Guests breaching COVID 19 rules... where is the Airbnb support?

[Alexandra199]

I have been inundated this week with bookings from guests who live in UK Tier 3 areas. Government guidance says these guests are not allowed to travel out of their Tier 3 area, except in exceptional circumstances. A nice little holiday in an Airbnb is not one of those exceptions!

I've had guests lie to me, ask me to turn a blind eye, argue the guidance etc but I am following the rules and as a result I have had to refuse or cancel over £2000 work of bookings this week. The vast majority of guests attempting to book have been from Tier 3 London, they don't think the rules apply to them. My issue here is two fold:

(1) Where is the help from Airbnb to follow the rules, many of  these guests are registered as living in London yet there doesn't seem to be any restriction on their ability to book. Added to that if I cancel their stay once ive found they are breaching the rules, the dates get blocked on my calendar.

(2) I'm starting to wonder if I'm being an idiot stringently following the rules. Other local properties are all fully booked, are these owners turning a blind eye? Do they just not care?

What are you doing to keep to the rules? In my opinion we are in this mess because people arent following the rules....I'm just trying to do my bit.

[Alexandra199]

Yes i am using IB but i think i might have to do that. I'm just so fed up as I've lost Christmas and NY bookings and i dont want to put a barrier in the way of people booking. 

[Clare167]

I really feel for you @Alexandra199 . I am snoozed. It just all feels too difficult and risky. Look for other booking channels so that you don't have Airbnb penalty risk on top of all your other risks?

[Helen350]

@Alexandra199 And since I posted above, a man from KENT, UK (Covid hotspot, Tier 3) booked 27 -29 at mine! At 18.44.  I explained it was illegal, he said he thought travel was allowed for 5 days starting 25th, I said, "No, 5 days starting 23rd!"

At 19.48 I messaged CS to request a penalty free cancellation. 6 mins later, at 19.54, Juan, a CS man from the Philippines phoned to grant the penalty free cancellation! - All very easy! - Credit where credit is due!

[Alexandra199]

Ive taken your advice...13 hours later it still hasn't been sorted out. CS are not great.

[Robin4]

@Alexandra199  @Helen350  @Clare167  @Jane563

It doesn't matter how strict your rules are where COVID-19 is concerned, somehow the virus will escape into the community. But the trick is to control its spread.

We in Australia have been doing a fantastic job at containing the spread of this virus but, we are all the time just a hairs width away from an outbreak!

Just yesterday it was announced that a local community spread cluster of 30+ cases has sprung up in the northern beaches of Sydney in NSW and the government are now scrambling to lock down the northern beaches but, it's possibly too late, cases are now showing up in Sydney's West and South. The state of NSW is now going to be in for a not so cheery Christmas lockdown and this will test the locals metal. 

In November we in South Australia had a mini-spike with 17 community spread cases reported over one weekend which quickly spread to 32 after having no cases for more than 3 months. But the Government immediate jumped on it and essentially quarantined the whole state for 4 days. Nobody was allowed to leave their homes, not even to walk the dog, stretch the legs. Just doing that enabled a large team of contact tracers to isolate over 4,000 people who could potentially have been at risk , and the virus disappeared from the community.....transmission immediately stopped, and after a week, the infected were contained, restrictions were lifted and life went back to normal again here. We have not a new case since November 28th, that's 3 weeks!

You can't have 'a bit of a solution' where COVID-19 is concerned, if you are going to halt this disease you have to stop it from doing what it does....spreading from one person to another!

It only takes 6 days......if you can prevent the entire community from contact with each other outside of the household for a period of 6 days, you will stop community transmission, and once you have done that you have some chance of controlling the virus coming in from outside with suitable screening.

There are no half measures here and if your government are forceful enough, people will obey, they did here, 1.5 million took it seriously enough to abide by the governments emergency measures and it worked. Sure there was a small percentage of the population that didn't give a da*n, but it was so small as to not have an effect on our outcome.

Hopefully NSW will adopt a similar strategy to get on top of their current outbreak, and I would urge the authorities in Britain to do the same! I know it sounds impossibly hard, but it isn't. We have proved it can be done, but we are just a little nowhere backwater, we don't matter and our results are seen as irrelevant to the global situation. But if Britain could do it, Europe, the world would take notice, we would get this virus controllable a year before current trends suggest we will!

