Responsible Community Hosting

[Matt767]

Hi there. 

Im a super host and member of the UK airbnb community board  with over 200 five star reviews & pride myself providing a warm Yorkshire Welcome to my guests whilst being a responsible host within my wider community. 

Curren COVID restrictions for West Yorkshire England are at tier 2 meaning it’s illegal for different households to mix indoors in any setting &  with this in mind as a responsible host I’m declining reservations whilst in tier 2 COVID restrictions as I believe they would be illegal at the current time ? 

I hate declining reservations as I feel  I’m letting my guests down but feel I have no alternative as a responsible host and member of the UK airbnb community board. 

A little advice from airbnb would be fabulous, as other local hosts are in fact accepting my declined reservations & I’d hate for them to be contravening local COVID restrictions all be it by mistake. 

Kindest regards 

Matt 

[Helen3]

Hi @Matt767 

It is our government rather than listing companies who have introduced restrictions- so that’s where we need to look for advice.

I don’t know why they can’t create an App where they can push through info for accommodation providers.

Sadly there are some hosts where the 💰 they make is more important to them than protecting the community their listing is in from the risk of their guests travelling into an area and spreading Covid.  In many cases they are not accepting guests in error but sadly because they don’t care. 

might be worth blocking out dates over the coming month to see how things pan out

best of luck and congratulations on doing the right thing

[Anonymous]

@Matt767  If there's no circumstance under which you could host under the current rules, why are your calendar dates open? It is indeed a shame to have to decline bookings, but it seems much easier just to block the calendar dates for which the restrictions are in effect.

[Laura2592]

@Matt767  we had to just block dates in May and did not host at all, as our state government would still allow those from within our jurisdiction to do short term rentals, but we kept getting requests from people in other states/New York city which was the epicenter at the time. So we shut our doors until things opened back up. It was better than telling people "sorry, I know you live in Washington DC and consider the whole metro area of DC/Maryland and Virginia the same place, but we can't have someone with your license plates in our driveway as you risk getting fined."

We did for a time have a header on our listing in the title that said we could only host guests from Maryland. Too many people ignored it. It was better just to block dates. 

[Belinda55]

There is so much variation in circumstance in different jurisdictions that it’s not possible to have a policy from Airbnb that will be appropriate for all hosts. That is why their attempt to enforce a global cleaning protocol is so wrong. We must all comply with regulations and guidelines in our local community, and it is law enforcement in the community that should monitor any inappropriate activity.

[Anonymous]

@Belinda55  In this case, the OP is earnestly trying to comply with the ever-changing regulations, but the matter is complicated by Airbnb not intervening to enforce them. I do remember many UK hosts being outraged when Airbnb blocked their calendars earlier this year, but people are also going to be upset when their competitors get an unfair advantage by breaking the rules.

  The opinion of law enforcement in most major markets is that monitoring inappropriate activity would require Airbnb to turn over the private data of hosts, which it is opposed to. I'd venture a guess that most hosts, given a choice, would also prefer that their data not be transmitted to the authorities.

[Ann72]

@Matt767   When Maine was closed to out-of-state visitors in May and June, I turned off instant-book but did not block my calendars because I had enough Mainers seeking getaways to keep it open.  Everyone else had to inquire and I had to tell them they couldn't come.

Later in the summer I looked at some of the other local listings and found they all had reviews in June from people from other states.  It really made me angry that these hosts would blithely put our community in danger like this.  Like many small towns in Maine, our local health-care system is held together with twist ties and even a handful of Covid cases would have overwhelmed it.

[Cave0]

And don't forget that if you keep declining reservation requests, Airbnb will shortly be telling you that you should do better with your acceptance rate and will suggest that your listing might be removed if it doesn't improve!