Am I the only one who doesn't want to host during Coronavirus pandemic ???

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I am very surprised to see so many angry hosts who worry about the money more than about their health and life. Do you really want to host during a pandemic? You would risk your health for a few bucks? Are you so desperate? Money means nothing if you will die or live with damaged lungs for the rest of your life. Think about it.

I really don't want to risk mine and my daughter's life and clean after potentially sick guests. I don't want us to be infected because we touched their towels and sheets and inhaled the air in the room where infected guests spent a few days. We can't protect ourselves by wearing just a pair of rubber gloves, without even a proper mask not to mention the whole protective suit. Do you?

And, no matter how much we try, we just can't sanitise and disinfect the entire apartment from top to bottom. It is not a hospital room with just a metal bed and a metal nightstand on the vinyl floor. We have carpets, upholstered furniture, curtains,  full kitchen with cutlery and plates for 12 people.... We can't wash every single item in 70% alcohol after each guest and this virus will stay on surfaces for days .

We closed our calendar for all future bookings a few weeks ago. We offered our guests a mutual cancelation and most of them already canceled. Others contacted Airbnb and we are still waiting for their answer for days. I am happy for each cancelation and I hope the rest of my bookings will be canceled as well. Maybe we will rent long term. Maybe we will keep our property empty until everything is over. We don't know yet but we plan to survive 🙂

I am happy Airbnb allows penalty-free cancelations and my opinion is - it should be free for all bookings until September so hosts can rent their places long term if they want to until this pandemic is over.

We all need money but for us, our health is the most valuable thing we have.

Be reasonable, this is not the flu, THIS IS VERY CONTAGIOUS and it can easily kill you so take care.

[Emilia42]

Yep, germs spread. That is a fact.

[Sandra856]

@Emilia42 we are all asked to stay home so the elderly and vulnerable people won't get sick. 

I'm a bit surprised that people don't watch the news. Maybe it is because I'm from a small country. We need to know what is happening around the world. I follow the Danish news feed but also New York Times, Washington Post, BBC etc. and they are all talking about the importance of "flatten the curve" to prevent the spread and how the different countries are coping. I'm surprised that people are still talking about corona as if it was just another flu virus. 

[Kevin1322]

We re in the UK, we were already decided on cancelling all non-domestic bookings when Airbnb made it penalty free for hosts.

Since then things have moved on very quickly, and UK Govt is advising no unnecessary travel, the EU has closed its borders, several countries where most of our guests come from have locked down or closed their borders.

We have just cancelled all our bookings, and tonight we have our last guest staying for the forseeable future.

It will really hurt us financially,  as Airnbnb is a lifeline that helps us make ends meet.  We started hosting last year, and it is with even greater sadness that I'm realising how much we will miss our guests.

I'm sure a lot of us are in the same position with mixed feelings about the present situation. 

At least we have a choice. 

There are millions of people in the word in multiple occupancy housing, on the streets, in shared accommodation and in jobs where it impossible to isolate or distance themselves from the virus, so I count us as lucky in comparison, and we should (imho) step back a bit and realise that cancelling bookings to protect ourselves and our families from coronovirus as best we can is the right thing to do.

I have a son with compromised immunity. My job as a Dad is to look after my kids, even if they are grown up.

We will all get through this.

I am the first in three generations of my family to travel the world without a tin hat and a bayonet. But I'm trying to take some inspiration from the fact that they were all in the same boat, and most of them got through it. 

Also, I have some gardening to do, and paint to splash about.

[Sandra126]

Yes, @Kevin1322 , I've been to the hardware for paint, now I have the time to do it. Sometimes things happen we didn't predict, now we must deal. Stay well, take care of your family.

[Sandra126]

@Emilia42 that's good. Worrying doesn't help.  Caution does. If you ask an Italian what they would have done differently a month ago, none of them will say that they should have been less cautious. So take care, but don't worry.

[John1574]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 @J-Renato0 

I am with you, B&S. I applaud you for writing this post and beginning the thread. I was almost tempted to express the same sentiments myself but I see no need to shut my listing down as it I'm not exposed directly to guests, and I don't think I will have many guests coming during this pandemic. 

I applaud the sentiments you expressed, and I think it's up to every individual host to make the tough decisions at this time.

J-R shared this link previously in the thread: 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Coronavirus-fear-vs-reality/td-p/1258181

That post/thread, especially her 1st take on the subject, is really full of misinformation.

