Do you ask guests for proof of a negative COVID test or proof of their vaccination status?

[Huma0]

Hello hosts. I know this has been discussed here and there on the CC, but I wanted to start a topic to gauge what people are doing currently. I am a home host with three guest rooms in my own house, so often have a non-related different guests staying. Due to the pandemic, I didn't host for much of 2020 and 2021, but my financial situation (I lost most of my other income due to the pandemic) makes it very difficult to stop hosting altogether. I do not want tourists and other short term guests in and out of my house but I host long term stays anyway. I still want to ensure these are as safe as possible.

The first thing I have been doing is to make sure that guests coming from overseas fully understand the current entry/testing/self isolation requirements and I do not let guests self isolate/quarantine at my house as it's a shared home. This has already caused a lot of strife, but it is clearly stated on my listing and I am sticking to my guns.

I have, sometimes, asked guests about their vaccination status. This is easier to do with overseas guests as their status will determine which rules apply to them on entry to the UK. 

One thing I have never done, until now, is to ask guests for proof of a negative COVID result. The reason I have done this recently is because I had a guest delay their check in when they said they tested positive. However, there is something not quite right here. If a guest sends you a photo of a negative home test, how do you even know A. who took the test (unlikely the guest would lie about this or B. when they took it (more likely they would lie)? As PCRs and even LFTs are becoming quite hard to get hold of here in England, would you accept this as proof or would you want a test certificate?

I don't want to interrogate guests or have to take on the role of a private detective but, seeing as this is the first time I've asked, I've realised that I'm pretty powerless to know whether the test result is valid or not...

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

Yes, you're right of course. A negative test can only give you and idea of whether the guest is positive or not when they arrive and, even then, I know people who had strong symptoms but only tested positive after two negatives LFTs. Still, it's some sort of preventative measure and better than nothing.

I asked for test results in this situation as the guest told me he had COVID and I told him he couldn't check in until he'd done the required self isolation and tests. I really had to chase to to get him to send the results though and, even then, he just send photos of home tests. 

I have been asking some, but not all, guests about their vaccination status. I think going forward I will ask all of them.

What the guests do after they check in and are out and about, of course we have no way of knowing...

[Basha0]

Currently I am not requiring vaccination status. You can get omicron from an unvaxed or a vaccinated person. I make sure I am up to date on my vaccinations as is my cleaning staff. Follow guidance of officials in your area. That’s all you should have to do. 

[Kelly149]

@Huma0 as you've well-stated, there's just no way to know, so perhaps in this situation acknowledge to the guests that a) we're all guessing at what the correct procedures and timelines are b) ask them to wear masks everywhere in the house that they can and c) up your cleaning regimen while they're there and d) could you ask them to restrict themselves to one particular bathroom that the rest of you can try to avoid?

[Huma0]

@Kelly149 

Thanks for the suggestions. All do-able apart from the separate bathroom. When the guest rooms are fully occupied, it's not really possible to allocate the guests their own bathroom. The layout just doesn't allow for it. Then there is the shared kitchen...

I think I just have to keep disinfecting and keep a distance. 

[Mark116]

@Huma0  We don't.  If we had a home share we would probably put in something about guests presenting a negative test at check-in and then doing another test every 3? days or something like that.

No guests have asked our vaccination status, some few volunteer that they are vaccinated.  The risk for us is fairly low now that we no longer do an in person check-in and we wait for several hours up to 2 days before doing the turnovers.  As an example, we had some guests who stayed for 6 days and they were out sightseeing all day every day, so we felt this was an increased risk due to how many people they must have been exposed to...and waited a lot of extra time before getting cleaning started.

There was a short window late summer/early fall before the limitations of the vaccines were widely understood where we had started meeting guests in person again and even doing our neighborhood tour for a couple of international guests, but we no longer do that and probably won't do it again until this latest variant plays out over the next few months.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Yes, it's a tricky one with a homeshare, especially when you have more than one guest room. I actually feel that earlier on in the pandemic, discussion with guests about things like lockdowns, self isolation, vaccination, tests etc. happened more frequently and quite naturally.

Now it seems that some people would rather not think about it are simply fed up of it all. I know from recent discussions that many of my friends have turned off the NHS Covid App because they would rather not know if they came into contact with someone with Covid. They said that the App was just pinging every day. As they are fully vaccinated, that doesn't mean that they would have to self isolate, just take tests for a few days, but these friends, who seemed very safety conscious in 2020, can't be bothered anymore. 

[Laurelle3]

@Huma0 as @Helen744 said since last August I have said on our Airbnb listing page that  we are both double vacinated and we prefer that they are. On our first "thank you for booking letter " we repeat that we are both double vaxed and because many of our booked guests had booked in advance a month or more and each guest had answered that they were too or will have been before they arrive.

The message I send a couple of days before with our address and details I repeat message about our double vax status and we will show them our certicate status and will check their status on arrival.

This has not been an issue as our Australian goverment and States had implemented this standard and most people have conformed because with lockdowns everyone is used to being asked and showing it as it has been no entry or no go in a lot of puplic places.

However with this new Omnicron strain our Australian government and states has raised their hands and minds and have said let it rip as there are too many cases to control we are now under the heard mentality and everybody is on their own stay safe attitude or I don't care about others.

 It is also our summer and holiday season and where we live it has become a tourist beachside area so we are seeing case numbers slowly increasing.

We could have self testing to show your status but the government has not had the forthought of ordering enough testing kits for our country. Now they are saying emergency services and those people that need to keep the county going and are close contact can go to work with a negative test. It is becoming a domino effect as there isn't enough testing equipment for them to enter their workplace. So their is no chance of me asking my guests to do a test or show me a current result.

