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?

[Tamara513]

This is super useful. Thanks for sharing

[Annie-Busk0]

My Chinese friend and business mentor just gave me this advice: 

“I would recommend cancellation, as no one would know their condition until it shows up. In addition, Greenlandic people are weak in their immune system as the environment is so clean.”

[Annie-Busk0]

I have just received below message from another Chinese friend of mine.

*********

”It’s confirmed the virus is contagious between humans, not just animal to human. These days Chinese government takes much serious than last year December because there are more and more infected people showing up. I would suggest you to cancel this contract, because the incubation period is up to 2 weeks. And most Chinese doctors predict the heavy virus outbreak is after Chinese New Year because people start to return to work from city to city.”

***********

I didn’t know I still had so many friends in China from my studies in the UK many years ago and from my international work experiences. 

I trust the advices from my Chinese friends! Better safe than sorry especially under these circumstances. I trust my dear friends’ advices to be wise and careful and protect myself and my community against risk rather than be careless 🙏❤️🙏

[John2563]

Below is a reply from AirBnB relating to a message I sent using contact us

Gerry H, Jan 22, 06:28 PST:

Hi John,

Airbnb are only applying Extenuating Circumstances to the region of China which is affected (Wuhan) for listings, and to guests who have traveled through this region, or any guests who are diagnosed or suspected of infection at airport, port, or train station, and are unable to complete their reservation regardless of reservation location.

Unless your guest has stated they are coming from Wuhan, or have been diagnosed, we cannot currently remove any penalties for cancellations.

I hope this answers your query.

Best,

Gerry
www.airbnb.com/help

[Mairi16]

What a pathetic response from Airbnb. We cannot remove penalties for cancellations! Well let’s see what happens when Airbnb are outed for allowing hosts to accept guests from other regions of China of which the today have announced the outbreak is spreading rapidly to other areas of China.
If Airbnb representatives bothered to educate themselves about the virus they would see it has been well documented the incubation period is 2 weeks of which there are no symptoms and that means no illness, high temperatures or any indication that some one is unwell but are highly contagious. 
I’d be extremely wary of accepting guests. Good luck John.

[Michelle53]

@Mairi16    I'd be really interested in your information source regarding asymptomatic people being "highly contagious".   I've read most of the reports coming out of WHO and the CDC, and that information is, as yet, unconfirmed. 

We have one case here in Chicago. She entered the US on January 13th from Wuhan. She started showing symptoms 3 or 4 days later. Which means she was incubating the disease on the flight, roughly 18 hours flight time, and passed through O'Hare airport, which sees hundreds of thousands of travellers every day, and she likely stood in the line at customs for some period of time.

I've been through customs at O'Hare. It can be a substantial length of time in busy periods. 

She then went home, but did have contact with several others, including medical personnel at the hospital, where she is still in isolation.

It's now January 28th. There is not one single report of anyone else being sick. 

[Michelle53]

UPDATE: The spouse of the woman travelling from Wuhan to Chicago has been confirmed as having the virus. 

Date-wise, it seems consistent with the 14-day incubation period, if she was symptomatic after  3 - 4 days of arriving home (approx Jan 16th - 17th), although official sources haven't talked about this yet.

[Alex-And-Rhea0]

Hi!  Well said!! I'm  too shocked at Air Bnb's response. People are dying and Air Bnb are not responding accordingly.

It's always about the money, I guess.

[Wayan4]

We have accepted a reservation from a couple from Shanghai starting on February 3.  They have already been in Bali for one week on their honeymoon. We are very concerned about accepting this couple into our home and possibly exposing us and our staff to the virus.  We want to decline the reservation but don't want to be penalized for it.  What is the policy for cancelling at this late date under these circumstances?  

[Karen1450]

Call Airbnb and talk to someone. I believe your response will be different. 

[John2563]

Below is the message I sent to my up coming guest for reference if anyone wishes to copy it. 

Hi XXXXXX
I find myself having to ask a question I would never have expected to ask of any guest?
Please can you advise me what region of China does your mother and her friend come from, and do you know if they are in full health. My concerns relate to the recent news about the CoronaVirus. It is for the health and well being of my own family that I have to ask these very personal questions.
Please can you advise and reassure me of this situation. I do not wish to be alarmist.
Regards John

[Alon1]

@John2563 

You have either overlooked or ignored my response to you yesterday.

If you are this concerned and contemplating cancelling, you have the perfect get out clause.

I repeat it's a violation of Airbnb 3rd Party Booking rule. 

So, if you continue and accept the booking, and anything goes wrong, you will not receive any sympathy let alone support from Airbnb. 

[Elizabeth438]

Hi John I had a reservation from  a guest coming from China. I was worried about hosting this person and when I called Airbnb, first response was to go ahead and cancel but I will be penalized. It took some convincing from my part but they were able to cancel without penalty. First priority should be the safety of the host and glad to know they honored it.  

[Carol302]

It's super polite John and very British. But a very very blunt tool in eliciting any meaningful information.

[Alex-And-Rhea0]

Hi John2563,

Your query is completely and totally  reasonable and understandable and well worded.

Obviously the word pandemic is not understood by Air Bnb.