How to handle an Airbnb in COVID-19 times?

[SandraandGary0]

Hi everybody,

We hope you are all staying safe!

We usually rent out 3 rooms in our primary residence. One is currently occupied by a longterm tenant who literally doesn't leave the house, so we do not have to worry about that he might bring any virus in the house. He orders everything he needs and is totally ok with this situation. The other one was a student who left back home because his classes went online. He was also home most of the time and only went out for shopping - following our policy of wearing a mask, keeping social distance and sanitizing his hands before he comes into the house.

We are now thinking of whether to rent out again or not in these weird times. Our listings are online, but even though we would get a request - how shall we handle the current situation? There are so many questions in our mind. What do you think? How do you handle your Airbnb while you are living in it at the same time?

- Do you rent out at all?

- Do you only rent out long-term?

- Do you ask people to stay at home for 2 weeks first when they arrive?

- Even though they would stay at home for 2 weeks - what is after these 2 weeks? How do you make sure they don't bring in something from outside?

- Do you offer them to go shopping for them?

- What kind of people are currently renting anyway?

Thank you for taking the time to answer

[Linda108]

@SandraandGary0    It sounds like your guests are long term, not short term.  Right?  Currently my city bans short term rentals in a shared setting.  Long term is a different circumstance however.   I think you should come to an arrangement that is comfortable for you and for the others living in your home.  Be sure to engage other residents and develop a rapport with the potential guests that suits your environment.  As you might be aware, there are those who think all these covid 19 precautions are stupid and somehow government regulations are over-reacting.  Perhaps there are City regulations regarding your circumstances that you need to be aware of.  During this time of increasing identification of positive, but asymptomatic people, I personally would lay low with bringing in others at this time. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@SandraandGary0 I agree with @Linda108 

This involves safety for you and your current long term guests. 

Our County bans short term rentals in a shared setting (our situation) during this pandemic. We are fine with this, as we are health conscious. Long term renting - over 29 days - here in California gets guests tenants rights, so we are not eager to go there. As @Linda108 says:  During this time of increasing identification of positive, but asymptomatic people, I personally would lay low with bringing in others at this time. It would be tragic - and awful - for us to bring in guests who carry infection to our community. A worthy topic - we are listed, but our calendar is blocked for the short and long term. We miss it, but cannot take any chances. 

[Sarah977]

@SandraandGary0  Shared home listing, one private room. I have not accepted guests since early March and won't be doing so in the near future. I don't want any long-term renters and I can't trust that guests will be practicing safe distancing and wearing a mask when they are out of the house. 

Your current guests sound like a safe situation for you. If you want to rent the 3rd room, I'd do it also on long-term basis, and only with guests like yours who either don't go out or who you know will be pro-active in not bringing infection back to your home.

For me, it's not worth risking my health or my life.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@SandraandGary0 

Henry and I have one single occupancy private room where we hosted a lot of long-term stays, mostly international exchange students staying  1~4 months. We don't host locals because STR of locals is illegal and we don't want or need a roommate. Most schools near us have cancelled international exchange programs altogether for this year so we've decided not to accept any guests for the remainder of this year. In addition, we don't want the added worry, concern or cleaning that would come with having an extra person living with us, especially since there is a limit to how much we can *control* how someone behaves - great if they act responsibly, but we have no way of limiting how often a guest goes out, who they meet, what they do and where they go. Whatever money we'd make is not worth the risk. 

If you do intend to find another renter, I think you should check with your current guest about how they feel in advance, and also clearly define house rules and expectations for responsible behavior and have in writing that the new guest agrees to those terms. Hopefully you're able to find a guest similar to the guest you already have. Good luck~! 

[Anonymous]

@SandraandGary0 The questions I would use as a starting point are: is my property set up in such a way that I could keep myself and other guests safe if one person turns out to have an active infection?  And if someone with a possible exposure needed to self-isolate in the household, would their restricted access to the household leave them with the amenities they need? 

For me, the answer is no. But I can imagine a large shared house with self-contained studios and private bathrooms being one way to do this.

I don't recommend any strategies that rely on self-reporting. Cynical as it may sound, I would not trust someone to provide a fully accurate report of their whereabouts prior to the stay, and what guests do outside of the property is well beyond your control. 

Shopping for guests' groceries is an incredibly kind thing to consider, but I wouldn't want to set it up as an expectation. 

One concern I would have with opening back for bookings is that many countries  are turning out to have a non-linear reopening process, and there's still a significant chance that lockdowns and travel restrictions will come back into force as emergency measures. I'd want to be careful to choose guests that I can endure these conditions with as peacefully as you have with your current tenant.

[Huma0]

@SandraandGary0 

It's a really tricky one. I have my first guest in months due to arrive on Sunday. He is from the UK, so not a traveller, long-term (just over a month) and will be working from home entirely. I am asking any potential guest RE their routine during this time.

Still, I have concerns as, like others have said, you have no control over what someone does outside of the house and it's difficult to impose restrictions on a guest. I travelled on public transport for the first time two days ago and was shocked to see how many people (around a third) removed their masks as soon as they were past the staff. You just don't know, do you?