For me my cottage is on the same property but away from the main residence so I feel a little bit more protected. I would consider not hosting in my home as I would be putting my health at risk and I put it above anything else.

I ask the guests to open windows and doors before they leave and wait 2 hrs before entering and follow the Airbnb cleaning protocol.  They may not have picked up covid while staying but one has to be careful to protect oneself.

So I understand that my issue of covid in my home is different to yours but everyone has to undertake a certain standard to protect themselves and others. It is called duty of care. I think it is a testing time for us all of trying to dodge the bullet called "Covid". As I say to my guests "Take Care".as we try our best and I understand each county around the world have different rules and standards. 

[Huma0]

@Laurelle3 

That's a good idea. I have been asking some guests if they are vaccinated, but sometimes I forget. I still haven't gotten used to it yet. Making a habit of letting guests know that I am fully vaccinated is a good way to introduce the subject. No guest has ever asked me about it (nor about the COVID cleaning protocol) so I got the impression that they don't seem to care and therefore didn't feel the need to mention it, but I'm going to follow your example and see how that goes.

I also try to leave a good gap after a guest checks out before cleaning, instead of starting on it straight away, which is what I have done in the past. I am also now blocking out dates after check out to allow myself the time to do this now that bookings have gotten busier again.

You make a good point also about test availability. It isn't that bad here, but there is definitely a shortage and around Xmas time it became very difficult to get hold of any.

[Stephanie365]

Please remember, just because someone is vaccinated does not mean they are not carriers. The primary purpose of the vaccine is to keep people from getting so sick they require hospitalization. The vaccine does NOT stop carriers from transmitting it to others. 

You can be vaccinated and still be infected.
You can be infected and be asymptomatic.
A negative COVID test would be more important/useful than vaccine status, IMO.

[Debra300]

@Stephanie365,

"A negative COVID test would be more important/useful than vaccine status, IMO."

I agree with all of your comments regarding the intended purpose of the vaccine, but diverge with you that a test result is more important than vaccination, because the level of infectiousness and the guest's activities between the time of test administration and check-in are can negate the test results.  

Since vaccination doesn't prevent infection or transmission of the virus, if I were a traditional home-share host that provided longer-term stays I'd require that guests home-test themselves on a specified schedule and share the results with me.  

@Huma0,

As a convenience to US bound guests, in December I had considered purchasing some of the CDC approved for travel antigen self-test kits, but decided against it since the tests have a short shelf-life (just a couple of months).  The vendor said that they couldn't guarantee that tests shipped in December would have an expiration date beyond early February.  I cannot afford to keep inventory of this perishable item, because our reservations are made usually less than 60 days of arrival (often within 14 days), and are unpredictable with the surge of positive tests which prevent people from flying.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Thank you for sharing this information. I did not know they had such a short shelf life. I have been taking these myself!! Time to get some new ones...

I believe here you can still get them for free, so I don't think that would be an issue for UK hosts, but keeping up with the every changing schedule (these days it the check in date seems to count for little and guests' plans keep getting disrupted) would be tricky if the tests expire so quickly.

As for asking guests to test regularly while they are here, that's a good idea, but we would need to put this in the listing/house rules before they book and make sure the guest agrees to it. 

About a month ago, I got 'pinged' by the NHS App as having come into contact with someone with COVID. My tests were negative, but I suggested to the guests staying here at the time (but checking out that day) they also take tests to be on the safe side and provided them with the tests. They said they would, but kept putting it off, then said they would take them to the airport, but eventually checked out, leaving the unopened tests on the table...

[Gordon0]

As you know, @Huma0, I too am a room-in-a-house host, and while only offer the one, it does throw up similar issues. I'm quite clear in our listing we're both triple-vaxed, likewise, I make it quite clear in my communications I expect the same from my guests, especially as we're in the same home. 

Despite a norm of welcoming the guests personally, my preferred way is now self check-in with a cursory 'I'm here/shout if you need anything'. There's a hand sanitiser thingie on my outside wall (to be used before entry) and masks/sanitisers in the room. I'm hoping all of this sends a signal. 

[Sarah977]

@Gordon0  That's smart, to put the hand sanitizer outside the door. I haven't been able to understand why a lot of hosts say they provide hand sanitizer for guests, but have it in the bathroom or kitchen. What's the point of sanitizing one's hands inside the house? They need to do it before entering and touching anything.

Once inside, there is no point in sanitizer, when soap and water works just fine.

[Huma0]

@Gordon0 @Sarah977 

I'm with you there. I used to leave a bottle of hand sanitiser on the nearest surface when you enter the house, so really very close to the front door, but no one used it. There is actually a downstairs toilet with a basin right next to that, so they can just as easily wash their hands properly with soap.

I removed the hand sanitiser ages ago as it didn't really add anything, and started instead to show guests where they could wash their hands as soon as they arrived. People will do it, even if they weren't thinking about it before. There's no need to be pushy. I just say:

"Oh, and here's a basin if you want to wash your hands when you come in, which is handy being so close to the front door!" 🙂

[Elaine701]

In Spain (and most of Europe I believe) you have to show your vaccination cert ("vaccination passport")  prior to departure from you country of origin, and show it when you arrive. You can't enter the country without it. I'm fact, you can't do much of anything without it anymore. Can't go to a bar or restaurant, can't enter public buildings... 

Fortunately, they have created a very simple system for it, with a QR code. You can have it ready on your mobile phone, or in paper form. It's easy to scan and it identifies the person. 

So, we have little need to ask, since it's nearly impossible to get here if you don't have it. Like most here, we've been fully vaccinated too.