Airbnb’s “Health and Safety Requirements” statement regarding COVID and Airbnb stays is illegal on its face

[Till-and-Jutta0]

I would like to share this feedback from another Airbnb host with you. While it doesn’t necessarily reflect my own personal opinion, I think it’s worth mentioning:

I looked at this statement issued by Airbnb regarding it’s COVID-related “requirements” for hosts and guests pertaining to Airbnb stays, and I discovered that this statement is flatly and explicitly illegal on its face.  It is in explicit violation of US ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)  and California State law, and likely most other US state laws. 

There are 2 primary problems with this statement by Airbnb which make it illegal on its face.

First, and most importantly, no public health agency, or other agency, entity, business or corporation may create regulations which violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or state laws.  Airbnb’s statement that “All hosts and guests must agree to wear a mask or face covering when interacting in person” is flatly illegal in that it makes no exemption for those with a disability or medical condition which exempts them from face coverings.  If you look at any statement/guidelines/regulations on face coverings issued by a State or Federal public health department, you will see that they always observe ADA law and contain an exemption for those with a disability or medical condition. For instance, see this November 2020 California State public health guidance statement.

As indicated in this guideline, many individuals are exempt from all guidelines/regulations mandating use of face coverings:  “The following individuals are exempt from wearing face coverings at all times:  Persons with a medical condition…or disability that prevents wearing a face covering.”  As well, under ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Acountability Act) such individuals are not required to disclose their medical condition to anyone.  

Thus, Airbnb, as well as any and all hosts, are expressly prohibited by law from requiring all guests to wear face coverings in any home or listing, as is the state of CA and/or any entity, agency or corporation.  Further, neither Airbnb, nor any host, entity or other agency, may inquire about any individuals’ private medical condition. 

Further, organizations and businesses can be fined up to $75,000 for the first ADA violation and $150,000 for any subsequent violation.  ADA violations consist of denial of service to those with a disability or medical condition, as well as unlawful inquiries into the nature of any individual’s disability or medical condition.  

Secondly, any entity, agency or corporation which is not a public health agency or medical professional,  is prohibited by law from issuing their own mandatory public health requirements or policy, and they may only reflect or support state or local public health department laws or policies.  Airbnb is not a public health agency.  They are not a medical organization.  They cannot make their own public health law or regulations.  They can only require hosts and guests to follow national/federal, state or other local public health guidance and regulations.  Given that state of California guidance/regulations pertain to outside a home only, Airbnb unlawfully exceeds its authority in attempting to make public health regulations that pertain to the inside of anyone’s private home. 

[Ann72]

@Till-and-Jutta0  Thank you.  Although I believe that each of us must be responsible and do our part to slow the spread of the virus, this host's statement is exactly why I follow, not Airbnb's dictates, but the dictates of the state where I host.

[Kia272]

@Till-and-Jutta0 I'm not quite sure what your "thing" with this is, but  personally I think that if a person "can't" wear a mask- for whatever reason- due to a disability or medical condition- it would be extremely inconsiderate to book a shared space or an AirBnB where in person interaction is required. Not being able to wear a mask is not an excuse to be inconsiderate of others, or risk the health of others. 

That's quite a rant that you've posted. I'm not sure what your motivation is. We all have the ability to make responsible decisions about traveling and hosting during this pandemic. 

As I frequently remind people, nobody is forcing you to use AirBnB. You can disengage from the platform at any time if there's something not to your liking. 

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Thank you @Kia272 . Please note, I'm note the author of this, and it doesn't necessarily reflect my own personal opinion (as stated at the start of the post).

[Kia272]

@Till-and-Jutta0 My apologies. I obviously didn't pay enough attention. 

I'm still pretty amazed by this rant, whoever the author is. I guess my reaction got me carried away. 

[Helen350]

@Till-and-Jutta0 is Airbnb's No 1 fan @Kia272 ! - Ute42 told us so!!! 😉 

He's not going to leave the platform! And he's one of these new fangled HABMs - so he's doing his job by relaying a rant someone sent him (maybe in the German CC?) - and asking what we think!

My opinion is that Airbnb HAVE overstepped the mark in dictating what goes on in private homes! Tho I see your point that it is inconsiderate of guests to turn up without a mask without asking how the host feels about this. (Most of my guests arrive maskless and I spot them in the kitchen without. I'm not bothered.)

[Ann72]

@Kia272  I'm enraged by the slightest hint of people refusing to wear masks because their personal liberty is at stake or by anyone suggesting that the pandemic is a hoax and governments have over-reacted.  But I didn't pick that up here.  I think the host who wrote the thing that @Till-and-Jutta0 posted was trying to point out that it is probably a legal over-reach on Airbnb's part. 

A much better way of handling it would have been for Airbnb to tell guests that if they had to travel, they should defer to local and state regulations about masking and social distancing as well as the host's wishes and requirements.  But they don't want to scare away the paying customers, such as they are, so they put all the pressure on hosts to personally put a stop to the pandemic.

