Is the new cleaning policy Airbnb's way to get rid of shared places?

[Stephan-And-Skye0]

I am so confused!  During the summer I live at my lakefront cabin near Yellowstone NP.  While living there we rent out our three extra rooms in the cabin.  Guests love our place because of the location and because we offer sweet outdoor amenities like kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, tomahawk throwing, bear spray, etc.  We love meeting all our guests, interacting with them, and inviting them out to have s'mores at night down by the lake.  They enjoy interacting with each other as well.

Our cabin is a shared cabin so guests share our kitchen, our bathrooms, our living room, etc.  Some guests stay one day, others might stay 2-5 days.  They are always coming and going and love our place.  

We have been busier than ever even with Covid-19.  We have communicated with all our guests that our place is a shared place and that risks of Covid do exist. We encourage guests with health risks not to stay at our place and allow cancellation of needed because of this.  We also let guests know that we have stepped up our cleaning by using Clorox wipes on allsurfaces, providing guests with personal hand sanitizer, and encouraging social distancing. I really thought we have been doing it the right way.

I however just can't imagine how the new Covid policy would work in a shared place.  It sounds to me like Airbnb is planning to kill off all shared places or turn us into liars.  😞 

For example:

1) With guests here all the time it sounds like I and my guests would be wearing a mask 24/7 at my own cabin. That just isn't going to happen.  I know certain guests might not wear their mask or forget.  This might anger another guest.  I might forget my mask on a trip to the kitchen offending a guest checking in at that moment.  It's just impossible. Will guests be able to request full refunds if another one of my guests forgets a mask or if I accidently forget on my way to the bathroom?  Yikes!  Too crazy!

2) Our guests touch everything!  There are germs on everything.  It doesn't matter how much I clean.  From dishes, to paddles, to life jackets, to bear spray, to crayons, to books, to maps, DVD's, remote controls.  Our door handle gets used like 50 times by up to 12 different people.  There's no way to honestly meet the requirement!  There is no way my door handle is clean for more than. 5 minutes!  I promise you that ... It will always have germs on it.  

In all honesty I feel like I need a COVID GUARANTEED HERE badge!  We do our best but there are just risks when staying in a shared place. 

In a private place with separate entrances or an entire home I can see this new clean policy working but in a shared place it just doesn't seem possible. 

Anyway ... I don't plan to agree to the policy.  I would hate to lie to my guests. Can someone shed some light on what will happen after Nov 20th for me?  Does my account close?  Do I lose all ratings? Does anyone see a solution possible for their shared areas?

Thanks ahead of time for your insights.  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Stephan-And-Skye0 It is interesting that Airbnb are effectively taking the place of government. In the UK the tier system of restrictions governs how many people (if any) can interact in a single household. Airbnb seem to have decided this is not enough and that they have to add additional rules even in countries that have no, or very little, covid. In addition some of their requirements (eg washing curtains) are based on outdated science. All a bit of a mess I am afraid.

[Helen427]

@Stephan-And-Skye0  bringing this to @Brian  CEO of Airbnb attention for you and others.

One would reasonably expect a CEO of a home share business he operates to take an interest in your contributions and raise our concerns to those calling the shots.

Hang on in there, between us all we can ensure the Blanket approach can be Quashed under Common laws.

@Mike-And-Jane0  

[Laura3135]

Our Airbnb it would be impossible, wouldn’t you have to clean and sanitize between each time your guests or yourselves used a shared area or it’s a waist of time doing it in the first place?

[Fred13]

@Stephan-And-Skye0 Your #1 point is what immediately came to my mind. Never, ever empower humans to be able to easily be abusive, because - they surely will.

    I suspect this move comes from either a ploy to 'look' super trendy for competitive advantage or an ego-centric one because the 'herd' needs the leadership of the new 'enlightened ones'. Either way, its a stupid move because it was poorly thought out based on reality.

[Super47]

@Stephan-And-Skye0

Airbnb's official stance on what will happen if we don't sign up is: "By not attesting to the requirements by November 20, your account may be subject to warnings, suspensions, and, in some cases, removal from Airbnb."

This is typical Airbnb parlance, and the inclusion of the words "may" and "in some cases" renders the whole sentence as vague and opaque as Airbnb needs it to be to essentially penalise who they want, when they want for non-compliance - whilst not penalising others for those same transgressions, if they so choose. Who will and who won't be made an example of for the PR data, remains to be seen. 

Without a doubt, the new Enhanced Cleaning and mask-wearing diktats will primarily and disproportionately affect homesharers and smaller home hosts, who by definition, will (in general) be infinitely more inclined to be principled and truthful about their abilities and willingness to comply than, say, a 'professional' operator punting out scores or hundreds of properties on the platform, and to whom ticking that box is merely a means to an end. (A quick perusal of the searches will soon bring up lots of pro operators that are already proudly displaying the Enhanced Clean badges, but if you dive a little deeper, you'll find that many of those who have rushed to sign up have shocking cleanliness ratings and reviews on their profiles. Oh, the irony) 

As regards your question "Is the new cleaning policy Airbnb's way to get rid of shared spaces?", you might want to take a look at the thread below for further perspective on that topic.. 

"Back To Our Roots".. So Why Is Airbnb Promoting Hotels Over Homesharers? 
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/quot-Back-To-Our-Roots-quot-So-Why-Is-Airbnb-Promoting-Hote...

