Introducing new COVID-19 safety requirements, updated guest standards, and more in the latest Host Update

[Airbnb]

In the latest Host Update, Catherine Powell discusses quality hosting, updates to guest standards, and new COVID-19 safety requirements for members of the Airbnb community. 

Last year, in an effort to hold guests accountable for their actions during a stay, we announced new guest reliability standards. Since then, roughly 100,000 guest accounts that violated these policies and standards have been suspended or removed. In response to ongoing host feedback, we’re adding five new criteria to our guest reliability standards to address late checkouts, unauthorized pets, removal of approved security devices, and other issues. 

Between now and the end of the year, we’ll be investing in improvements to our systems and processes. These efforts will help us in making progress to ensure consistent enforcement, quicker response times, and higher overall accountability with guests.

As the heart of the Airbnb community, we know you work incredibly hard to provide the highest level of hospitality for your guests. When travelers have a bad experience with a host on Airbnb, it affects hosts’ reputations in their local communities and governments—and hurts our community as a whole. We’ve noticed recently that a group of listings didn’t live up to our expectations for quality. So just as we are removing guests to help protect the Airbnb community, we’ve decided to suspend or remove listings that have a consistent pattern of serious issues or that have regularly received low review ratings and failed to meet guest expectations.

In most cases, hosts with affected listings have already been notified and there is an appeals process in place to help address concerns. To learn more about these updates and how they may impact you as a host, watch the full Host Update. 

To help keep our community safe and trusted, starting October 12, hosts of stays will be asked to commit to a five-step enhanced cleaning process. Hosts will be required to attest to the protocol by November 20. If you’ve already attested, you’ll simply need to follow a quick prompt to agree to wear a mask and practice social distancing. New hosts will also need to commit to the safety practices. According to internal Airbnb data, listings enrolled in the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol are some of the most popular listings and have three times more bookings on average than listings that were not enrolled in the protocol.

We know health and safety has been top of mind for both hosts and guests alike, and we will continue to try and ensure standards are being met. As always, thank you for sharing the topics that matter to you. Please let us know what you’d like us to cover in future Host Updates with Catherine. 

To read a full overview of the video, visit this Resource Center article.

[Diane1041]

I have a 3 bedroom house. When I have 1 or 2 guest can I lock 1 or 2 bedrooms and make them off limits so I don't have to re-clean those rooms just because the guest may have gone into the room? How would I put that on my listing?

[Emiel1]

What about "You won’t be paid the cleaning fee if the guest cancels before check in"

Do you really think i am going to scrub the walls and ceilings as a hobby  ?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/475/how-do-i-choose-a-cancellation-policy-for-my-listing

(section "keep in mind")

[Dave979]

Hosting in New Zealand here - we have ZERO Covid, it's been totally eliminated

Are the cleaning protocols for real, for us? Our government DOES NOT mandate masks in any circumstances and I remain to be convinced that guests will arrive wearing them

The idea of having to don full PPE to clean our space in a country where Covid doesn't exist it completely ludicrous - let alone the other enhanced cleaning protocols - and it's long past time that airbnb came to terms with the fact that other countries and jurisdiction ARE NOT the USA

[Sarah977]

They do the same thing with carbon monoxide detectors- they put them under amenities with a big black line across it, as if hosts are negligent about safety and don't care if their guests die, even if there is absolutely no source of carbon monoxide in a listing because all the appliances are electric. Or in my case, the gas water heater is outside, so it couldn't possibly put out any CO inside the house.

And they do the same with their policy about accepting so-called service or emotional support animals. There are no laws about having to accept animals just because someone claims it's a service animal in the majority of countries in the world. Yet Airbnb imposes US laws and attitudes on an international hosting community.

@Dave979

[Sandra3910]

@Dave979 I doubt that @Catherine-Powell or the powers-that-be at AirBnb would even know that we have no community transmission of Covid19 here in NZ and that day-to-day life is pretty much back to normal here. That’s assuming they can even find NZ on a map. 

I’m holding off on signing up for the ECP (although I clean the place within an inch of its life every time, regardless) in the hope that AirBnb will do a bit more homework before the 20th Nov. They’ve made an exemption for mainland China, yet even though NZ is literally surrounded by a moat and we have pulled up the drawbridge, they haven’t done the same for us, or other countries or states that have contained Covid19 and have measures in place for keeping it out. 

(I can’t even read the ECP for NZ as I keep getting an error message when I click on the link, but I’m assuming it’s as convoluted as it was when they first put it together. I can’t agree to something that isn’t available to read.)

[Celia302]

@Dave979 totally agree that they've taken maybe the USA, UK and Europe into consideration along with China and probably ignored the rest of the world. I'm in Christchurch, hosting from my own home (our spare room) and we haven't had ANY community cases of Covid in the South Island for months and months now. What's more, with the amount I charge and time I have available, cleaning all the curtains in my communal areas (we have a single lounge) is ridiculous.

I intend to do what @Sandra3910 is doing, and wait to see if Airbnb wake up to the fact that this doesn't make sense on a global scale at least.

[Villas103]

All Airbnb is doing is playing to the international media, I am a professional host, The communications should have first been communicated with their partners, the folks that implement every thing and actually host guests, then tell the world about “ all the great things that our hosts will be doing” ( Airbnb does not do anything)  how they forget that they are not the boots on the ground!

[Anneen0]

We appreciate the new guest reliability standards, but what about removing the revenge reviews from guests who behaved badly and were removed from the platform? It's not fair to hosts to suffer loss of superhost status due to badly behaved and disrespectful guests.

[Evangeline16]

How do I sign the agreement that I will follow new Covid 19 health protocols. I am already doing what it said in Katherine Powell's video. I just need the form so I can sign it. Evangeline**

**[Sensitive information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Katie]

Hi @Evangeline16, welcome to the Community Center. You will get the option to do this via your profile in the next few weeks, so if you don't have it yet then just hold tight 😊

[Sharon161]

We have no community transmission at all in New Zealand so why should we have to follow these protocols, we also have no holidaymakers  allowed into NZ at all as our borders are shut to them. 

[David-and-Gregory0]

@Sharon161 Its just ridiculous to apply these rules to us here in NZ. We are not agreeing to it, have to just find another way to advertise our space 🙂

[Adeana1]

Re: Enhanced Cleaning Protocol and the mandatory sign-up by November.... Surely there is flexibility on this protocol depending on location? My apartment is in Western Australia where there are very strict border controls, including hotel quarantine for travelers, and there has been zero cases of community transmission for months.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Adeana1 I wouldn't mention South Australia to Airbnb - Its unlikely that they even recognise Australia as a country let alone a part of said country.

@Catherine-Powell Are we ever going to get answers to all the questions posed on this forum?

[Katie]

Hi @Rachel367 @Savannah5 @Sharon161 @Adeana1,

Thanks for your comments here and I appreciate your questions as each country and situation is different. 

To clarify, wherever you are hosting (except in China), you will still be required to follow all Airbnb COVID-19 safety practices, including wearing masks. With people still traveling from all over the world, this is important to help ensure your safety and help reduce the spread of COVID-19.