Airbnb's New Cleaning Guidelines COVID

[Yiwei3]

Hi hosts,

Have you all seen the article that came out this morning regarding Airbnb's new cleaning guidelines??

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/business/airbnb-cleaning-coronavirus/index.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2020/04/27/coronavirus-airbnb-mandate-cleaning-24-hours...

[Fred13]

Airbnb must love the complicated, hard-to-enforce but trendy tangents of life. Instead of posting some new guidelines for hosts and reminding them that the Cleanliness review category will get more emphasis in the future, they come out with this clunker of an idea. This is nonsensical, not entering the dwelling for 24 hours, sounds like it came from yet another academia socially-distanced quack who has never been out in the sun and the real world for years.

[Helen427]

 Very well  worded @Fred13

 Why are these same academics who have bern telling us how to live our lives not disclosing all the previous historic factual records of how many people died of the likes of cancer, influenza, asbestos and other illnesses over the years , & current, to provide the public with a clear & accurate picture of matters of fact?

I believe it's because it would show up their quackery.

 Note how they use the word "probable" regardless of a persons situation?

We are aware of people who have a normal cough, sore throat that occurs as the weather changes getting tested only to come back with a NEGATIVE RESULT.

A HUGE WASTE of RESOURCES that could be used for other things.

[Helen350]

@Helen427  I have a DOCTOR stay one weekend in four whilst working. He has expressed no interest in me doing anything different than before virus, in fact he's never even mentioned the virus, & acts  much as he always did! When I said I'd better talk from the opposite side of the room, he laughed & said 'Oh yes' - or something like that. He obviously thinks it's safe to share my bathroom, & grab a bowl of cereal from my kitchen, as of old...... - Just sayin'....

[Helen427]

@Helen350 

That's fabulous that he's come back to stay, clearly your kindness & hospitality is what he likes in your home.

Are you comfortable in your own home knowing he may potentially be exposed to Covid19?

I don't expect an answer to that question as that's both of your private business.

 In general terms, To clarify, when I mentioned Doctor of quackery I definitely don't mean the Doctors at the coalface working face to face with patients in hospitals or Doctors rooms as they adhere, generally, to a Duty of Care and Hippocratic Oath.

I was refering to that of those who are / have Doctorates  of Academia who at times are university students/ professors who are acting outside of their Scope of Practice, knowledge & legal qualifications who don't have one on one first hand experience with patients or intimate knowledge of medical history.

 I've utmost respect for those working at the coalface with patients and recall when the Boxing Day Tsunami occured "Doctors without Borders" did the most incredible jobs in very challenging circumstances, as they continue to do so across the world.

They certainly didn't have any 2metre rules, nor would they dare try impose them & not treat vulnerable people because of their status.

You may recall the status of some of those people were horrific as they were left dying & decaying in the weather elements which created the possibility of infectious diseases.

No person with health issues needs to be stigmatized in the way so many have been & I personally think it's sad people have been.

If one has existing health matters and opening one's home it's natural to be cautious in the current circumstances we find ourselves in.

 It's sensible to get regular check ups including blood tests or seek help with confidential counselling to keep well.

Enjoy the company & chats during his stay.

[Helen350]

@Helen427  My point about the doc staying was that HE doesn't seem bothered that he could catch the virus nor give it to me.... Nor is the social worker bothered when he stays Mon & Tues. - I THINK THE VIRUS IS OVER HYPED!

Last week, the tenant of my LTR  rental next door left. So I'm now paying bills on 2 houses & the remaining coming & going paying guests do not pay enough between then to meet the bills...

I want STR back!  I no longer care about the virus; I can't afford to! Anyone's welcome here, & I can maintain 2m distancing within the house. You can't get it by sharing bathrooms.

I've changed my mind from believing everything the government says to wanting everyone to start earning again - getting everyone back to work is more important than a few extra deaths in the population. I HOPE tourism re-starts on Monday. I hope Airbnb lift their block on UK calendars. I've had enough!

1,400 people die every day in the UK. Corona death rates were 900 at the peak.... I'm not convinced there's that many more died of Corona than would have happened anyway.... 

[Helen427]

Good on you @Helen350

You are not alone.

The ongoing telling us "You must wash your hands, stay home, 2 metres apart etc" grates on many people's nerves.

A 2002 Pandemic Report for NZ by Dr Lance Jennings, he's a virologist, who back then his modelling was also sky high to & report was "scaremongering".

Whilst he made comparisons to 1918 & 1960's influenza outbreaks the reality is those people lived in far more challenging times to ours.

His report also mentioned about closing borders....and was in part based on a report by CDC in USA from an unknown date..

Sometimes we have to go backwards to go forwards to ensure accountability & most importantly change & acceptance.

I do not want, nor do I encourage abuses from those in positions of power & control telling anyone in democratic countries how to go about our lives when there's long standing systems in place to care for & protect the health & well being of all people, including those with infectious diseases.

Take care, the sun is shining here & I hope it does where you are when you wake up in the morning for your cuppa.