[Linda108]

This rule is a moot point for my shared home listing for two reasons:  1) My city does not allow visitors in shared home listings at this time and 2) I have no desire to host strangers in my home during the pandemic.  Such a lovel place as yours, @Stephan-And-Skye0 , in such an idyllic setting in Idaho, would make me believe I was safe and odds are that I would be.  However, I would be devastated if anyone I hosted or anyone in my family got sick because of the spread of this disease.  Maybe now is the time to avoid shared listing hosting, especially as we enter into the colder weather. Just a thought.

[Belinda55]

@Linda108 

What you say illustrates why we need to have local government calling the shots, not Airbnb. Places like NZ and Aus where there is little or no community COVID infection are equally affected by Airbnb rule.

[Laura2592]

I think if you share a space and more lockdowns are coming (which many in the US are predicting) you will not be able to rent your space anyway. I guess it depends on your state protocols.

I think Airbnb regularly tries to cull hosts. They weren't allowing full house bookings during the last lock down. Now they are making it impossible to share spaces. They really are all over the map. Other than mismanagement or rather directions that change based on which investor has their ear, the overall strategy always seems to be to cut down on the number of hosts. I would imagine they only want to keep the hosts with the highest ratings and they are constantly upping the bar on what meets the standard. If they lost a few thousand hosts from the platform, I doubt they will care much as it will make guests scramble for those places that are available. The idea is to attract more guests and make the experience consistently excellent (as Airbnb defines it). So they honestly don't seem to care if hosts drop out of the marketplace. I would imagine they will if too many do,  but that is not in danger of happening yet. 

[Debra300]

@Laura2592,

I am not sure how attractive these policies will be to guests.  Supposedly, they are also supposed to agree to the COVID-19 safety practices, 

"All hosts and guests must agree to:

• Wear a mask or face covering when interacting in person
• Maintain 6 feet/2 meters of distance from each other at all times"

Personally, I never received any notification or message to my guest account regarding this requirement.  However, there is a link to it on the reservation checkout page, but we all know that most guests don't read all of the information before booking.

[Helen427]

@Laura2592those things about bookings during Covid19 are based on Guidance by Scientists...

It's not Airbnb themselves who are calling the shots but they need to start asking serious questions just what information these Scientists are telling Politicians to dictate to us as One Size fits all blanket approach is not how The Public Health Acts are written.

Did you know as an example, that there was only 1 case of an Infectious Disease in a number of countries to call it a Worldwide  Coronavirus Pandemic?

That was without taking into account different seasons etc across the world.

[Super47]

@Laura2592

"I would imagine they only want to keep the hosts with the highest ratings.."

Well that would be a logical assumption. Except in the vast majority of markets, the listings featuring most prominently at the top of searches are typically not superhosts, nor listings with the best reviews or highest ratings - but in the Private Room searches are Hotels, Boutique hotels and other corporate properties also listed on Airbnb's Hotel Tonight portal, and in the Entire Home searches, are listings of mega-hosts and commercial entities with hundreds/thousands of listings on the site. In most instances, these listings have much lower ratings than the listings of committed, dedicated homesharers and small, independent hosts, but are prioritised and promoted by Airbnb. 

Airbnb couldn't give a flying fig how many regular hosts abandon the platform - in fact, the more that bail (or are pushed out), the better it suits them.. their disrespectful, callous treatment of us makes that crystal clear day after day.

The reality is, they're in league with the really big players now - the REITs, the vultures, the investment funds, the multinational developers and the global corporate real estate giants such as Blackstone with their $329 billion global real estate portfolio, and Greystar with 14000 employees and over 693000 rental properties under management, in 197 markets worldwide. 

The only purpose small hosts serve to Airbnb now is to keep up the (increasingly threadbare) facade of the company being all about the 'human connections' and 'living like a local' until they've finally hauled themselves over that IPO finish line in a couple of months (oh and to carry the PR-magnet 'Enhanced Cleaning' flag, of course) It's imperative that the company perpetuates that illusion in order to avoid too much regulatory scrutiny just now, and also to appeal to the unsophisticated and inexperienced mom-and-pop investors who they're desperately relying on to save the (IPO) day, in order to ensure a bonanza cash-out for their early and existing investors - hence today's share-splitting announcement. 

If we think we're being treated deplorably now, just wait until the IPO is done and dusted and we're truly surplus to requirements. A rude awakening awaits all who believe things will get better for the little guys. For those who haven't already done so, it would be wise to find other baskets to be putting at least some of your eggs in right now. 

[Jess3135]

If enough people refuse to sign it they will lose revenue. Might be time for a new platform? 

[Helen3]

You will just get others signing up @Jess3135  - in many areas the markets are oversaturated with many more hosts then there is demand. 

[Miguel638]

Perhaps it makes sense to redefine your rental description so the guest know where these new rules apply and where not.

E.g.  you can guarantee that private rooms fullfilling those new rules. For all shared spaces perhaps you can write that they are still accessible for guests but cant be listed as official part because they dont fullfill the new airbnb requirements - so they will be only non-official (not included yet accessible at their own risk. )

Perhaps someone from @Airbnb is able to comment how to handle this issue with shared spaces.