COMPULSORY enhanced cleaning protocol unrealistic for many

[Belinda55]

Dear Airbnb,

Please quit your paternalistic and bullying ‘one size fits all’ policies. There are many locations in the world with little or no community COVID infections, so to coerce hosts (by threatening blocking of calendar and bookings) into complying with a global policy is both unrealistic and unfair.
There are no other booking platforms doing this! Hosts are able to comply with local regulations and requirements and do not need this heavy-handedness from you. I have been a Superhost, with a perfect record on cleanliness, for 7 years straight, and am insulted and offended by your approach. Talk about ‘biting the hand‘ ... we are now planning to prioritise other booking platforms.

[Sarah977]

Yes, I read every line. And everything you mentioned above, I have always done between bookings (except I don't have blinds).

@Keith352

[Keith352]

You must have a pretty small place, without any amenities, since it would take a full day (or more) of non-stop cleaning to do everything on the checklist. Do you reallly move the bed and clean underneath Every time? Change gloves after every room? I doubt it. To make it worthwhile and cover the occasional times we have someone else clean we’d need to triple or quadruple our cleaning fee. Since the majority of the items have nothing to do with COVID and really do nothing to enhance the guest experience it makes no sense. 

There is no current guidance from WHO or CDC that says transmission or cross-contamination is likely ( or even possible ) from surfaces or items that were not high frequent contacts. So cleaning all the dishes used or not or washing walls or exterior light fixtures is total nonsense. We’d need to do three dishwasher loads every turnover, or remove all the items we have that our guests complement us on.

We’ve been super hosts for two years and out of a couple hundred reviews we have two that didn’t say we were sparkling clean. Since my wife is a Contract Administrator we do pay more attention than what most of the people here are doing, but signing up is a contract and you’re saying that a guest can for any reason claim you didn’t follow “x” in the protocol and get a free stay. 

[Sarah977]

I really don't understand why you're belaboring this so. Or why you seemingly haven't bothered to read my and Debra's posts where we said that washing the walls and the ceilings is no longer in the cleaning manual. You don't appear to have bothered to read the updated version.

A guest is going to claim you didn't change your gloves between cleaning each room a day before they arrived? How on earth would they be able to claim such a thing? 

Airbnb has always given out refunds to guests anyway for bogus complaints, I don't know why you think this is something totally new to suddenly be afraid of.

You're right- I have a private room/bath listing home-share, and guests have kitchen access. But I haven't hosted since March, because I don't consider it safe to share common space with guests at this time.

It takes me about an hour a a half to clean the guest room/bath. And yes, I have tile floors and the bed has felt pads on the bottom of the legs, so I slide the bed to the other side of the room, vacuum and wash the floor, the slide it back and wash the other half. 

And I've always wiped down light switches, doorknobs, hangars, etc, with bleach wipes as well as cleaned the toilet brush with bleach as well as the holder. As well as vacuuming down everything from the ceiling to the floor. So there would never be cobwebs anywhere, unless they were spun after the guest moved in.

That's just my own personal style when it comes to cleaning- I'm not some OCD fastidious person, my own room can get to be quite a mess, as can the rest of the house if I don't have guests in residence, but when I do clean, I'm really thorough and reasonably fast. I can understand that if others aren't used to cleaning like this, the cleaning guidelines would seem onerous and undoable.

And FYI, many hosts removed extraneous items like lots of throw pillows, rugs, etc, way back at the start of the pandemic so that so much stuff didn't have to be washed and sterilized. 

@Keith352

[Keith352]

Clearly YOU have not read the updated version, because I just checked the links again, and everything I mentioned is there in the US pdf version AND in the checklists on the Performance tab in the app. 

i am belaboring it because obviously hosts are not paying attention to what they are signing up for and are agreeing to either giving away free stays or being kicked off the platform. They are also agreeing to potentially large increases in cost that they won’t be able to recover and remain competitive. Airbnb is leaving everything vague so they aren’t liable and can blame the host. My suspicion is most hosts are simply signing on the dotted line to get the badge and are not reading the requirements ( or having their cleaning team read them ). That means honest and conscientious hosts will be at a disadvantage. 

[Debra300]

@Keith352,

Okay, I am really done.  You still haven't provided a page number, section heading, or screen shot.  Nothing but you accusing people of not having read the manual.  Good luck, dude.  Peace.

