Will home share hosts have to wear masks at all times in shared homes under new cleaning regs?

[Helen3]

When Airbnb announced new mandatory  cleaning regs, it says as part of this that home share hosts have to wear masks in communal areas at all times. 

In the UK hosts such myself who have asthma and other medical conditions are exempt from wearing a mask in restaurants, theatre’s, because longer term use creates breathing difficulties. 

I asked Airbnb to clarify last week as to whether hosts with relevant medical conditions would be exempted from wearing a mask  in home share situations, under airbnb’s new cleaning regs,  but sadly there has been no response.

i would not be able to wear a mask for anything but short periods so would have to give up hosting.

@Nick  @Katie 

Please can you clarify are hosts like myself going to have to stop hosting under your new cleaning regs? 

It would seem unfair that Airbnb would discriminate against hosts with long term conditions and disabilities, when governments, the hospitality and leisure sectors and others are exempting people with health conditions from wearing mask.

[Huma0]

@Debra300  in answer to your questions:

1. This varies enormously depending on the guest. Some guests I barely see and others I will frequently encounter in communal areas. How long they spend in those communal areas also differs enormously. So, for example, I recently had two guests staying in the house who did not meet once in the 2.5 weeks that their bookings overlapped. On the other hand, I had a guest whom I spent on average a couple of hours with in the kitchen/diner every day.

2. Very difficult. I host long-term guests, staying for weeks at a time, or very often for months, who see my house as their temporary home. I have asked for feedback on these new rules and my guests ABSOLUTELY do not want to wear masks in the house, nor to avoid all interaction. They think the new rules are stupid, to put it mildly. I can see how this might not be the case with short-term guests though.

3. Basically, what I said in answer to question 2. The guests do not want this. Not at all.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

Thanks for responding to my inquiry.  Since you host long-term guests, under the UK COVID-19 tier system, would you all be considered part of the same household or support bubble, and not required to face masks?  

I've known people who rented bed-sits.  They share common amenities and spaces.  I wonder how the government regulates these types of living situations.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Personally, I do consider my long-term guests as part of my household as they are not holidaymakers or visitors to London, but living here and this is their home for the time being anyway. Whether that's legally the case or not, I don't know as I can't find anything on the Government's website specific to this situation. However, there is no stipulation that people living in shared accommodation should wear masks at home. The advice is that: 

"Everyone in the household should regularly wash their hands, avoid touching their face, and clean frequently touched surfaces." And also that if one of us is required to self-isolate, then we all are, so that's also something to bear in mind for live-in hosts.

With the exception of a German guest who came to do a one-month course (originally booked in January for a June stay, but postponed), all my recent guests were living/working/studying in London but in between homes.

I can't find it now, but a while back, I posted information from government guidance regarding restrictions on short term rentals. There was a long list of exceptions to these restrictions and, although Airbnb imposed a blanket ban on homeshares in the UK (with the exception of pre-existing bookings), the actual government advice was much more nuanced than that. Apart from the German girl mentioned above, all of my recent guests would have qualified as exceptions had they stayed while the restrictions were still in place, because they didn't have another home.

I understand why Airbnb would take such a blanket approach as they don't have the resources to check each booking on a case by case basis. However, given that they have been strongly encouraging hosts to offer long-term stays and also repeatedly claimed to be returning to their roots and focusing on traditional hosts, this new policy really does not seem to consider hosts like me, who are both live-in and host long-term.

Nor does it take into account guests who are staying somewhere for months and therefore consider the listing their home. These guests are appalled at the idea of wearing masks 'at home' and avoiding social contact with the people they live with.

[Debra300]

@Helen3,

Are you saying that if you can't host through Airbnb that you will stop hosting rather than host on a different platform?

[Helen350]

@Huma0  - Just considering the issue in the UK of hosting a mixture of Airbnb guests, & people who came through SpareRoom...... I can't order SpareRoom guests to put on a mask when they pop to the bathroom, or use the stairs, or nip into the kitchen.... 

[Huma0]

@Helen350 

Yes, this could potentially be a real problem for me too. My last Airbnb guest (no upcoming bookings at present) left yesterday. Now I have two lodgers. Neither of them are going to want to wear masks in the home and, even if they were Airbnb guests, that is not what they signed up for when they booked, so it would be hard to force them now. What happens then, when I agree to the new rules and the next Airbnb guest books? Will they expect me AND my existing lodgers to wear masks in communal areas and to socially distance?

I don't like to claim anything on my listing that is not 100% true. So, it looks like my choices are either to lie and hope that future guests are okay with that (not a single guest since COVID started has shown any concern about either enhanced cleaning or social distancing within  the house let alone wearing masks inside) or to stop taking Airbnb bookings, full stop.

Also, how does one follow the protocol in shared bathrooms? Are guests supposed to wear masks when showering or brushing their teeth?! Am I expected to go in after each one uses it and air, clean, sanitise each time with two sets of PPE??!!

[Helen350]

ALL your thoughts have gone through my mind @Huma0 , at various times. If we did constantly sanitise the bathroom behind guests, well, that doesn't fit with avoiding shared spaces as much as possible! (My bathroom has no outside wall, so no window even if I wanted to open it in winter!)

After a  busy summer season of Airbnb tourists, a worker who stayed 3 days twice, has morphed into a 3 day a week lodger.... And both yesterday & today, I've acquired a new 2 day a week lodger, so suddenly I enter the winter quiet season for tourism with 3x part time lodgers! (Whose schedules mean they are unlikely to all be here at once.) 

So I could now live without Airbnb guests (good timing!) - tho' it will be nice to keep my hand in when I have a room spare, mainly weekends, when only one of the 3 might be staying, and enjoy being a tourist vicariously! 

