Hosting in your shared house during Covid 19

[Elizabeth770]

I like many have some concerns and issues around sharing my home during the pandemic. I am a superhost in Dublin and I have been for the last seven years, obviously during the pandemic I did not host in 2020. I made a plea last year to Airbnb around  hosts not losing our superhost status during Covid 19 and was credited with the policy change which is to be reviewed this upcoming March. We have a very slow roll out of vaccines in Ireland and I like many hosts won’t be vaccinated till at least the summer, without a vaccine it is impossible for me and many other hosts especially those who house share to consider hosting. I really hope Airbnb will look again at not removing our superhost status till we have a safe environment. I have worked so hard  to maintain that status and I feel it would be unfair to me and others to have it removed through no fault of our own. I also worry about the requirements to wear a mask in your own house. My husband is a Microbiologist and has to wear a mask all day at work, on public transport, in shops which like me is more than happy to do so, the one place he doesn’t have to do so is in his own home ! This will be taken under consideration as to when and if we return to hosting. I understand rules and regulations are needed around Covid but it takes away a lot of the spontaneity for me and I fear I many not have the same enjoyment of hosting that attracted me to Airbnb in the first place.

[Helen3]

Last year they removed the need to host a set number of guests to retain SH status - likely they will do this again this year @Elizabeth770 

[Elizabeth770]

That’s my hope.

[Sarah977]

@Elizabeth770  I'm in the same situation and I hope @Airbnb realizes that if they don't allow home-share hosts or those in countries with total lockdown, i.e. not even any domestic travel, to retain Superhost status in the absence of new stats, that would be quite discriminatory.

[Emilia42]

@Elizabeth770 I hope you are able to keep your Superhost status. On the plus side, if you do lose it, (because life isn't always fair,) you can regain it sometimes in a matter of weeks. 

[Anonymous]

@Elizabeth770  We're in the same boat. The vaccine rollout here lays waste to the cliché about "German efficiency," and when my partner and I are finally able to get the jabs, there are so many other things we're more eager to do than resume hosting.

And anyway, we're fortunate to be in countries that even have a vaccination program. But viruses don't care about borders, so until vaccination is fully global, SARS-CoV-2 will have plenty of territory to continue evolving more confounding strains that will inevitably make their way back around the world. Against this backdrop, the international tourism trade is not one that I want to be a part of even in a small way.

[Elizabeth770]

Another issue for me is at the moment many guests are required to quarantine, there are few checks here so as a host I do not want to feel that degree of responsibility. I know Airbnb is not putting that on me but for my greater community it would be difficult.

[Helen350]

@Elizabeth770 Can you not still host essential workers in your homeshare? - I do, in England, doctors, nurses, & someone essential at the nuclear reprocessing place across the water from Dublin. (Sore subject, the nuclear,  with you guys, I know!)