Helpful Info on Emotional Support Animals

Jessica165
Level 2
Vista, CA

Helpful Info on Emotional Support Animals

We’ve had a few issues when guests sneak dog(s) into our No-Pet rental property & when damages/deep cleaning payment requests are made they claim “emotional support animals” and which airbnb sides with them (even saying they’re NOT required to notify us of a pet- when the law clearly states they DO). 

 

Its cost us over $3k in the last yr! Thats not to mention the loss of a yearly high-season family who’s got members w/ severe allergies so they can no longer stay with us which is a considerable loss of return income. 

 

We love fur babies & if it wasn’t for the impossibility of cleaning dander from bedroom carpets, HVAC system, behind appliances, rugs, bed skirts, upholstery, etc it wouldn’t be such an issue. 

 

Emotional support animals (ESA) are so common now that after our last experience I decided to get some answers before it continued to cost us more than its worth to host. There seems to be A LOT of debate about the legality for VR owners so I researched & contacted an attorney to see if I could get something more concrete vs the grey area that seems to exist. 

 

(helpful article links @ the end).

 

#1) “Place of Public Accommodation” laws dont apply to vr owners for a few reasons, but the strongest is that to qualify you must:

•Accept reservations without guaranteeing a particular room until check-in, with no requirement of a lease or deposit.

• Rooms available on a walk-in or call-in basis

• And: public accommodation” does not include a lodging with < 5 rooms that is occupied by the proprietor as a primary residence. (Owner occupied rentals).

 

#2) Things THAT EXCLUDE HOSTS from ADA & FHA laws: 

~FHA does not apply to housing that is so temporary as to be “transient,”. We collect Transient Occupancy Tax for the city & are therefore classified as Transient accommodation.

~ADA only applies to “hotel-like” public accommodations.

 

The general stipulations that exclude hosts are:

• One is when the building has four or less units and the owner occupies one of them.

•Second is if a property is considered “transient” and not like a hotel (the guest does return often enough to call it a home, stay for a long period of time, and there’s no checkin area, common living space, etc). 

•Third are private owners with three or less single family homes that do not use a service (broker, management company, etc) to manage them & doesn’t use discriminatory advertisements.

 

*Many would argue that booking sites ARE a broker. However, there’s been an onslaught of lawsuits against almost every major booking site the last few years calling for them to register, pay taxes, and be held liable as a Broker. 

~Yet THEY’VE WON EVERY CASE saying they’re NOT A BROKER & only source a site that allows owners to list their properties. Example: If you purchase a car from someone on CL and it turns out to be a lemon you wouldn’t sue CL for serving as the middle man.

~In this case it would be almost impossible for a judge to find hosts liable for using a “broker” when there’s so many won cases saying their NOT A BROKER.

 

#3) There’s also the case of City mandated laws:

•The attorney I contacted mentioned that while the ADA & FHA don’t classify ‘emotional support animals’ as being protected under their laws it can go further if the City also de-classifies such animals. 

•So its worth checking with a local attorney about your city law classifications.

•Example: the City of San Fransisco does not allow classified emotional support animals to receive any protection from discrimination when it comes to public places & for-profit housing.

 

#4) And the attorney said this is the strongest point in our favor as the VR serves in a business capacity (ie: not home-sharing or random renting when on vacation) 

•When accommodating causes an "undue hardship", either financial or administrative, for the owner. 

•Example: Making expensive modification such as certified air filtration would constitute an undue hardship. Likewise the cleaning required of an existing unit and the furnishings would also fall under this category. 

•Requests can be declined when the animal poses a threat to others' health and safety....

•Example: Future guests who may have a severe allergy and would by the nature of the building construction be exposed (vs hotels which have multiple closed off units). 

•The risk of guests having an allergic reaction not only poses health & safety issues but may also lead to financial hardship should medical care or a lawsuit ensue. 

 

 

This may not apply for your situation so be sure to do your own research and contact an attorney in your area- this is just sharing what I found.  I’m now confident in our ability to deny ESA’s & put up a fight against the security deposit claim denial should it happen again 😕 

 

**NOTE- Service Animals & ESA’s are NOT the same thing.....THIS IS ONLY IN REGARDS TO EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS.**

 

HELPFUL ARTICLES:

bit.ly/2IP0a84

bit.ly/2IRKKA1

 

 

11 Replies 11
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

You can do what you want, within the law, but if you want to use the ABB system then you agree to their terms and conditions which include ESA's not being defined as a pet.

 

Hope this helps.

David
Marzena4
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

The only thing, @Jessica165, you can do on Airbnb is to claim that a part of the listing is shared, and thus under Airbnb rules you're not obliged to host ESAs.

