Two for One Problem

[Kelly149]

Dearest Hosts, can you help me put to rest or better solve a problem (or tell me if you think it is unsolvable in this Covid era)??

Problem One, please tell me what you think this means:

In an abundance of caution, we are making the barn available primarily to single household groups traveling independently. If you are a group made up of multiple households or your visit to Austin includes extended visits with people outside your household or if your travel includes public transport (airplanes) then please discuss with owners to see if your trip can be accommodated (this may require higher cleaning fees or purchasing days before or after your stay as a buffer).

Problem Two: I'm not sure if it is participating in CC or the collection of guests we've had or the moving target of ABB expectations or my personal predilection to perfectionism, but such a high percentage of guests are a problem that hosting is more dread than joy. Even the money doesn't seem to outweigh the ninnys. So, ideas?? Turn off IB, turn off listing (this may happen on ABB in a week when I don't sign Cleaning thingy, but we'll still be on Vrbo), shorten listing, lengthen listing, take less guests....

I look forward to your suggestions!

[Kelly149]

@Sarah977 I often wonder that too, clearly they have reasons for why they do what they do. But anything that confirms that both host & guest have a good experience seems like a good idea. 
maybe they just have a vastly different idea of what makes for a good guest/host relationship. 

I think part of it is entire place. If I’m not sharing space with the guest then why do I care what they do? Well, bc it’s my house and that’s probably the disconnect. 

[Sarah977]

I imagine that the corporate-type hosts who have no personal stake in the home, like you do, are just fine with IB- as long as the guest doesn't totally trash the place, they really don't care what guests do. As is evident by the type of reviews they leave "Nice guests" repeated for 300 guests. They don't personally have to clean up guests' messes, or put up with their goings-on across the yard, or being noisy, they haven't worked their butts off renovating, repairing and decorating or get a sick, sad feeling when a guest breaks something the host really loved and has had for years

Airbnb intimidates hosts into using IB with their search ranking criteria just like they intimidate hosts into tiptoeing round guest transgressions in fear of the dreaded bad review.

The only thing I can think of that might make Airbnb change the IB/ higher ranking set-up is if all home-share, on-site, and other "real" hosts simply all turned off IB and they saw that it's not a great or welcome choice for all but their corporate hosts (Okay, I know there are some quite "real" hosts here who have said IB works for them and they like it, but they seem to be in the minority)

@Kelly149 

[Emilia42]

@Sarah977 @Kelly149 

Hosts should always have a choice in the matter. As you both have said, it is our homes and I would hate for Airbnb to make one or the other method mandatory. But I have to defend Instant Book! As a host and a guest, I love it. If used correctly, it really can work and doesn't cause [me] any additional stress in hosting. 

[Francesco1366]

@Kelly149 

I would reduce availability to a maximum of 4 people. You have one bathroom and one bedroom, I would do it anyway. For the same reasons of Andrew I don't like that paragraph. 

If you don't want to clean your home thoroughly after each guest, as suggested by Airbnb and WHO, I suggest to remove now your listing since it seems to me you are in an area with many cases. Of course, do as you prefer.

[Kelly149]

It certainly will be cleaned well & that’s the problem, my cleaner is affected by these people’s choices. And in addition, I do not wish to host folks who are here to fiddle while Rome burns. 

[Francesco1366]

In my opinion, if you keep open you always have to clean in the same way. As if your guests have covid and you have to eliminate it from the house. You can not know what exactly they will do or if they arrive already asymptomatic. @Kelly149 

[Francesco1366]

and sometimes you take covid even if you are very careful ... so in any case changing cleaning based on what the guests do is a very wrong thing ... @Kelly149 

[Kelly149]

@Francesco1366 No, you miss the point entirely, the cleaning doesn’t change at all. But the risk goes up exponentially per person. And then goes up even more so again if they are here to play games with 100s of other participants 

[Francesco1366]

@Kelly149 

Sorry, it is not my language and I am very ignorant. You are absolutely right. Yours are very sensible concerns. However, it is very difficult to choose guests based on their habits. In any case, even if some guests are potentially more risky, it is evident that all are risky today. 6 people arriving from 6 different countries with 6 different planes are very risky, but it is evident that only one who comes by car can have the covid: you never know what will happen. In your opening paragraph it seemed to me that you may require higher cleaning fees for those arriving by plane.

[Sarah977]

It's certainly true that it only takes one person to infect you, and you can't predict who that person will be. I think most of us understand that.

But one of the factors involved in contracting the virus is viral load. If there happens to be one person in the house who is COVID positive, but has no symptoms, the amount of virus droplets in the air and on surfaces is going to be considerably less than if there are 5 infected people in that house, some of them sneezing and coughing.

Lowering the risk while still taking all the necessary precautions is a smart approach.

@Francesco1366

[Francesco1366]

@Sarah977,

I have already answered before. I would decrease capacity and do strong cleaning as recommended by Airbnb and WHO. I am not convinced, as Andrew seems to me, that decreasing the risk by choosing guests according to their habits is really possible. Ask me what else you like me to clarify. Sorry if I write bad. 

[Sarah977]

@Francesco1366  I think you're preaching to the choir here-  Kelly is a long-time host and I'm sure their cleaning standards are quite high. It's mainly that they don't want to encourage COVID-risky behavior. And having people from more than one household stay, especially if they are all travelling from different places, just increases the COVID risk.

[Francesco1366]

Dear @Sarah977,

thank you for the comment.

@Kelly149  seems to me to have said she doesn't want to accept new Airbnb's cleaning policies. And she did not yet accept them. Those standards are suitable for Covid: general high standards are not enough. That's my, WHO, Airbnb and countless other people and companies opinion. I'm sure Kelly will clean even better than Airbnb new standards (I want to trust her!), however it's ridiculous how many preconceptions most of you have here. If someone has a lot of reviews and has been a host for a long time, pratically he can't wrong. In this case, his cleaning is perfect for any pandemic! Don't doubt, don't ask!

Please realize that all people can be wrong, please stop feeling some hosts like infallible superheroes because of many reviews. It's very risky ... that's why I'm very happy that airbnb imposes cleanliness standards. With this arrogance everything is possible and even the worst habit can become right: I am a super host, I have many reviews and nobody can teach me! I know how to clean my house!

Please end these prejudices.

p.s.

And please end arrogance too. Sure Sarah you are not arrogant like most who write here but with prejudices you foment it. 

Please think about.

[Sarah977]

@Francesco1366 The only person who is acting arrogant here is you. You are making assumptions about people without understanding what they are saying, which may simply be due to a language barrier.

I participate enough in this forum so am familiar enough with many of the posters' attitudes to be aware of which ones have made it clear that they understand the virus dangers and behave and clean appropriately and which ones are in denial or don't understand- it has nothing to do with them being long-time experienced hosts with lots of reviews, nothing at all.

[Francesco1366]

@Sarah977.

Well, in my opinion clean properly means accepting the airbnb standards. There will also be language barriers but it seems to me that you don't want understand my opinion. I'm not good at understanding people like you and imagining that cleaning well means cleaning in the way that I think is correct. Can you respect this and avoid me to explaining my comments a hundred times?

Anyone can answer and clarify: I do not accept the airbnb standards but I respect the same or very similar standards. For example. I just see here an host who says he will clean very well but doesn't want to accept those standards. And he thinks to leave not to accept them. What I have to think??? I also see who may require higher cleaning fees for those arriving by plane. I have the same eyes as you. Respect my points of view. Thank you. 

Talking to you now is humiliating for me. And with many of you often.