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.

[Belinda55]

@Jane2772 

I have been communication with Airbnb via Support channel and getting no straight answers,  just platitudes like how much they value me and my feedback. And perhaps I’d like to use their Feedback process to suggest a ‘new feature’! So the response you received is interesting.

Is this mandate applicable or not? Or does it depend on the “current status of the country”? Will I be delisted and my bookings cancelled if I choose not to comply because it is unreasonable? No one is giving me answers on this ...

[Kareen22]

I am unable to wear a mask due to health issues. Will I be able to continue use to use Airbnb for travel?  We also host and again I am not able to do the mask, will we no longer be able host?  

[Katie]

Hi @Kareen22, thanks for posting your question here, and welcome to the Community Center. I am just copying my response from another thread which asked this same question - I hope this helps to clarify:

Generally, hosts are required to follow all Airbnb COVID-19 safety practices, including wearing a mask or face covering when interacting in person. 

If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask you will be required to provide documentation from a medical professional confirming this exemption. You will then be required to notify all incoming guests prior to booking. 

If a host is unwilling, or fails, to disclose this exemption to guests before booking, the listing may be deactivated until this policy no longer impacts them or is updated.

Guests who are unable to safely wear a mask may be eligible for rebooking support into a suitable accommodation if they provide documentation from a medical professional confirming their mask exemption.

@LaNetta0 I know you mentioned a medical condition too on this thread so just tagging you for visibility. 

[Kareen22]

Katie it is illegal to ask for documentation as to why I can not wear a mask or anyone else for that matter I guess all my travels for the Holiday will be cancelled, and I will go back to using hotels that don't ask personal information. 

[LaNetta0]

@Katie AirBnB is obviously not listening to their hosts - as they claim!  These new mandates are a recipe for disaster and not being widely accepted.  A re-write "asking us to follow our local standards" needs to seriously be considered as an alternative.  @Kareen22 is correct in that you cannot ask for such documentation, no more than we can ask a person with a service dog what their disability is.  No one should need a doctors note, or have to incur the bills associated with seeing a doctor to appease this unreasonable mandate.  Hosts are under no obligation to do anything other that what their government, state or local authorities require. We are adults and so are our guests, we don't need AirBnb to chaperone our every move.  I have spent a lot of time and effort building my listing(s) thru AirBnb and really don't want to start over, but like many others I am looking into it.   @CatherinePowell    

[Marcie-and-Peter0]

@Kareen22 @LaNetta0 Airbnb is asking for a wealth of troubles.  In Canada, masks cannot be forced as wearing a mask is a medical procedure and therefore it goes against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for masks to be forced on anyone.  In addition, no one is allowed to ask for your medical information.  Rights of Canadians with regard to masking is well laid out in the following video:  https://www.constitutionalrightscentre.ca/rights-to-decline-covid-measures/  Other countries will have similar human rights protections too.

[Francesco1366]

@Marcie-and-Peter0, @Kareen22 @LaNetta0 

Asking for medical informations, which are also needed for example by insurance companies in Canada and everywhere, is not a crime. If you want to share these datas with us you are welcome. It's not time to fight for principles but to be respectful of everyone which means wearing a mask in some circumstances in which people feel safer. For their health, for their life and for their loved ones. If I live in a country where there are very few cases, it is reasonable that I agree with the host not to use it but equally reasonable is to insert a general rule that, in the absence of a different agreement, imposes it for both.

[Marcie-and-Peter0]

@Francesco1366   @Kareen22  @LaNetta0 I agree, it is not a "crime", however, it is not the "right" for anyone to ask for my, or  the medical information anyone else - it's simply no one's business, and in Canada, it is against our human rights.  If there was a court case, that might be a different story. but this is not the issue.   The point is that Airbnb states, in their advice to me, for example, "...we also follow what government mandates by each country...".  In fact, they do not have the right to put forward mandates that do not exist in a particular country.  Period!  So, in British Columbia, the government doesn't mandate masks.  Why would Airbnb think it can override the government?   So here's something for you to ponder, Francesco.  Dr. Anthony Fauci was the co-author on this 2008 paper that confirms that the so called Spanish flu pandemic from 1918 was actually an upper respiratory bacterial infection - NOT A VIRUS:  https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/198/7/962/2192118  Did you know that there were mask mandates during that time:  https://www.businessinsider.com/people-vintage-mask-ads-spanish-flu-1918-pandemic-2020-5 

[Francesco1366]

Hi @Marcie-and-Peter0 ,

it's not a crime in the sense that it's not illegal. In canada or anywhere, I can ask you for medical information. You can refuse to give it to me. In British Columbia, if I want, I can open a private association only for blond people, I can also ask to wear a mask before entering my property by informing guests at time of booking. It seems to me that you are exaggerating, it is a general rule and the personal agreement is valid: If both want it is allowed also to kiss but if one of the two feels safe to use a mask, it is polite for the other to use it too. Probably only for a few minutes.

