CORONAVIRUS MAYBE STOP SAME DAY TURN ROUND TO PROTECT BOTH STAFF AND GUESTS

[Shaun69]

Hi fellow hosts, as England starts to prepare for possible opening for guests after 4th July it seems appropriate to start thinking about how both staff and guests can be given that extra degree of protection. We all know what common sense procedures can be put in place but I spoke to all my staff over the last couple of days and they have come up with what seems to me to be a very sensible idea to cover those first few weeks after opening. Before I share this with you all, I know that it will not suit everyone and the medical evidence might be shaky but please bear in mind that both guests and staff are frightened by this terrible virus and any re-assurance we as hosts can provide must be helpful and beneficial. We will stop same day turn rounds so guests will know that a full 24 hour period has elapsed since the last guest left, this will enable disinfectant and cleaning products longer to do their thing and potentially re-assure guests. Also just as important staff will not need to enter a room to clean as soon as a guest leaves, WE CAN SPRAY, OPEN THE WINDOWS THEN LEAVE IT FOR ABOUT SIX HOURS BEFOR CLEANING. I would welcome any thoughts or suggestions.

Be safe and be happy Shaun.

[Melodie-And-John0]

Thats good news!   We never shut down  even though our spaces were more empty than not @Shaun69 but have instituted the things you mentioned about a month ago.  I would add that the first blast shouldn't be for at least 3 hours unless they go in with a respirator and gloves, then only to blast all of the touch surfaces like knobs, handles and controls with Lysol and let it all die for that 6 hour soak.  If they are grabbing the laundry and towels at the same time, they probably should have some type of clothing over their own also.  If you had a few suites to prep at once, you could probably do the clean out efficiently with 2 sweeps through, good luck, stay well, JR 

[Shaun69]

@Melodie-And-John0  Points noted. Thank you. Shaun

[Sarah977]

@Shaun69  I think Airbnb has already made a 24 hour block between reservations mandatory. Also, you should read up about disinfecting- Surfaces have to be clean for disinfectant to work. Going into a unit with dirty surfaces and spraying disinfectant around is a waste of time and product- the surfaces have to be cleaned first, then disinfected. Also, FYI, soap and water deactivates the virus- I guess we should disinfect to be on the safe side, but according to all the info I've read, just good old soap and water, for things that can be washed, does the job as far as deactivating the virus goes.

[Shaun69]

@Sarah977 Thanks for that info, I must have missed the bit about BNB putting in place a mandatory 24 hour block, where can I find details about that? Thank You Shaun.

[Mika8]

@Shaun69  @Sarah977 .. the 24 hour block is only mandatory if you opt into the cleaning protocol which airbnb announced per first of May (and which is still not available).

https://www.airbnb.ch/resources/hosting-homes/a/answers-about-the-enhanced-cleaning-protocol-183

[Sarah977]

@Mika8  It remains to be seen, when and if they do come up with the cleaning protocol, but the way I read their anouncement is that if you don't opt into the 24 hour cleaning protocol, that they will block your calendar for 72 hours between reservations. 

In other words, it isn't mandatory that you opt in, but there is a penalty for not doing so. Kind of like Instant Book- you don't have to use it, but if you don't, your search ranking is lower.

[Alexandra199]

Should it be left for 24 hours, or should it be 48? I don't think there is any clear guidance on this and the time frames are different for different surfaces. I actually don't think this is a substitute for proper cleaning, and when i say proper, I mean proper! Get the soap and water out fisrt and clean, much like you would with your hands. Wash laundry at a good 60 degrees, make up with new laundry then go round and disinfect all touchable surfaces. Make sure to provide suitable guidance, equipment and PPE (gloves, plenty of cloths, good quality cleaning products) to you staff and I think that is sufficient. I would also advocate making sure your guests are aware during their stay. I am leaving disinfectant spray out at my properties and asking guest to spray and wipe around before they leave. Ok, it might take half an hour or so to do this properly, but hey, we are living in unprecedented times and guests need to take some personal responsibility.

[Mika8]

@Sarah977.. I raised exaclty this question in the german CC .. because I also thought that the wording is not that clear.  I got the answer from our admin that both options are opt-in options and you won't have to opt in in one or the other either. If you don't opt in in the 24 hour cleaning protocol your calendar would not be blocked for 72 hours. Both options are facultative to give the guests some 'peace in mind'. Further I got the info that both protocols are not available for shared places.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Gastgeber-unter-sich/Neues-cleaning-protocol-ab-Mai/td-p/1287258

Also in the english CC I read from one whose husaband or father or something is an attorney and he also admit that the wording is tricky but both are optional opt-ins ... I guess the wording is tricky that the guests feel more safe...

Despite the ranking .. yeah .. that could be .. but at the end of the day, airbnb is only interested in selling .. so, if your property is for interest for many people, the cleaning protocol would be less important .. jm2c.

@Alexandra199... it seems that with 3 days we are on a quite safe side for most sufaces. We also have to distinguish between studies which found 'the virus' after some days .. this does not peremptory mean that the virus is still infectious as the genome lasts longer than the surrounding envelope .. but without envelope the genome is not harmful. But yeah, probably a small risk lasts longer than 3 days. Anyway .. you could not disinfect everything, best is to regard an accomodation the first three days as public space .. means, don't touch your face with unwashed hands.

[Sarah977]

@Mika8  Thanks for sharing what you were told by the German admin. I have a home-share myself and am not at all thinking about opening up anytime soon.

I figure more or less what you are saying about surface contamination. The likelihood of contracting the virus simply because someone who is infected has touched that surface, and you then touch it without disinfection is probably almost nil. But if someone coughed on it, you touched it, and then touched your face, the likelihood would be much greater. There's a combination of factors. Also, how much viral load is needed to actually get infected- one little microscopic speck of the virus- maybe you wouldn't even get infected at all if you accidentally ingested it- more and you certainly would have a good chance of testing positive.

I'm taking the better safe than sorry approach.

[Mika8]

@Sarah977... I couold totally understand your approach, especially with the spiking cases in Mexico. I have a shared home too, but there are anyway no tourists for my place at the moment (due to my location I mostly host(ed) guests arriving/departing from the airport ... for Swiss people Zurich is not the place for a longer holiday, for this we have the mountains).

Nevertheless I have some recurrent guests, who work in Zurich and they are now coming back, which is ok for me as I know them (and they don't use plane or visit highly frequented places), plus I'm not in any risk group.

For 'unknown' tourists in a shared home we would have to handle the place as public area .. and honestly, it's quite impossible to not touch your face while being at home .. plus it's still not clear how contaigous the aerosols are...

[Debra300]

At this point I really don't care any longer if Airbnb comes out with the enhanced cleaning protocol.  We are already pretty stringent with our cleaning process, and I have already updated the availability settings to allow for at least 24 hours between reservations.

Each day, we are learning more about the coronavirus, including methods of transmission and the period of contagious efficacy. Instead of waiting for Airbnb to provide guidelines and a little star to put on our listing, I think that it's best to highlight your own cleaning protocols and emphasize the now common sense steps guests can take to keep themselves safe in any environment. 

[Sarah977]

@Debra300 I quite agree with you. But at this point, we don't know if Airbnb might put some warning on listings, like "This host has not agreed to the COVID cleaning protocol", like they did with the smoke alarms and CO detectors- making it look like a host doesn't care about their guests' safety, even if there isn't any possible source of CO in the home or in my case, it's a concrete structure which couldn't even catch fire no matter how hard you tried to burn it down.