Enhanced Cleaning Protocol not necessary for New Zealand and some states of Australia and South Pacific Islands that have eliminated community transmission of Covid-19

[Carmen1596]

This is a message for catherine powell, the head of host relations - although the platform didn't allow me to reference her, so maybe she's not contactable?

In New Zealand, we do not have community transmission of covid-19.  Our borders are closed, and anyone who is allowed into the country must go into a mandatory government run quarantine facility for 2 weeks and test negative for the virus before being allowed into the community.  We have a government that made good decisions and a population that followed the rules, and we have successfully contained the virus.  We are not required to wear masks anywhere - indeed, the W.H.O states that mask wearing is helpful where there is community transmission, hence it is not necessary in New Zealand.  I understand similar rules and results are in place in some states of Australia, such as Western Australia and others.  I also understand that most south Pacific countries do not have active cases of covid.

Having read the onerous cleaning protocol requirements, I am asking myself why airbnb has imposed these additional costs on kiwis when it is totally over the top and not necessary.  Although some people have already signed up to the protocol, I doubt that any are actually following it to the letter given how out of step it is with what is going on in NZ at the moment - ie no covid!  Cleaning ALL the dishes on every visit?  Moving and cleaning under ALL the furniture every visit, discarding vacuum bags after EACH CLEAN?  For those hosts that do actually follow the guidelines, the costs will be passed on to guests, making the use or airbnb even more expensive than it already is.  Guests will also not abide by a requirement to wear a mask when this is to required in any other situation in New Zealand, anywhere!  For example, on the weekend, our largest city hosted a rugby match with a crowd of 50,000, with no mask-wearing.  Read my lips - we do not have community spread of covid in New Zealand!

I ask airbnb to please get down off its high horse, look outside its US-centric issues with covid,  and apply some common sense for those of us living in the sane part of the world where our countries and states have managed to contain the virus.  I ask that these protocols NOT be mandatory for parts of the world that do not have community transmission of covid.

[Kirsty119]

I agree.  I work as a cleaner alone, and some of the new standards are almost impossible to maintain as a solo worker. I clean a 3 storey, 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bathroom house. This house has a LOT of furniture, artwork, decorative items, books, glassware, cutlery and crockery etc - am I supposed to be cleaning and sanitising ALL of it EVERY TIME? With no list of 'approved' sanitisers and cleaning products, I have to assume that hot soapy water (I use Handy Andy) and Jif will be sufficient to clean, with spray bottles of isopropyl alcohol, diluted bleach, window cleaner and furniture polish in my bucket. Let's hope that's enough!

[Marg11]

@Kirsty119 Well stated that the cleaning rules are over the top. Do you change gloves between cleaning and sanitising? 

[Kirsty119]

I use gloves only for messy stuff to be honest. I used to use them, all the time, but found I ended up with skin issues. My theory is that the cleaning liquid and the sanitiser liquid kind of take care of any germs, and yes, I do wash my hands frequently. And no, I don't use a mask.

[Marg11]

@Kirsty119 

Presume you have read the 35 page cleaning document.

[Kirsty119]

Yes, of course. Why's that?

[Lisa723]

@Carmen1596 you can tag @Catherine-Powell like this.

But she isn't responding to this same concern as voiced by several other Kiwis, or overlapping ones expressed by many other hosts.

[Marg11]

@Catherine-Powell

Hi Catherine, 

Obviously, Airbnb New Zealand and Australian hosts are not important. If we drop out of Airbnb hosting it will not be a problem economically as many of us run small businesses which we clean ourselves or employ local cleaners. We enjoy meeting people and providing a service to the Airbnb community. 

We will not wear face masks nor require our guests to either unless our government decrees we should.

Nor will we keep a 2 metre distance when our state requirement is 1/5 metres.

We have no community transmission and relatively unrestricted lives in Western Australia.