[Marcie-and-Peter0]

@Francesco366 Sure, any one can ask whatever they want of someone else, you bet, but whether that person has to comply with the request is a whole other question.  In British Columbia, if you ask someone to mask up before entering your property and they tell you that they have a medical condition that prevents them from doing so, you have neither the right to ask them about their medical condition nor do you have the right to refuse them entry based on their condition.  If you do either, you risk a human rights complaint.  In general, in Canada, no one can force you to be subjected to a medical procedure, which is what mask wearing is.  This is well explained by Constitutional lawyer, Rocco Galati, a highly successful Canadian constitutional lawyer who in July 2020 filed a 191 page statement of claim against the government and others in response to covid measures.  He provides an excellent video summary regarding Canadians' rights with regard to masking (4th video down, titled "Duties and Rights of Business Owners on Masking under Covid"): https://www.constitutionalrightscentre.ca/category/media/

From a highly qualified scientist:  https://www.aier.org/article/the-year-of-disguises/

"It boggles my mind when there is some notion that by wearing a face covering you are actually doing a “service” to your neighbor and therefore everyone has to protect everyone by this. Actually, the opposite is true. You are now becoming an additional potential source of environmental contamination. You are now becoming a transmission risk; not only are you increasing your own risk but you are also increasing the risk to others....Stopping a *droplet* is NOT the same as stopping the virus!"

From the CDC https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article  "Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids (36). There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza."

[Leyla13]

Thank you @Marcie-and-Peter0  For sharing your links. I have linked to a CDC post and document, stating the same, in another thread comment. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Introducing-new-COVID-19-safety-requirements-upda...

[Lisa723]

@Marcie-and-Peter0 your post reveals two misconceptions.

1) Airbnb has the right to impose whatever terms they want on their users, except if those terms are expressly prohibited by law. Whether the newly announced terms are sensible or good business is certainly open to debate, but whether Airbnb has the right to impose them is not. They could equally require all guests and hosts to wear Airbnb baseball caps when interacting, for example, even though there is no governmental mandate to do that. I don't like these terms either; I can't sign up for the enhanced cleaning protocol. But I'm not claiming that Airbnb has no right to require this protocol because the government doesn't require it. I'm acknowledging that I may have to terminate my relationship with Airbnb if I don't like it.

2) The paper you reference does not conclude that the pandemic of 1918 was not caused by an influenza virus. It is well known that the ultimate cause of death in influenza can be a secondary bacterial infection (pneumonia). The paper concludes, unsurprisingly, that this was likely often the case in 1918. This doesn't in any way imply that the root cause was not the influenza virus. And in any case, the relevance of this point to the efficacy of masks in preventing transmission of disease is zero.

[Gary869]

I too have medical reasons I cannot wear a mask... It is unlawful to ask for medical documentation.  I have the print out from the mandate letter stating you can not require documentation. 

[Catherine1293]

Hi @catherinepowell

If guests conduct illegal activities in a property and the host takes action it is unfair that the guest should be allowed to leave bad reviews about a host which affects their rankings. Already, I am concerned about leaving reviews for guests in this category in case it prompts them to write a poor review back which by me not doing so endangers  other hosts. This has been an issue in the past. With the current covid restrictions in place this is becoming an increasing issue as some guests think it is unreasonable not to be allowed lots of free extra guests in breach of the covid guidelines for pop up parties. This of course puts us at risk of being closed down or face a £10,000 fine and also puts AirBnB at risk of poor publicity. AirBnB say they are concerned about stopping serious anti-social behaviour issues but even when there is clear evidence of this if hosts report it they risk the guest using the review process against them. In these situations AirBnB should support hosts.

[Rowan37]

@Catherine-Powellwhy are hosts in places where there is no community COVID (eg Queensland, WA, in Australia) being required to wear masks *in their own homes*? We've eradicated it from our community and we don't need masks because we don't let anyone into our state until they've been in strict quarantine for two weeks. Furthermore, for those of us who rent a spare room, we all share the same bathroom and kitchen, so it's ludicrous to imagine distancing and masks would protect us. The only reason I'm even hosting again is because we've eradicated COVID.