The original poster of the thread said that for the majority of people there is nothing to worry about. She really jumped the gun on that one and wouldn't back down when people disagreed with her so eventually she harangued the moderators to close the thread which they did this morning. they should've closed because of the disinformation and misinformation she was spreading.

She was trying to minimize the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. I think she directly influenced young people so that this phenomenon of young people ignoring the threat and going out to bars and restaurants and gathering in large crowds is partially the responsibility of the people who tried to minimize it in this way. 

Now governments are forced to make restrictions in large cities and populations because the commonsense advice that was issued was ignored. And it was ignored because certain people attempted to minimize the threat of this coronavirus.

Young people are not taking the decree to practice social distancing seriously and anyone who tried to minimize the risk of the coronavirus pandemic is responsible for this.

To take her initial post seriously is to live in an alternate reality.

As for the hardships this economic downturn will have on everyone, everyone should understand this simple fact: there will be, and there can be, no economic recovery until the coronavirus pandemic is somewhat contained. 

We are in a recession, heading for depression, and in that sense Branka and Sylvia are 100% correct to take the actions they have taken and to express the sensibility they expressed.

This pandemic/economic crisis will severely hurt those who are the most vulnerable financially: The poor, the working class, the small business owners. Big guys, airlines, auto, energy,  hotels, they will get bailed out.

if shutting down AirBnB's helps contain the coronavirus then I'm all for it. I hope it does not come to that: I think it should be an individual decision for each host.

This absurd 100% refund guarantee, however, on the backs of hosts, now that's not something I approve. I remain disgusted by AirBnB and their deeply flawed and unfair business model.

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[Trevor243]

All the properties we own and manage are self-catering, so self-contained. Guests let themselves in on arrival with a key from the key safe. We rarely meet any of our guests. Guests can still travel to our properties and remain as isolated as they wish.

We provided additional training to our housekeeping team and bought in additional cleaning products to disinfect every surface and anything else that guests might touch.

Our housekeepers were fully briefed on risks and were willing to keep working as normal - their opinion was and still is, that if they caught Coronavirus, they might get a fever or cough or both and were willing to self-isolate for 2 weeks if that happened. They felt that life should go on for what is, for most of us, a short term illness.

We are not in a "lockdown" situation or an epidemic zone, although it may come later. Yet AirBnB decided to offer all of our guests a free cancellation for the next few weeks.

If guests are happy to travel to self-contained accommodation, if housekeepers are willing to clean and disinfect, why shouldn't we all carry on as normal?

[Sandra126]

@Trevor243 , when you say that your housekeepers are fully briefed on risk, what do you mean? I do t think the risk is really available yet. Such as infertility in male recovered patients, damaged organs etc. Is that what you meant that your staff is aware of?

[Trevor243]

@Sandra126They have been briefed on current advice from WHO, Public Health England and other agencies. They are probably aware of all sorts of other things doing the rounds on Facebook. They are also aware that if they cross the road, they could get run over by a bus. They are also aware that they could trip or slip and crack their heads open and they are VERY aware that if they do that, I'm not dragging their dead bodies out of the holiday homes.

[John1574]

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@Trevor243 

The coronavirus causes some people to turn into chickens . . . chickens with Ebola . . . then they die.

Question: in that case, would you drag the bodies out of the rental units?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Humor is an important tool to lighten things up and especially so during hard times. Let's all maintain a sense of humor. In times like these it's known as "Gallows Humor".  Go figure.

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[John1574]

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@Sandra126

I have not read anything on these effects you mention: . . . "Such as infertility in male recovered patients, damaged organs etc."

Please, share a link or the source of this information.

And please, don't let it be from Facebook, as Trevor implied.

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[Sandra856]

@John1574 you tagged the wrong person. It is probably @Sandra126 you mean.

[John1574]

Thanks. Fixed it.

[Sandra126]

@John1574 , that has come from Chinese news as they now have enough recovered patients to test. And apparently,  amongst the damage, is male damage to fertility. Far from everyone, but enough for a pattern. I can't remember where I read it  but I dont have Facebook, so wasn't there. But I read newspapers from all around the world. 

[John1574]

!

@Sandra126 

Thanks for that source material.

I heard from a well respected Epidemiologist, Hoetz (sp) on CNN, that in Italy there is growing anecdotal evidence of a spike in healthy young people now being hospitalized in critical condition. There may be different versions of the virus in different parts of the world or it affects different populations differently..

That is i why I would never advocate or encourage anyone to minimize the danger of the pandemic.

We don' 't know what we don't know and we don't know a lot.

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