Guest from China and Corona virus

[Annie-Busk0]

Hi can anyone help please. I received a booking from China yesterday for a stay at my place next week. With the news about the Chinese Corona virus: How worried should I be?

[Helen427]

hello @Melora1 , have you followed up with this family how they are?

Or heard from them since with any updates on their own circumstances and tests?

Have you ensured for peace of mind to get tested for Corona virus/ Covid19 yourself?

It's important we all report what we know to authorities where we, or others may have been exposed.

Hope this reaches you healthy & well

All the best

Central To All Home & Location

Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand

[Stacy105]

We just had a guest arrive last night unbeknownst to us from China. She has a Chinese name but her profile says she lives in Pennsylvania so we didn’t want to racially profile. Because We have self  check in we did not meet her the night she moved in. My husband met her this morning and he was working in the garden. He shook her hand and introduced himself. She then preceded to tell me she was quarantining herself for two weeks before starting her new job at Facebook. What!!! Why did she shake my husbands hand!!! She even asked if she could use our kitchen. I am dumbstruck and wondering if I want to keep using Airbnb. She said when she booked she was just looking to stay somewhere before moving into her apartment. She said nothing of a quarantine .

[Karen1450]

That’s awful. What did you all do?

[Stacy105]

She is till downstairs on our Airbnb room. I asked my doctor if I should move her to a hotel and he said no. She gets her food delivered every night. She actually went out today for a couple hours to get stuff. Otherwise she has been extremely quiet. We did text her to see if she was okay and she said she didn’t feel sick. We will text her tomorrow again. Still very stressful because I don’t know how it is transmitted.

[Sarah977]

@Stacy105  I would try not to let this stress you out. Altho reading the news alerts us to the fact that it has spread rapidly, the number of people who have actually contracted coronavirus in China is a really small percentage of the population. Keep that in perspective. Any guest could come to stay carrying all kinds of bacteria or harboring some virus, and you'd never know.

She sounds like she's being responsible about it now (hopefully she realized that asking to use the kitchen and shaking your husband's hand when she arrived wasn't in keeping with "self-quarantine") At this point, she's much more at risk than you are, so she's probably a little stressed out, too , and it can't be much fun for her to be holed up in a basement room by herself. There's probably a 99.99 chance that she's just fine and won't develop any symptoms. Good to keep checking up on her, though, and maybe offer to pick up groceries or whatever she needs if you're going out anyway.

[Evelyn0]

I'm working on content for a podcast episode for The Hosting Journey about it but there is tons of information:

Here are some links from reputable organizations:

CDC:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

FAQ:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html

World Health Organization
Myth Busters
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters

CLEANING:
National Environment Agency from Singapore (I'm looking for something from the United States)
General Cleaning
https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/public-cleanliness/environmental-cleaning-guidelines/advisories/...

FOR EXPOSED HOMES:

https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/public-cleanliness/environmental-cleaning-guidelines/guidelines/...

[Wendy117]

Thank you so much for this post.

[Helen427]

hello @Stacy105 

How was the rest of this Guests stay with you?

Is she still in CA?

Have you, your husband and family been tested for Corona virus/ Covid19 as a personal safety concern?

Have you also self isolated yourselves?

We all need to be mindful this could strike anyone, anywhere.

Those who created this horrid situation we are in must be held to account as it's cold blooded it even exists and has got so far out of hand.

Hope this reaches you healthy and in good spirits.

All the best from Auckland, New Zealand

[Kristen323]

Yes please advise I cleaned a unit  2 days ago I feel in the dark my host is not getting back to me with any info. Àll I know is that the guest is from China from the guesty reservation list.... Help what can I do??

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Kristen323  you can contact Airbnb and cancel this reservation due to extenuating circumstances ( see the link Lizzie posted earlier on this thread )

Here are the cleaning guidelines

[Vanessa16]

This is my 5 th year of hosting a self contained house. I have found it very interesting reading most of this thread.

My story is a few days ago I had an enquiry from a family with 2 school age children from China who were looking to reclocate and purchase a home in south of England. The booking was to be for a month. I would expect this to be extended as purchasing a property takes quite some time. They wanted to arrive on 19 th Feb. 
As I had little information before excepting the booking I asked a few questions, they were from Beijing, children out of school til at least May.

I rang Airbnb for advice and expressed my concerns as I realised they could catch the virus while travelling to the UK, not showing symptoms until later at my property.

Airbnb basically said it was up to me but I should be transparent in my reasons if declining the booking.

I did as much research on the web as I could. However these were some of my worries.

I have very good communication with my neighbours most who are elderly and realised that they would be alarmed having Chinese guests close by with the worry of Coronaviras spreading.

Keeping my neighbours happy is important to me.

I was unclear what the outcome is if the guests had the infection whilst in my property. Would I have to throw out mattresses, does insurance pay for this? Many questions for an unusual situation.

My main concern was I didn’t want to be responsible if there was the slightest chance of bringing the virus to my local area.

l felt torn making a decision partly because if I refused I felt bad not helping out a family.

After sleeping on my thoughts I chose to politely decline giving my reasons.

Thanks for reading! 

[Tamara513]

Guys, all this is very helpful. I've changed my settings to pre-approve need before booking. This helps to avoid any additional costs in case Airbnb doesn't support. Anyway, i had a request from Chinese couple, and i asked, as suggested, all the questions to potential guests. Here is what they replied:

'Hi Tamara, thanks for your reply. 1, My wife and I both traveled from Wuhan to London on 20th of January, it's already one month now, the reason we want to extend our stay here do because of the coronavirus, we can't go back to Wuhan now. 2, we both have been tested by NHS with negative results with no symptoms of any sickness and got The test results letter from Norwich park hospital '

What about this woman from the ship which was diagnosed negative, but then turned out she is having corona virus. I really feel for those people but can't risk... 

Your thoughts?

[Sarah977]

@Tamara513  If they are being truthful, and it's ben a month and they have no symptoms, I wouldn't worry about it. They say they have test results. It seems that they were concerned as well, and have been tested.

You could have guests with all kinds of communicable diseases and never know....

[RalfandBettina0]

I canceled some weeks ago a booking from Shanghai and it was right to do so. I want to draw the attention to Chinese guests: YOU can help alot other people arround the world to say at HOME. Please do help  to spread the virus arround the globe!! I had a request the last days from China and i declined the request and told the guest that in my eyes it is irresponsible to travel from China in these days!

[Sarah977]

@RalfandBettina0 The virus has spread to many other countries by now. The people who have spread it by travelling aren't necessarily Chinese- they may have travelled from China and been Italian, Canadian, American, whatever. You have a higher chance of contracting influenza just going out and about in your own city than you do of contracting coronavirus. There are 1.435 billion people in China- of those, there have been something like 76,000 confirmed cases to date and less than 2500 have died. Most just get over it with mild symptoms like you'd have if you had a cold or the common flu.

Of course, when people have been in an area which is high in the number of reported cases of any highly communicable disease, the respectful thing is to stay put until you have been tested as healthy and not go spreading it around.

I live in a tourist town in Mexico. Every winter when the tourist season is in full swing, there are many here who come down with norovirus. Mostly from Americans and Canadians who don't want to waste their airline ticket or accommodation fees and travel anyway, even though they don't feel well, or they haven't shown symptoms yet, but are contagious. 

And people go to work all the time when they are sick, spreading their illness to co-workers, instead of staying home until they are well. I have a friend who is an elementary school teacher and is always calling parents to tell them to come pick up their coughing, feverish child from shool so they don't infect her and all their classmates.