I will be encouraging my new guest to take extra precautions inside the home, e.g. washing their hands thoroughly whenever they have been out, and disinfecting surfaces like crazy, as well as insisting we use different bathrooms. I will see how that goes, but each guest will be different, so it's hard to know. Just because one is careful, it doesn't mean the next one will be.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  Really, surface transmission has been reported to be low risk. It's the aerosol that hangs in the air for hours just from a person breathing or talking that is the major danger. If I were to host in my shared home listing, I would insist that guests wear masks when they are in any part of the house which is common to others in the home- hallways, kitchen, etc.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977  good point but. like any virus, there is still a risk with touch. I don't mean the virus staying on surfaces for hours, but a lot of people have a habit of constantly touching their face or coughing and sneezing onto their hands. If you are in constant contact with certain surfaces, e.g. a front door lock or handle/light switches, would it not make sense to also keep those sanitised as far as possible?

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  Oh, I wasn't suggesting that you don't disinfect surfaces, not at all. I disinfected those things long before COVID- since I started hosting- door knobs, light switches, the shower head that someone might readjust, faucet handles, all that stuff.. All I was saying is that the current information available says that the virus is spread far more through breathing infected air than from touching a surface that might have the virus on it. 

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Ok, understood! I think it would be difficult to enforce the rule of guests wearing masks. I don't know, I just see how relaxed people are here. I went on the underground for the first time a few days ago. Although masks are now mandatory on public transport, surprisingly, many people took them off at the first opportunity (i.e. once they had gotten past the Underground staff). Of course, if you make it a condition of staying at your property, you have the right to enforce it, but this is one house rule I can imagine people frequently breaking.

As I mentioned in another thread, not one of the guests that has recently enquired about booking has asked me any questions about cleaning or other COVID-19 safety measures. Other than asking for additional discounts, they seem to think it is 'business as usual'.

RE disinfecting, it's interesting because one of the staff at my local supermarket told me that he always cleaned his grocery packaging with diluted bleach long before COVID-19 because he knew just how many people touched the stuff every day. That's not something I would ever have considered before this.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  Interesting about the grocery staff person saying he's always disinfected the packaging. I worked in the fruit picking and packing industry in Canada for several seasons. I cringe when I see someone take a bite of an apple without washing it- if people knew how many people had touched that piece of fruit before they bought it, they'd never do that again. First someone picks it, then it goes into a big bin, where the packers, and there may be several of them, stand around the bin and sort the fruit into quality and size levels, so they all may be touching all the fruit as they go through the bin. Then it gets to the supermarket, where it is unpacked and put out on the shelves, and yet another person stacks and rearranges it daily. Any of those people could have just coughed into their hand, or used the bathroom without washing their hands, especially out in the picking fields and orchards.

That people are being "relaxed" and taking off their masks when out in public is exactly why this virus is still spreading like crazy.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977  exactly. I know that I sometimes pick something off the shelf to look at it and then put it back. Who knows how many other people have done that, so you can add the customers to your list as well!

RE the masks, we are not required here to wear them in public at all times, e.g. in the street or a park, but it is mandatory on public transport, unless you have one of the specified health reasons that is exempt from this.

So, maybe I shouldn't be so 'judgy' as you can't always tell what health problems people have, but there were far too many people taking their masks off so I don't believe that many would fall into that category.

Near the station there is a night club. There was a long queue outside (maybe 150 people), all standing inches away from each other without masks. There seems to be an attitude here amongst very young people that they are unlikely to catch COVID-19 and that fun comes first. They don't seem to consider that they could easily be/become asymptomatic carriers and harm others.

[Huma0]

I am still struggling with this one. Like @Anonymous says, it's impossible to impose restrictions on people when they are outside of the home and how could you count on them to tell the truth?

I think @Anonymous is right in that establishing a rapport with guests and getting a sense of how they might behave is more important than ever but, even then, you never really know until they arrive and even then...

Right at the beginning of lockdown I had two guests stay who had both booked before the restrictions came in and the calendar was blocked. Both were long-term, locals, who found themselves temporarily homeless due to lockdown. Both were working from home the whole time and only going out briefly to either buy groceries or go for a walk or run. They followed those restrictions, no problem.

HOWEVER:

1. I noticed guest number one did not wash her hands when coming back to the house. Before moving out, she mentioned she would come and visit us next week. I had to explain why that was not a good idea in the middle of lockdown. I think she was offended.

2. Guest number two told me before booking that he had been in quarantine for three weeks. It later transpired that no, actually, he had just been in lockdown like the rest of us, mingling with those he was staying with and leaving the house, and had only been in the country for nine days, before which he had been travelling all over the place. If a guest wants the room, it's quite likely they will distort the truth! He then started travelling again as soon as it was possible and told me that he would book again in May because everything would be 'back to normal' by then. So, neither guest seemed to fully appreciate the situation.

3. Now restrictions have eased a lot here and there are many things you can do in terms of going out and seeing other people, but you are still supposed to social distance in most circumstances and wear a mask in some. From what I can see, a lot of people are not sticking to this, even my own friends. 

[SandraandGary0]

Thank you all for your response on my post. It shows, that I'm not the only one who is struggling. The situation, especially here in LA, is not really supporting. So we wait and see... so far we did not have any requests the last months. And as some of you already mentioned - in the current situation, we would anyway have to be careful. Longterm bookings, especially outside Airbnb, are not recommendable. 

I really wish all people would be more reasonable and help to stop the spread... instead of hoping that this virus would just pass them until there's a vaccine...

Good luck to everybody! Stay safe!