Guest tested COVID positive during his stay

Ece180
Level 2
New York, United States

Guest tested COVID positive during his stay

Hello,

 

I am sorry if this is a repeated question but I couldnt find the answer anywhere. As a host continuing to welcome guests during the COVID time, I was wondering what happens if guests tested positive during their stays.

 

My property is an entire home, so the space is not shared.

 

Should I cancel their reservation even though they are in the middle of their reservation or should they stay in the property for their quarantine time? What happens if I want to cancel and they want to stay? What if they booked for less days than quarantine time but they need to be quarantined? 

 

And what about if they are not sick but exposed indirectly to a COVID positive person and waiting for their test results? Same applies or are the rules different? 

 

I am hosting guests in my own apartment when I am away for a month or longer and if I accept reservations, it is usually not possible to extend the days in case my guests need to put themselves into quarantine since I also need my place to stay when I am back.

 

Thank you all the answers in advance!

12 Replies 12

@Ece180   https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/your-guest-or-host-may-have-covid-19-now-what-168

 

That's Airbnb's directive on the matter, but it's more important to be aware of your locality's laws concerning how/where visitors must quarantine.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I think what's important here is to vet your guests carefully to minimise the risk of a guest coming who has Covid. @Ece180 

 

Remind guests in your description of any local restrictions and that if there trip is imminent they shouldn't be travelling if they are awaiting the results of a Covid test and should be isolating if they have been in contact with someone they know has Covid,

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Ece180  You do understand that people can be entirely asymptomatic yet infected and infect others, right? If you're concerned about COVID safety, you need to assume that any guest who stays in your home could be infected, whether they have had a positive test, feel sick, or have been knowingly exposed.

Beth44
Level 10
Flagstaff, AZ

I’m putting this out there for other host thoughts (since its been 28 hrs & I haven’t had guidance call back from Airbnb yet). There is a lot of CDC cleaning protocol on AIRBNB site, however I cannot find an AIRBNB link to WHAT DOES A HOST DO IF A GUEST HAS COVID WHILE ON AN AIRBNB STAY? Maybe I overlooking something!

A guest tested positive for COVID while in my separate, yet attached to my house, apartment. Thankfully I was notified a couple of days into their stay after 1 of them was tested (they are return lovely guests). This is what I did upon their 5th day (understandably cutting short their booking)

when they left:I ask all guests to put bedding and towels into a laundry basket & put it outside in the private patio (temps at night  are freezing) the exiting guests did that. I also ask that guests leave windows open & turn off heater, which they did.I blocked out the days that were available until next weeks guests arrive. Blocking so that no one could “instant book” and I would be put in the position of cancelling them. 

I’ll be entering the apartment, as I normally do with mask & gloves and following CDC recommended cleaning which I appreciate Airbnb encouraging us to follow. 

One of the questions I’m waiting for guidance from Airbnb is when is it recommended that I clean the apartment knowing that a guest has COVID? (Not how I clean as I follow CDC recommendations). What are host impacts if a guest decides to quarantine in place at an Airbnb property (10-14 days)? (Mine did not, but I was prepared to offer them an extended stay).Are there any other thoughts out there?My concerns are for my responsibilities and best practices as a host. FYI- I did get a Covid test myself the morning after they informed me.

Linda324
Level 3
Altadena, CA

Hi Beth. 
I have had several guests quarantine themselves without letting me know and one recently admitted she was Covid positive and wanted to book my place to recover. Eeeek! What is my legal responsibility to call EMTs? Especially if I am staying as far away  as possible. What if a guest dies???? Insurance etc. Yikes. No help from Airbnb about this. 

Linda324
Level 3
Altadena, CA

Airbnb is Completely dancing around  the repercussions to hosts if a guest has COVID. Guests are not required to state they are tested Covid free or if they have just travelled from xyz.  The three day air out before clean up is not sufficient for active case. Please protect us hosts at least as much as you protect the guests! 

As a potential guest in an Airbnb, what happens if I test positive for Covid in Spain and have to quarantine before I can fly home.  What is the position when the property was booked out for another guest after me? 

Mike2259
Level 1
Granada, Spain

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. 

@Mike2259  Yes, the way Airbnb is handling this is a hot mess. This business of suspending listings for 30 days to "protect" people is just PR Covid theatre. They obviously don't care about protecting anyone, as they have made it clear that all home-share hosts who have been voluntarily closed to bookings due to the pandemic (in order to protect both the hosts and the guests) will be punished for not putting service fees in Airbnb's coffers by having their Superhost status revoked come April 1st.

 

Unless it's necessary to get Airbnb's assistance to cancel bookings if a guest gets a positive Covid test and has to stay on, it seems the best plan is to not contact Airbnb about it at all, just work things out equitably and privately with the guests. If Airbnb is going to suspend hosts' listings for 30 days just because a guest tested positive, then screw them- they can expect to have hosts not report this, and take cash payment directly from the guests if they need to stay and quarantine beyond their original booking.

 

My listing was just suspended because a guest tested positive for Covid while staying. According to the CDC guidelines posted by Airbnb we can clean and sanitize after 24 hours. I had a professional crew come in to clean and sanitize the next day. It is a separate apartment in my home. I have no symptoms. I have hosted the entire pandemic and never had anything like this happen. I have never gotten sick and never had Airbnb suspend a listing. Airbnb has not contacted me to explain and I can't seem to get any information as to why. I'm very disappointed. If it is suspended for as long as your listing was then it would be a problem. I have a guest booked for next weekend, and some of us rely on our bookings and ratings to keep Superhost status. It's fully cleaned and ready to go.

I just had a guest not even tell my they tested positive, and by chance the night before they were checking out and see all 3 of my listings had been suspended, no notice from Airbnb as to whey, then upon calling they said one of my guests had a positive test, the guest never even bothered to tell me, so I asked them and they were very deceitful, this is my home too, abbot desperate entrances but still why didn't Airbnb ask me if I would mind hosting these guests that had tested positive. I have a mortgage to pay and now no income. VERY upset and the specialist team has only emailed me and no explanation. Very worrying and frustrating. 

Mike2259
Level 1
Granada, Spain

I agree. Airbnb’s involvement in our situation only made things more stressful, more time consuming and more confusing for guests. It would have been so much simpler to not involve them, as all the positive actions came from our guests - current, cancelled and confirmed future - and ourselves by simply being sensible, honest and flexible. 
it’s not that difficult, and it does seem to be driven by PR, insurance and legal concerns for airbnb, not anything else.