[Helen350]

@Helen427  The sun has shone here for the whole of April & May so far! It's surreal! That doesn't happen in the UK! (Tho April & May are our sunniest months.) Makes everything more bearable. And we were allowed a daily walk & from Wednesday we're allowed out for unlimited exercise! Take care!

[Denice24]

this is a pretty terrible policy for those of us who own homes in remote parts of the world.

the people that come to our house already take on the risk of being exposed to all kinds of things, seen & unseen, that they self-select into. nobody travels to a remote part of the world-  at least two plane rides, three airports, and a boat-  to travel to an island with no ATMs, no streets, no fire department nor ambulance. if you are an adventurous jungle traveler, corona is the least of your problems. there are tons of travellers out there that fit this bill. 

I did this math..if my average stay was 4 days, i could turn over (30/4) = 7.5x a month. that is 7.5 times my housekeeper gets to make money. If i have to add a day to that, i turn over (30/5)= 6x a month. This is (1.5/7.5) a 20% decline in my capacity compered to last year presuming I am at 100% capacity.

So here are my options 

1. Raise my rates by 20%

2. Raise my cleaning fee by 20%+ to accommodate for the costs of increased cleaning supplies, increase in time to clean and to cover to reduction in amount paid to cleaning lady

3. use a different platform that does not force this 20% reduction in capacity upon me

4. accept this

5. stop renting my house

not sure what i'm going to do yet. if it becomes 72hrs becuase i can't get the cleaning supplies in this part of the world the choices are clear.  No real ecolab to call and order supplies.  Maybe they could mail it to me but there are no address in this part of the world because there is no national mail service here.

Regardless I need to do some real soul searching here... are all the chemicals going to keep the travelers safe but poison the locals? No large public sewer systems in this part of the world. How about we fly in some bleach and have it run into all the cisterns and that leaches out to the ocean that feeds everyone. Dunno.

[Fred13]

For a second I thought you were talking about my place, the remoteness is about the same; an absolute private island in the Caribbean 6 miles away from the mainland. Guests rarely even wear clothes and what's next - they are suppose to wear at least stupid-looking masks 24/7 and stay well away from each other? 

[Sarah977]

@Fred13  Well, that would be a good photo to add to your photo gallery- a party of guests lined up on the beach, clad only in masks. Maybe some flippers as well. 

[Fred13]

Imagine. Yes, masks + flippers would complete the absurdity.

[Sarah977]

@Denice24  The amount of bleach needed to sterilize surfaces is quite minimal- 4 teaspoons to a litre of water. More bleach doesn't make it more effective- it makes it less effective. I myself hardly ever use bleach- I also live in rural tropics and I'm concerned not to damage the environment. I know alot of people here who fumigate regularly, but I never do, because it kills the good critters as well as the bad. If I see a cockroach or a scorpion inside, I kill it, but otherwise I let the balance of nature handle it. And I don't have any more bugs around my place than those who are constantly fumigating do.

But I don't think the small amount of bleach necessary to sterilize is going to be that damaging. Also, plain old soap and water will kill the virus. Now whether this is going to be acceptable to Airbnb's new "protocols" is anyone's guess, but like a few hosts have said, how are we to prove that we have sterilized? A photo of a shelf full of "approved" products? Products unavailable in most of the world?

And yes, I'm pretty much in the same situation as you as far as guests go- my guests almost all fly in, most internationally, some nationally. Or take the bus from another part of Mexico. No one drives to my place, at least none have in over 3 years of hosting. The amount of exposure those guests are getting to whatever anyone is infected with in the airports, on the plane, in the bus station, on the bus, is a thousandfold what they might pick up in my private room in the clean countryside if OMG I missed bleaching something. I'd have much more to fear from the guests than they would have to fear staying here.

[Fred13]

Funny post Sarah. My wife is a clean freak, if she could Clorox the world she would in a jiffy. Island rules are that only the inside of buildings will see any Clorox, the outside where Mia and her kids (finches), Rango the lizard and the dozens of hermit crabs and big cangrehos come out every evening is not to be sterilized. 

[Sarah977]

@Fred13  Is your wife by any chance a native Belizian, or however one refers to folks born there? I know the Mexican women are crazy for bleach. Most of my friends and upholstery clients have actually forbidden their cleaners from using bleach in the house because they seem to manage to get bleach spots on everything. They're also crazy for using about 10 times more soap than necessary. I watched my cleaner pour about a quarter of a litre bottle of Fabuloso into the mop pail when she first started working for me, and had to tell her to use about one tenth of that. The funny thing is, they'll keep washing the floors with a pail of water that's already black with grime and needs to be changed out, but hey, it smells like Fabuloso, so it must be clean. The soap and cleaning products sections in Mexican supermarkets are huge. And villagers can live in the most rustic little hovel, but you'd never know it to see them out and about- their clothes are scrubbed super clean. Even the construction workers show up in really clean clothes every morning, without so much as a stain, even if they're going to be slinging cement and dirt all day.

[Fred13]

She is, though Hindu; Belize has 6 major types of people: Westeners (including big population of Mennonites), Creole, Chinese (food stores), Hindu (general stores), Mayan (from Guatemala), Spanish (from Hondura) and some Chemically-Dependent rejects from all over.