Hi Everyone,
I have been hosting through Airbnb since 2013 and have been a super host for several years now. I live in a studio in the garden and share amenities in the house, where I make three rooms available for (mostly long-term) guests - visiting scholars, interns, etc.
When the advisory Covid cleaning protocol was introduced, I consulted with my long-term guests, and we all agreed we did not want to live like that (i.e. wearing masks) in our own home. When the cleaning protocol was made mandatory I phoned Airbnb and explained that although I complied with the national and local laws and guidelines around Covid, I could not commit to the requirements of the 36 page cleaning booklet. I asked if I should cancel my bookings, and they suggested I wait and see what happens.
Whenever anyone expressed an interest in coming to stay I was upfront with them and explained that although we were being careful and compliant with national and local guidelines around Covid, I was not adhering to the Airbnb cleaning protocol. By far most people agreed this was acceptable to them.
Nothing did, in fact, happen until last week, when I received an email to say my calendar had been blocked as I was non-compliant with the cleaning protocol. I phoned Airbnb, explained my situation and informed them that sadly we would have to part ways. They explained the requirements were to 'keep me safe', but I am vaccinated and work outside the home in any case (so a degree of risk is part of my life), and my guests tend to come for longer stays (1 month or more - often several months at a time), so we are all part of a household bubble.
I seems to me that this requirement is taking Airbnb away from the original concept of welcoming guests into you home informally as part of your household, and that these requirements makes it more into a business / more like a hotel. I wonder whether we will see a shift in those hosting away from hosts in the original sense to people who are commercially renting self-contained units or houses in multiple occupation through Airbnb. The policy feels very paternalistic to me, and I wonder if it is insurance driven ...
I was about to retire on the basis of supplementing my income through Airbnb rentals (already more precarious due to Covid travel restrictions) and will have to reconsider. I am now trying to rebuild my business through other platforms.
I wanted to ask how many of you are in a similar position - losing a business built up over years due to the Airbnb requirements which are way over and above the national and local rules and regulations.
How are you responding to this? I wonder if Airbnb will lose many hosts, or whether in the face of an impossible dilemma, there will be those who say they are complying with the protocol, when, in fact, they are not.
I would love to hear your thoughts and solutions (if there are any!).
With all my best, Jeannet in Cambridge 🙂