Cheers........Rob

@Colleen253  @Emilia42 

[Clare167]

Thanks @Robin4 but our (slim) chances of achieving that level of control were blown in our summer. Let us hope that community transmission may be stamped out in the European summer, but it is not feasible earlier I fear. Warm wishes for Christmas and the new year.

[Ann72]

@Robin4  Australia is definitely a model for the rest of the world...I wish sense would prevail and follow your lead!

[Sara1213]

Thanks for sharing this. Amazing the difference between countries. 

[Ann72]

@Alexandra199  I had your situation in May and June in Maine.  I had to turn IB off and had a steady stream of inquiries from out of state guests.  I turned them all away but noticed other local Airbnbs fully booked and sporting reviews throughout those two months from people from all over.  It's a miracle the local numbers didn't rise until a month or so ago.

You're doing the right thing!

[Alexandra199]

Thank you Ann for your supportive message. x

[Sara1213]

I have this situation too. One set of guests kept messaging me about their lockdown so I told them to cancel.  The next two sets haven’t said a peep.  I don’t think people should be traveling but my state hasn’t made rules against accommodations (just the state they’re coming from) so I haven’t decided what to do yet. 

[John5097]

There haven't been any travel restrictions in our state, county, city or country. Both hotels and STR were considered essential services. I had guest who had surgeries and follow ups at the local hospitals. I found that guest and travelers were very savvy and sought out low risk places: entire apartments, homes, etc.. and relied on reviews such as how clean it was. Our city has strict mask ordnance and everyone wears one expect when eating at their table. So the point I'm getting at is that my city is one of the most popular travel destinations in the country, we have fewer cases than very small towns that have no visitors. The virus is spreading in rural areas mostly, and places that don't bother to wear mask. Its spreading among family members. People, especially travelers, are very cautious and become more vigelent when the numbers start going up. We still might see a huge spike from the holidays but the data seems clear that rates are lower in our city and area with huge numbers of travelers. Early on businesses adjusted and most have been hurt but the evidence suggest that B&B or hotels, or popular travel destinations, aren't spreading the virus. Of course everyone has a different situation. As I said guest are seeking out low risk accomidations. That's just my observatrion based on the CDC reported cases each day, for counties, cities, and zip codes. 

[John5097]

Just a follow up. I was just tying to add some perspective. I have a legal listing and follow all rules and laws. I'm in South Carolina but have only had to deal with the most ridiculous restrictions, where all the outdoor parks and beaches were closed during March, but anyone could fly anywhere. As it turned out no one flew. All my guest canceled on their own and others rebooked. Everyone travels by car. Thankfully B&B's weren't singled out, as kids all are coming and going from universites.

I read that airports and trains were closed exiting London but this caused a rush and extra large crowds the day before the restrictions. My cousin who lives in London and is a UK citizen was planning on flying here to Charleston and we were going to do something outside with his family, one of which is very high risk, as they moved to London for cancer treatment. 

I don't intend this to be political at all. I have completly avoided the virus by bing very vigilante, avoiding others, only going to grocery stores, but that's easy for me. I think our county has done very well and is a major tourist destination. Here is the data for the state. Right now in the second wave our cases are lower than smaller counties with no visitors. Right now I have a guest from a city with higher rates, but she is quarantining for two weeks away from her partner and his teenage kids, so she can visit her own parents who are higher risk. We both communicated and both are extremely low risk. 

I'm sure the UK has a much better public policy. In this case it appears mass transit which is normally a huge benefit is higher risk. I hope B&B aren't singled out with unnecessary restrictions as they can also be an excellent option for higher risk individuals. But you just gotta go with whatever policies are in place.

https://scdhec.gov/index.php/covid19/sc-testing-data-projections-covid-19

This is South Carolina 12/22/20 on top and Charleston county on the bottom. 

 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Clare167 So it is clear now that Tier 4 people cannot  stay overnight anywhere. if it wasn't confusing before it certainly is now.

[Clare167]

Yes, oh goodness @Mike-And-Jane0 this is alarming, isn't it? I personally am in tier 4, listing in tier 2, lucky that I snoozed. My best wishes to all of you hosts for your safety and happiness.