Infant - Spreading sickness/safety

[Cameron90]

My wife and I have toyed around with the idea of hosting in our home.  We would not be present during hosting and I would take this opportunity to work out of town which I do remotely already.  Our concern is that we have a 4 month old daughter and a 3 year old son.  We are concerned about someonw who comes to stay at our home and leave behind the flu etc.  We are also concerned about safety of our home and if someone has bad intentions after staying in our home.

Are there other parents out there who have had similar concerns and found ways to overcome this?

We don't have a guest house or additional enterances. 

[Jess78]

@Cameron90, I’d avoid hosting on Airbnb, and especially with small children in the home. There are no safety guarantees at all, no recourse, sick guests WILL stay with you, and you will stress yourself out when you are hosting and your kids are acting up,  because they will review you poorly. 

[Cameron90]

I get that! However, we will not be present during hosting. We will host the whole house and be out of town. 

[Jess78]

Gotcha, Cameron. If you are at all uncomfortable with the idea of hosting strangers who you will have no part in selecting or qualifying staying in your space, I’d let this go. How will you keep all your personal belongings or anything of value or private (paperwork, electronics, etc) locked up and secure while you are out of town? I rent an entire house that is separate from my own. I keep nothing there of any value that I would mind losing. Nothing of any emotional value or monetary value. 

‘If you decide to host, there are simply no guarantees against hosting people with bad intentions, people who may party, people who have infectious disease, and people who may break items or rules or laws. If you are not okay with that risk, don’t open your home up. I speak from experience. 

Airbnb says they background check guests but they do not. They say they have a host guarantee but it doesn’t actually guarantee anything. 

‘I’m not saying don’t do it for extra cash, but given your concerns, it seems as though it would not be the best course of action for your family. The flu would be a relatively harmless consequence in comparison to other diseases or events that may happen in your private home without you present. 

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

This is good advice 

[Clara116]

@Cameron90@Jess78 I'm totally in agreement with Jess on this one. You just don't know and when you have little ones - I'd wait on it - you are correct - that we just don't know peoples minds, intentions and how can you possible remove all signs of your precious family while you rent out? I wouldn't want folks seeing pictures, stuff that belonged to babies and children - they/ guests are being brought into the inner world of your sweet home and there are some folks up to no good. I just wouldn't do it for 5 mins.

I rent out the cottage behind our home - totally seperate and private from our home. I've seen evil (not with ABB) but you can't unsee it or make it unhappen. So I am cautious in my world - I don't IB either and probably never will. 

I love hosting and trust folks as much as I can.

p.s. the flu or such sickness would be the least of my thoughts but folks will bring those along with them and not even give it much concern or thought. 

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

I would not host in my home without me there.  I would assume the worst possibilities about strangers in my home.  I host a camper on my property, we are always  on the property keeping an eye on things and the guests are not inside our house.  We lock up when we go out.  I even lock my car in the driveway on my gated property at night . . . When we are out of town we have a housesitter and our Airbnb is not rented during those times.

[Sarah977]

@Cameron90  Quite aside from the issue of small ones and possible contagion, I agree with the other posters- you really don't want to rent out your own home to strangers with no one there. At the least, they will snoop through your personal belongings, at worst they will trash your house, break your stuff and steal. I host a room with private bath in my home. When I leave for a month in the summer, I get a trusted friend to housesit for me, I'd never rent out my personal home in my absence.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Cameron90

To be honest......... contagions would be the least of my worries if I were considering Airbnb-ing my home in my absence.....which is something I would NEVER do.

Henry and I would never dream of letting a complete stranger have full control and access to our home in our absence. We don't host when we travel, and we don't travel or take vacations when we have a guest.