What adaptations should you make for welcoming guests back?

[Stephanie]

Hiya everyone,

I hope that the recovery is going well for those of you who can accommodate travellers again, and that those who cannot yet are keeping safe.

After the last few months, many guests are considering how best to adapt their accommodation habits to this ever-changing environment. Arriving and welcoming travellers is one of the crucial stages of a stay, and I'd love to hear more about how you approach it now or plan to.

I have read in various comments on the Community Center in recent weeks several personal tips and tricks related to this stage, such as the following:

• Suggest Hydro-alcoholic gel at the entrance of the house
• Encouraging autonomous arrivals to limit human to human exposure, where possible
• Increased communication with travellers in advance of their stay to better understand their concerns and expectations they may also have (this one applied both to hosts and guests being proactive in open communications).

Do you plan to make any changes to your reception and welcoming routine?

I think this is a tough one to address for those hosts that list a private room in their property or are live-in on-sight hosts so any and all advice those hosts can share are going to be hugely beneficial to your peers.

Thank you for all your advice and ideas 💡

Stephanie

[Alexandra316]

@StephanieI'm starting to welcome people back now, and I've definitely made some changes - some practical, some just kind of fun. I host an apartment that's part of my house. I've always done self check in and out, so not much has changed there. I still interact with guests: I'm just careful to maintain proper distancing. There are no shared spaces except for the yard (and the guests have their own patio with furniture that's not shared), so not really too much modification required. I've been quite happy with how it's been going. I've been booked fairly solidly.

- I ask people to do a self-assessment before arrival and ask that if they have covid or suspect they do, or have come into contact with anyone who does that they either rebook or cancel their trip.

- There isn't much to do in the evenings now. Guests used to be out in the evenings most of the time to attend weddings, go to restaurants, etc. I got a barbecue for guest use so they can do more cooking, and provided nicer lounge furniture on their patio. 

- I leave a gap between every guest: I don't take back to back bookings anymore. This allows more time to air out and clean the flat. 

- I follow the Airbnb cleaning guidelines. 

- I wash all dishes between guests using the highest temperature setting on the dishwasher.

- I removed some stuff, like books and shared food like salt, pepper and spices, etc. I didn't like that one, but I think it's for the best for the foreseeable future. 

[Sarah977]

@Alexandra316   " I ask people to do a self-assessment before arrival and ask that if they have covid or suspect they do, or have come into contact with anyone who does that they either rebook or cancel their trip."

What is the point of that? If someone would be uncaring enough to come if they have COVID or suspect they do or had knowingly been exposed, do you think that saying that would change anything? I sure don't. 

[Alexandra316]

@Sarah977Most businesses and workplaces and places you need to visit have some variation of the self-assessment form: pretty standard these days. 

[Huma0]

@Stephanie 

Luckily, I have a downstairs cloakroom (powder room) very close to the front door. So now, when a guest arrives, the first thing I ask them is would they like to wash their hands. I sense that most didn't think about it. They are more focused on having just arrived at their new home, meeting me etc. but as soon as I do suggest it, they seem very happy to wash their hands. It's almost like they are relieved that I am thinking of these things, even if they had forgotten. 

[Dee219]

Opening up to hosting again: Guests stay in a single or double room in my house so I have thought carefully about covid and hygiene.
1. gradual re-introduction to hosting opening single room only

2. following airbnb covid cleaning guidelines, making sanitiser available to guests

3. Removed floor rugs from bedrooms (its warmer weather) so I can mop wooden floors

4. Message guest about their covid understandings and theirs and my preferred cautions using PPE (some states do not have mandatory mask wearing on public transport or flights)

5. Provide guests with an 'amenities tub' containing bathroom items including bathmat so no personal items are left in a shared bathroom and its easy to clean

6. Check whether guests are  visiting from a covid hotspot before accepting a booking

These are precautions in progress and adjustable to situation and circumstance in the ever evolving and incomplete knowledge of covid transmission. I have had a few experiences where friends (not guests) have been a close contact of a positive person and failed to warn me or vulnerable others, and a family member who failed to undertake mandatory home iso after returning from an outbreak area and went to work in an oncology ward. These are some of the difficult ethics around individualism vs community I guess. I hope posters do not feel the need to criticise those of us who take precautions for ourselves and others, as the vulnerability and susceptibility of others is something we take on board.