We had guests that have booked a month and never stayed in the unit.
They were traveling from Egypt and needed a quarantine address to come into the country. They made a reservation, came to say hello, and left. They wrote asking for the internet codes; we gave them the codes again, they were not even there. At the end of the month they asked for a refund, we refused, and they gave us a 1-star rating everywhere.
2 things come up in my mind. Why can the guest rate something they have not tried? And why Airbnb is encouraging these illegal actions?
Unfortunately, we have lost our super host rating because of this guest. I believe more and more guest will be using short quarantine rentals, there should be a quarantine gests regulations.
Here are a few suggestions to help improve the platform.
It might be a good idea to have a mandatory question when guests are placing a reservation; for example," When you arrive, will you be in quarantine under Canadian quarantine law? Is this reservation used as isolation or quarantine location with the Canadian Customs and Border Patrol or any regulator? ". It would ask them if they are coming from a foreign country, and they are required to quarantine or if this address is used for this.
First of all, this would be a responsible thing to do in order to help protect Canadians fight this Virus. The safety and wellbeing of cleaning staff, guest and surrounding guests as well is our priority. When notified of foreign travelers, we can introduce additional measures. We have a common room where the guest does laundry, so we have set in place some set days for laundry; after quarantine guest's day, the room is not accessible for the next 24h.
We do not mind having quarantine guests. Some hosts might prefer not or are simply not set up to accommodate these guests. Host can make sure they do not have people who are, 65 years or older, have underlying medical conditions, or have compromised immune systems before accepting the reservation or even making the units available for this type of reservation.
It could avoid bad reviews like; not being present on arrival and could do this virtually instead, the readiness of the accommodation or even wrongfully guests asking for a refund at the end of stay even if they were just using Airbnb as a fictional address at the Canadian ports of entry like I had.
Since we have had a few of these guests, we now know that they require more services. They usually come in empty-handed and have nothing to eat and cannot go and get it. They don't have cars, and they are not allowed to take a taxi. We have got the first groceries for quarantine guests before. Knowing that this type of guest is coming, we can prepare them and provide them with local grocery delivery services and other services we all take for granted. I am sure Airbnb will put a list of things together to better prepare hosts and guests. Some of our units also only have a minibar fridge, that can only have a few days of food
Unfortunately, this is our new reality, and we are only at the beginning of it. Let's be proactive in this. We remain committed to placing the safety and wellbeing of our guests.
