally prefer a down pillow but donāt use them in my Airbnb.
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Itās very sensible to do things differently in your rental. A lot of hosts try to make their rentals more appealing with homely touches but they often just cause extra cleaning.
The opposite is also true:
That is such a good idea! I do it at home simply due to bad buying - I bought king size accidentally but couldnāt be bothered to return and exchange them. I never thought of doing it in the rentals but itās an excellent idea.
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Yes, I agree. For hostās safety, itās not a good idea to go into the unit directly after a guest leaves as there could be virus still in the air. The opposite is also true and I would be interested in it as a guest. It is safer for guests to not go into the unit directly after the host or cleaner has been in it as there could be virus still in the air. All of this is based on not knowing who has the virus, including us as hosts as well as cleaning folks for those who use them.
The outside range for the virus being viable in the air indoors is 3 hours. Itās smart to not enter any unit for at least 3 hours. Masks help but are not perfect. I would consider noting in our listing that the unit will be empty for at least 3 hours prior to the guestās check-in time. As long as the weather is nice, I would also leave the windows open.
We were lucky that we were booked solid in March, but we were already having to deal with this issue. There were a couple bookings already in play that were back to back and we waited the 3 hours before going in. We got lucky that the departing guests left earlier than checkout. When we took new reservations during that time we blocked off 1-3 days depending on what was possible. Honestly, I was most comfortable with having the 3 days, but technically (scientifically) the 3 hours should be just as good.
Fortunately we have only long term stays until Sept 1 (except for a 6-day stay in June that will be cancelled) so we wonāt really need to deal with it so much for now. We only have one cleaning to do between now and September.
(We havenāt opened the calendars for the Fall yet and are deciding what to do with it all. It will be a waiting game for us, primarily to do with whether or not the Universities open back up and in what capacity. If they have on-campus classes, I foresee having students in there for the Fall and Spring semesters. Iāve already been contacted by 2 different former guests asking about availability because they donāt want their kids living in the dorms. But nobody knows what Sept will look like yet so itās a lot of waiting.)
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This is now an option on BDC, see the check boxes highlighted in red. There is also an option for a banner at the top of your listing, but I havenāt come across the settings section for that yet.
JF
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We just got notified today by our daughterās college they intend on having students on campus for the fall semester, which begins in August.
Same here, and that is all we will be doing moving forward. Higher temperature, but thatās it.
Our ānewā cleaning and preparation protocol is slowly coming together and Friday 3rd July is looking likely to be the date.
JF
Thatās good news. Our local universities are all intending on having on-campus as well. But in reality, thereās a lot that could happen or come to light between now and then. So, the plan is to open but the plan was not to close too - just being practical 
Itās hard to imagine on-campus living until there is a treatment or vaccine, especially since itās predicted to be worse in the Fall. Gosh, what a crap-time to be going to college 
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Itāa also hard to imagine in person classes. If I were a parent I would not want my child attending classes in any traditional way based on what I know now. And even if colleges say they are going to have in person classes what happens where there is a drop in enrollment? What happens when one enrolls and mid semester the virus comes roaring back, assuming that it really does what experts think it will do?
Or doing much of anything really.
My contractor is the uncle of one of my dog boarding clients. Prior to this year heās driving a Range Rover or Porsche, traveling often for business and vacationing several times a year. Now the uncle tells me itās terrible for [name]. All the rents and stuff that have to be paid, employees laid off, and no certainty of when things can go back to full staffing. Iām sure heās still got a lot more money than I do but it has to be a lot more anxiety as well.
I belong to the local Chamber of Commerce and they sent out info about a webinar on May 7 at 2 pm est to review protocols for hotels and lodging. The organization is the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Iāll make some notes and share the recording if Iām allowed to. 
Weāve now got a banner at the top of our listings:
When you click the read more, it takes you to āThe fine printā, effectively BDCās equivalent to House Rules.
JF
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Iām not hosting at this time, but between guests I wash the pillow cover and put the pillows in the sun, turning them at least once. I typically purchase āsecondsā when buying pillows, the nicer pillow with flaws They work well under the pillow protectors and can easily and inexpensively be replaced as needed.
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Hi @sandyb. Good to āseeā you again!
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YES! I am Chemically Sensitive so I LOVE the social distancing but as one who has been practicing avoidance of chemicals for 20 years, the new panic cleaning has me safe at home.
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To say nothing of the super-bugs they are creating. Covid is bad but I am just as worried about the microbes that we are building up with all the disinfectants. Something is probably going to crawl out of the sink drain and start moving furniture around at some point.
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