Just to share my experience with the “guest tests positive during stay” experience with air bnb, which has been far from ideal.
so, we had a two week booking. Great couple, vaccinated, but they were viewing flats to rent, and two days before they were due to checkout, they got covid.
so, they had to isolate at our place. We contacted the local health centre, as did the guests and got clear guidelines.
20 minutes after the guests confirmed their positive covid test, we also opened a case with air bnb. And the response was crap - adding stress to an already complicated situation.
The case was escalated to a specialist team. I had no contact from them for five days! I had to cancel, move and rearrange everything manually and wonder if i was doing things correctly etc.
i received sporadic emails asking for duplicate information from various customer service people, to which i replied quickly and promptly.
on day five, after several repeat follow up calls/messages asking what was happening, why had no one been in touch, i found my account suspended. For 30 days. During the most crucial holiday booking month of the year. And for no rationale - to “protect” people? Well, our next guest is a two month booking. She’s aware of the situation, comfortable in that we’ve sent her our negative test results etc -so absolutely no one new is going to enter our rental during this “suspension” period.
there was no prior warning given, and despite my repeated requests for explanation, rationale, someone to just call me and talk it through, my dissatisfaction has not even been acknowledged by air bnb, let alone responded to.
anyway, here’s what i’ve learned:
- start a timeline immediately, recording when key things like notification, case raising, tests etc tool place.
- contact local health authorities immediately, follow their advice and note it.
- keep spare tests - you will need to confirm (just in writing) that you have taken a test and the result post the guest confirming covid.
- raise an air bnb case immediately.
- contact your up and coming guests and let them know what you can and promise to keep them updated.
- ask for their patience - manual amendment will likely be necessary. Cancellations may be possible.
- make sure you are aware (if not already) of the enhanced cleaning protocols as listed on airbnb (Despite completing that whole process when it was released, i’m being asked to confirm it all again (not a big deal) )
- support the guests in isolation as much as possible. It’s rotten for them. And any extra thing you can do (leave cake by the door, Fresh orange juice, whatever) can really brighten their day.
i understand this is all fairly new to air bnb, but come on - that’s no excuse for not even getting the basics right like getting back to people in a timely fashion. there’s clearly a big gap in air bnb’s Internal processes for this situation, which seems crazy as surely this is commonplace now?
any other thoughts and ideas, other experiences of this out there?
thanks and stay happy all 🙂
mike.