// "The only person you can trust is yourself"

How do you clear that with Airbnb first?



This is what Airbnb states: 

What if I have a health or safety concern related to assistance animals?

It’s important to be aware of the fact that the assistance animal, whether a service animal or emotional support animal, plays an important role in your guest’s ability to travel. However, if your listing includes a shared space and an assistance animal would create a health or safety hazard to you or others (e.g. allergies and pets who are unable to share space with other animals due to a safety concern), we will not require you to host the guests with the assistance animal. Please be clear and polite when communicating with guests about this. We also suggest you include information regarding any allergies or any safety concerns regarding your pets in a shared space in your listing description in order to better inform prospective guests.

 

So I have to tell my inquiring guest, you can't stay here because I clean the unit after a guest leaves and live in the unit when it is not occuppied by a guest and have animal allergies, asthma, had a stroke, and have tachycardia. If I use antihistamines to relieve allergy symptoms I get rapid heart beat and that's not healthy for me.

 

"In some cases, tachycardia may cause no symptoms or complications. But if left untreated, tachycardia can disrupt normal heart function and lead to serious complications, including: heart failure, stroke, sudden cardiac arrest or death".

"A rapid heartbeat may be due to stress, anxiety, medications, or it may be a sign of a serious heart condition".

 

This is an awful lot to reveal about myself to a total stranger.

 

So the reason I have a no pet policy is for health reasons. That seemed easy but now has changed. I also have instant book, which I liked but will cancel now that I know that a guest doesn't need to say they have an assistant animal.

 

I have enjoyed using Airbnb but it is increasingly difficult. They should have a better option for people who have health and safety concerns.

Rebecca181
Level 10
Florence, OR

@Jessica165 You also may claim health and safety reasons as a reason to refuse a pet / service / support animal - but you may need to clear this with Airbnb first. I wrote a long post on all of this in Host Voice. It had pages and pages of comments and many, many 'thumbs up' but was never commented on by an ABB Admin. It's likely archived by now.

@Rebecca0 Cant find your article. Can you link it, please? 

Stacy89
Level 2
Georgia, US

@Jessica165 I was shocked when I read they classify esa as service animals. Note *any animal can be an esa. Why they would do this is beyond me. It's our homes and we should get to decide if we are pet friendly . I work in dog  

rescue and I love them . I would welcome a true service dog. The **bleep**zu wearing a service vest sitting in a high chair at the Mexican restaurant last week is exactly the guest I dont want. My rentals are not pet friendly as the finishes would take too long to dedog between guests making turnovers impossible. VRBO doesnt do this crazyness. Between this and the "strict" 14 day cancellation policy I am considering deactivating my listings 

@Stacy89 - I have been informed by airbnb that THEY demand that all hosts except it regardless of the local laws 😞 so in that regard I'm with you. It's simply impossible for us to garantee guests who may have allergies that our 3 bedroom home (with plush bedroom carpeting) is allergen free with a 4 hour turnover. I was upset about the required cancellation requirment until I realized that it's actually only 48 hours (if the booking is more than 14 days out...if it's closer than that there's no grace period). I've had guests confused about that though, assuming they had 14 days to cancel OR could cancel as long as it's more than 14 days before checkin. The new policy was confusing for everyone involved I think. 


Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Stacy89 @Jessica165

 

Now come on guys, you know where the world sits on support animals now!! :-))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7HFXgyTya0

 

Cheers.....Rob

Read the requirments for the new"plus" program & was instantly put off...Superhost Badge isn't that old yet and they're already upping the game & charges.

They've increased the measures for Super Host, making it really hard to keep the status, causing unrealistic expectations & fear in hosts to make sure no one knocks a single star off for fear it drops them below 98%. Now, superhost isn't even good enough?!...You have to be Plus if you want to be on top, What?

 

 We actually meet the requirments already, but for example: linens will be inspected to verify they are of the very best quality, matching, and in perfect condition....The 2X's I've needed their help getting our security deposit (due to damage I couldn't overlook: like cigarette burns on the bedding fter smoking inside the whole stay & hair dye on the bath robes) it took MONTHS and they fought me the whole way.  

If the damage is something small they seem to be ok with forking it over, but anything over $100 and they fight, even if there's never been a claim before and I eat most of the costs unless I can't. I can't imagine paying them a fee to increase my status while they refuse to have my back when damage or theft happens to those "high quality" or "unique" items they require. Makes me sad. 


They bleeped out my dog breed . Wow the algorythim looks for just the letters in a row . I should have said sheeetzu I guess.