[Kia272]

@Ann72  I agree with you completely. I'm still a bit puzzled by the motivation in reposting this rant, especially on behalf of the unnamed author. I don't understand the role of the advisory board members to be affecting the forum discourse this way. The whole point of a public forum is that the ebb and flow of the discourse is controlled by the forum itself. 

Anyway, you're correct in that AirBnB should/could simply mandate that guests and hosts both conform to local jurisdictions as to how to handle Covid safety protocols. Unfortunately, in this country, (prior to the change of administration) the pandemic was treated as a joke/hoax/whatever, and the response was haphazard and inadequate. One could suppose that AirBnB recognized that and was simply trying to do an across-the-board approach that would allow for safety on all sides. I don't have the answer.

Have they overstepped? Maybe. Were their intentions good? Hopefully. 

I do have a thing about people who are on the AirBnB forum, moaning about AirBnB. We are all here voluntarily. Are there some things I wish would change? Yes. For me, the benefits outweighs the deficits, and so I remain. 

Many condemn AirBnB as prioritizing the almighty dollar, but one could say the same about hosts continuing to host. 

Best, Kia

[Anonymous]

@Kia272  The biggest problem that I had with the way AIrbnb did it's across-the-board standardization is that hosts were "agreeing" to it under duress. As a result, guests don't have a way to differentiate listings that are fully compliant from ones where the host just ticked the box off under pressure. 

It wasn't necessary to incentivize lying. They could have instead used the same a la carte format as they use for the Amenities and Accessibility Features checklists -  hosts choose which health and safety practices to guarantee, and guests can apply them as search filters. This is far likelier to yield an honest representation of what's really going on, and the transparency would empower guests to make better-informed decisions when they book.

[Kia272]

@Anonymous  the bottom line is that the system depends entirely on the honesty of hosts- whether it be agreed to under duress, or as an a la carte compliance checklist. There are always those who will buck the system. Guests still won't be able to know who is being fully compliant. I don't claim to have the answer. 

Truly, the underlying problem is that we don't all have the same belief system regarding the virus. The virus is fact, and "belief" shouldn't play a part, but there you have it. 

[Anonymous]

@Kia272  Sure, I suppose some hosts might fudge the details about how they clean between the stays, but it wouldn't really make sense for them to lie about the procedures followed during the stay, which is where you have the main risk of exposure. It would be like offering a swimming pool when you don't have one - what's the point? Most hosts would rather attract guests with accurate expectations than oversell and under-deliver.

What we have at the moment is Airbnb misleading to the guests on hosts' behalf about what protocol is in place. Every listing's Health & Safety tab now states by default that "Airbnb's social-distancing and other COVID-19-related guidelines apply," regardless of what actual measures are actually being practiced.  

I don't think it's possible for Airbnb to solve the problem of people having different beliefs and being misinformed about the virus, and I'm not looking to them to be science educators. I just want their listing tools to facilitate the most accurate possible representations of each home, and the standardization and duress are having exactly the opposite effect.

[Ann72]

@Kia272  When I stumbled on this thread the other day, I thought of your "moaners."  Check out the people who posted - and guess what?  They're all still hosting.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Goodbye-Airbnb-I-quit/m-p/1314271#M312600

[Kia272]

@Ann72  I know, right? 
I just don’t get utilizing the platform you’re complaining about to complain, LOL. There are ways to vent and also to offer constructive criticism without biting the hand that feeds you. 
Again, it all comes down to whether the benefits of using the platform outweigh the drawbacks. 
The few times I have had to interact with customer service have been overall pretty frustrating, and it does seem that if Airbnb  is listening they are very slow to move. However, for me it’s working right now. 

[Michelle53]

@Ann72  When I read the OP,  I couldn't help thinking about the grocery store in Florida that has a notice posted in the window that exempts persons with certain disabilities or medical issues from wearing masks, and notes that due to privacy laws, one cannot ask for that person's status. 

The net of that is a grocery store owned by a Covid- denier, where none of the shoppers and none of the staff are wearing masks, and it is apparent that the store owner is really hiding behind ADA laws.

I feel like the right thing to do is encourage a policy of mask-wearing, not denialism and using the ADA laws as a smokescreen.

Of course, since the OP is a re-post, one can't ask the originator for their motivation in writing it. But it certainly comes across as suspect to me. 

I also don't think it's the right thing to do to re-post an unattributed post by another party for the purposes of discussion. At minimum, there should be a link to the original post. 

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

You know that I have told you that I thought that the Airbnb Safety Policies regarding COVID-19 were illegal.  In the state of Georgia, there is no municipal agency at any level allowed to establish public health policies in a private home.  Plus, since they have no financial interest in the privately own rental properties, their policies were illegal, and simply just another form of their public health theater.  As I mentioned in other posts, if Airbnb truly cared about the health of hosts and guests, they would mandate that smoking is not allowed inside of rentals and XX feet/meters from the dwellings.  It is widely known that second hand smoke is a health danger.  Yet, Airbnb steers clear of this topic, because they know the policy couldn't stand up to scrutiny.

I think that guests and hosts should discuss the public health standards that are observed at the rental, and then determine whether or not to proceed with the reservation.