[Huma0]

@Helen350 

Yes, if my two current 'lodgers' (I call them that reluctantly because each has so far booked for three months in total but I have no idea yet how much longer they will stay) were to stay on for several months, I'd be happy with that and leaving the third room free, i.e. not having Airbnb bookings. Actually, that would be an ideal situation for me right now (last Airbnb guest was problematic anyway).

However, the reason I have these lodgers currently is because, like so many people, their work/living plans have been thrown into disarray by COVID 19 and they are staying here while they are trying to sort their lives out. Who knows how long they will need my rooms. They have been extending month by month but could either stay on for several months more or leave in a few weeks. I have to say though that it's been so much less problematic doing it this way than via Airbnb... This year anyway.

[Nicholas828]

I love this response. Lol you nailed it! It's funny how everyone on here is going on and on. 

[Super47]

Right. So let's get this straight..

As @Helen3 correctly points out, UK (and indeed, many other countries) government legislation clearly states that people SHOULD NOT be asked to provide evidence from a medical professional to prove that they don’t need to wear a mask.

Yet Airbnb mandates (complete with threat of deactivation)...

If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask you will be required to provide documentation from a medical professional confirming this exemption. You will then be required to notify all incoming guests prior to booking.

If a host is unwilling, or fails, to disclose this exemption to guests before booking, the listing may be deactivated until this policy no longer impacts them or is updated.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of guests have been routinely gifted (frequently unwarranted) full refunds for over 6 months now, by being permitted by Airbnb to simply "attest" to the fact that they or even one of their unnamed, unregistered (alleged) group members were sick with COVID.

Also, huge numbers of hosts have been awarded the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol badge, by simply "attesting" that they are following Airbnb's preposterously convoluted and contradictory cleaning diktat, which every dog on the street is fully aware that in reality, just about nobody could possibly be adhering to in full, to the letter of the stipulations. 

Yet experienced, trustworthy, highly reviewed and rated hosts with a long and proven track record of loyalty and commitment to Airbnb, are being forced to produce medical documentation for exemption that will be next to impossible for them to get hold of, or risk getting booted off the platform. Why so? What's the issue with medically-exempt hosts simply being allowed to  "attest to the facts" too? Because their word can't be trusted - is that what Airbnb are trying to insinuate about their root and branch hosts?? 

This stinks to high heaven. 

[J-Renato0]

If you can not wear face mask, you better give up hosting while the pandemic is going on.

It is not a matter of being allowed to host or not being allowed to! It is about you and others being safe!

Do not put your life at risk and do not risk others life.

Alternatvely, if Airbnb allows, you could always send a message to the guests warning them that you will not be wearing mask in your home.

It is not a joke, but it is the truth. As far as I know, the current US President is somewhat lenient about the importance of face masks!
Travellers that follows everything what that president say are a big market for non-mask guest!
Take care! You see... even the president, eventually met the virus! 🙂

Be civil. Wear mask, wash hands, keep social distance.

All lives matter !!!

[Anonymous]

"If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask you will be required to provide documentation from a medical professional confirming this exemption. You will then be required to notify all incoming guests prior to booking. 

If a host is unwilling, or fails, to disclose this exemption to guests before booking, the listing may be deactivated until this policy no longer impacts them or is updated."

@Katie thank you for passing this along - as much as I wish the people who made these decisions would have the balls to engage directly with the community, I really appreciate how hard you've worked to be an ambassador between hosts and our listing service.

By the letter of the law, I personally have no issue with Airbnb's position here. The whole point of wearing a mask is not to protect yourself, but to reduce the spread of your own bodily fluids into your airspace, and choosing not to do so fundamentally means asking someone else to absorb more risk because of whatever your personal problem is. I'm not advocating that anyone be forced to wear a mask in their own homes, but they should absolutely disclose it in their listings if they have any intention not to do so.  Fine.

The overwhelming majority of active Airbnb hosts will never see the guidance that was posted on this forum, unless it's directly communicated to them. So at this point, it seems inevitable that Airbnb will shut down a lot of hosts like @Helen3  and snatch back their payouts as soon as a guest complains about a procedure not being followed.

My take on it is that a booking agreement is fundamentally between the host and the guest. Hosts are certainly obliged to comply with their local laws, and provide their guests transparency about what safety measures they're going to practice. But we all know that Airbnb does not have the means to enforce any kind of standardization across its whole planet of listings. We also know that Airbnb is not staffed by public health experts. So why not just require that hosts disclose their practices and obtain the consent of their guests, rather than pretentiously assuming that some young folks in an office in San Francisco can magically micromanage that arrangement?

(Sidebar: many of these shared-house arrangements are not plausibly "safe" from being potential virus vectors, but Airbnb seems fully intent on profiting from the idea that they are. For anyone who's paying attention, this protocol has much more to do with that than it does with public safety.)

[Helen3]

I agree @Anonymous 

I have no issues with adding notes to my listing and house rules to say that I will greet guests on arrival with a mask but won’t be able to wear one longer term in my home because of asthma. 

[Michelle2461]

I would love for the option for hosts to be able to disclose their practice within their home and for this to be an that guests choose to accept when booking rather than the current blanket rule. Your reply seems to be the most common sense response I have seen @Anonymous 

[Katie]

Hi everyone, 

Thanks for sharing your feedback here, and I just wanted to jump in and say that we are relaying this to the team. There are some great suggestions 😊  If there are any changes to the guidance I shared previously then I will let you know, and please do keep sharing any new ideas or reactions on this subject.

@Helen3 @Rich30 @Anonymous @Sarah977 @Debra300