[Debra300]

@Keith352,

Ok, never mind.  I asked for the specific page/section, which is what I provided.  It's unclear to me the reason you are referencing a link to the UK version of the handbook when your listing is in North Carolina.  I thoroughly read the US version of the handbook since I have listings in the States, and that's my permanent home.

Do a search here on the community.  Your arguments about the enhanced cleaning protocol have already been much discussed by many hosts on this blog, and you will find very few who totally agree with its contents.  

[Keith352]

I named the sections because the copy I printed has no page numbers. I will note that when I go to the “ custom checklist” for my listing in NC it says the same things. Unclear why the link was for the UK, as I simply copy/pasted it from the paragraph after the 5-step process that was referenced in the video.

[Debra300]

@Keith352,

Here is the link where you can download the US version: https://www.airbnb.com/cleaning/handbook.  As I said before, you will not get any argument from many of the other hosts here about the over-the-top steps in the enhanced cleaning protocol.  Thankfully, Airbnb has made revisions, and removed some things that just were beyond ridiculous. 

I opted in initially back in June, and after two bookings, I opted out.  The tasks didn't add a whole lot to my existing cleaning process, but there just were things that I didn't agree with, and didn't want to lie about doing them (cleaning ceilings, walls, porches, and curtains).  However, I was already doing all of the other cleaning steps between each reservation.  My spaces are relatively small.  In the US the apartment is 775 s.f., and my four spaces in St. Lucia range between 310 s.f. and 1,000 s.f.  It takes between three and six hours to clean each space.  I raised the cleaning fee about 20%, and have removed extra pillows, throws, towels, and little used kitchen appliances.

Airbnb isn't the only game in town.  You can always pick up your marbles and play in another yard.

[Sarah977]

I downloaded the updated version just yesterday. It has page numbers.

But carry on thinking you're right if that's what makes you happy.

@Keith352

[Aidan65]

One thing clear to me is Airbnb are making no attempt to respond to hosts complaints over this. The protocol will not add to our or our guests safety. My guess is it is a result of some internal 'risk' discussion at Airbnb about being sued due to some Covid related issue. Possibly related to starting the process to become a public company in August. By insisting we sign up to these terms, if anything happens they can say "Not our problem". Lawyers have probably said it is too difficult/too many loop holes just to say follow local government advice where international travelers are involved (yes I know there is little none or this in many regions) hence the global policy.

Overnight I have had the official email asking me to sign up by 20th Nov. I will wait until 19th Nov to see if anything changes. Perhaps by then the senior management will be honest enough to give us the real reasons for these changes.

[Katie1000]

I am also waiting until November 19.  I think everyone should do that, and maybe Airbnb will revise some of these restrictions.  I am also going to - sadly - look into other platforms to advertise on.  

[Silvia1838]

Thanks for starting this conversation. I was about to start something similar myself.
I think it's not Airbnbs business to tell us what to do in our homes. We can discuss such issues with our guests well enough ourselves.
Therefore we will not agree to this COMPULSORY enhanced cleaning protocol. Airbnb should stick with their business of being a hosting platform, but let us be the hosts.
We don't want to be told what is politial correct and even forced to a certain behaviour.

[Anonymous]

@Belinda55   I don't think it's plausible for Airbnb to have both a) a truly global platform with a wide range of home types, and b)  universal standardization of cleaning, or even of amenities.

What seems to be happening most frequently is that hosts sign the "enhanced cleaning" pledge but don't follow it, knowing that it's totally unenforceable. I wouldn't worry too much about it - several times a year, Airbnb uses a grand gesture to generate favorable PR, and quietly abandons it when the news cycle moves on. 

The current science overwhelmingly emphasizes person-to-person contact as the primary vector of transmission, rather than surfaces.  Even those who take the virus more seriously than those among us who love babbling about global conspiracy theories, still have reason to be skeptical about the idea that the "enhancements" to cleaning are actually effective at risk reduction in self-contained properties. 

For what it's worth, every sector of the travel industry that's been hit hard this year has tried PR campaigns to persuade people that it's safe to come back on board. But unlike Airbnb, most of them own their inventory.

[Jamie292]

I think the head of Airbnb needs to watch the video on Youtube from Tammy K. Herrema, OSHA expert, and then proceed to remove this compulsory protocol. 

[Ricardo85]

@Jamie292 

Where is the link?

Ricardo