Booking Requests that contravene Gov guidelines

[Peter2704]

Hi,

Is anybody receiving requests that obviously contravene the post July 4th guidelines?

I've had to reject a booking request from somebody who wanted to stay in July with people from 7 different households, so I've declined.

It seems Airbnb are not policing any of this, and it's down to us to enforce the guidelines, but will be penalised for doing so as our stats will be negatively affected by declining requests...

I'd be interested to hear what other hosts are experiencing?

Thanks

Pete

[Huma0]

@Peter2704 

I've not experienced this as I host private rooms in my own house and mostly solo/long-term guests so I wouldn't get requests from multi-households but, no, I don't imagine for a second that Airbnb are policing requests at all. They just use a blanket policy, which amounts to either stopping all bookings (ignoring the Government's extensive list of people who were exempt from the restrictions) or allow all bookings regardless of Government restrictions.

It's hardly surprising as I am sure they do not have the resources right now to go into this kind of detail/request evidence etc. I mean, you only know the guests are from seven different households because they told you, right? They could have lied about it and, if Airbnb doesn't require any evidence of adherence to regulations, how would you know?

So, yes, unfortunately, it is left to us to deal with these kinds of requests. I also hate to hit the decline button, so usually I explain politely to the guest why I'm not able to accept their booking and ask them to withdraw it. Sometimes that works, sometimes not.

[Holly193]

I thought that Airbnb had blocked bookings during  lockdown , they certainly did for a while ,in the app and their spokespeople  said so in the press.

i inadvertently accepted a booking in June , I cancelled the following day, Guest fine about it, result £50 fine and other sanctions, I appealed Airbnb reply was it was my responsibility.

[Luke279]

@Peter2704  I Just myself put a post up about this. 

Airbnb need to be doing more in regards to warning groups pre booking. The rules for the UK government have set out are guidance under lockdown easing rules that our properties cant host more the two households. We can all read in to the word 'Guidance' as its advisory but this is not the case, throughout the lockdown everything was based on this but local powers had the responsibility to uphold what was issued and had the right to issue fines. 

The is exactly the same now, local authority have the right to issue fines to Airbnb Hosts even if they are unaware of a breach. It's our duty of care as the same it is for Hotels to take names of all guests incase track and trace need to get in touch. 

We as hosts have a huge duty of care, room renting or whole apartment. If any of our guests come in to contact with someone after being infected from someone else, we not only put our business at risk we put everyone else in the contained environment at risk. We risk not only fines, but exposure to media for allowing it. 

More safety measures need to be in place from Airbnb.