[Heidi595]

Has anyone from AirB&B USA replied to these comments? I can’t see that they have and these are valid comments that affect us all. I’m in QLD. 

[Marcie-and-Peter0]

Over the past week, we have sent Airbnb, via the messaging centre in the Support area, a number of messages questioning (mostly) the new masking protocol.  To date, none of their responses address the questions.  This is one of their responses, for example:  "...we apologize as we are limited to the content of the policies that we have followed for this issue.." 

This is what we wrote Airbnb yesterday:

"Airbnb has informed us that we are required to wear masks at all times and to social distance in the vicinity of guests. Further requirements involve the use of chemical cleaning agents.
My understanding of our Agreement, is that the duty to provide for the safety of our guests, as well how and to what extent, is exclusively our/the host's duty and obligation, as is the determination of how we are to maintain cleanliness of the venues we are renting. Certainly there are minimal generalized standards, but we have complied with those.

If you are going to request that we wear masks in the presence of guests and other requirements you have recently set forth, we respectfully insist that you provide us with the exact specific terms and conditions of our contract (and/or any legislation applicable in British Columbia, Canada, that:

a) gives you the power to make these said demands upon us; and,

b) obligates us to comply with your said demands; and,

c) especially where compliance with your requests places our health in danger by so doing.

It is our position, that, irrespective of our above demand for said information in our contract, that your request is a requirement that places our health in danger and that of our guests. If a guest wishes to waive his/her/their health choices and wear a mask of their own choosing, of course that is their privilege to so do. Your request, especially insofar as it places our health in danger, goes far beyond that which is reasonable in this situation and in our position and belief, runs afoul of both Provincial and Federal Human Rights legislation, as the case may be.

Finally, all of this is independent of the fact that no less than 20 RCT (randomized control trial) studies on mask use confirm that they do not stop nor prevent viral transmission. Consequently, your request is arbitrary and unreasonable as it does not provide any form of health protection, is unrelated to your purposes and intentions for your request, and actually results in health endangerment."

In conclusion, I will wait for you to provide the correct factual responses to my aforesaid questions a)-c).
Thank-you,

[Helen427]

hello @Carmen1596 and welcome to ABB CC from a fellow Auckland, New Zealand Host.

Use the @ tag if you want to msg or reply to people.

I've put up a few bits and pieces up here in CC including a link to the Andrew Borrowdale Judicial Review decision which he in his wisdom is appealling the rest of it so it's still in Legal Systems.

Use the searchbox with related keywords to find locals input - there's been a massive influx of New Zealand people in here which is awesome to see!!

All the best

Great sunny day here to kill any viruses, enjoy the sun over the weekend and hopefully great summer

[Carmen1596]

Thanks Helen - the problem with tagging Catherine was that it did not prompt her name as it included a hyphen, which I didn't know about until another poster pointed it out, thanks 🙂 

Glad to hear that other kiwis are also objecting - the requirements are ridiculous for us here in NZ, so let's hope everyone sticks to their guns, and that hosts don't sign up in large numbers.  I just don't understand where they thing they're coming from in trying to mandate these requirements....

[Marg11]

@Carmen1596 , @Helen427 , @Marcie-and-Peter0 , @Heidi595 , @Kirsty119 et al.

Sunshine also makes us safer than those entering the Northern winter and we can let in the fresh air rather than close each room after we have cleaned and sanitised with products advocated by our authorities. 

[Marg11]

@Carmen1596 @Helen427 @Marcie-and-Peter0 @Heidi595 @Kirsty119 ps: if hosts chose to wear a mask because they rely on the income do they have to report guests not wearing masks?

[Carmen1596]

I guess you wouldn't HAVE to report it, but you could if you wanted to.  No-one (well, almost no-one) is wearing a mask in NZ because it is not required by our government and is not recommended by WHO under our current outbreak conditions, and I trust them to keep us save rather than some dictatorial service company in the US which knows nothing about our part of the world....