Shared spaces

[Maria12752]

Hi,

I haven't hosted since March of 2020.  I am looking into getting back into making my two rooms available.  The cleaning list is overwhelming.  My concern is shared spaces.  Guests normally either follow rules or they are careless and don't.  The two rooms have a shared bathroom.  I'm concerned about both rooms being booked and the bathroom usage.  I am also concerned about letting people use the kitchen and the laundry area, which they would normally be able to use.  I can't keep cleaning up after guests during their stay.  I know that guests are supposed to clean up after themselves, but most guests haven't in the past, so what to do.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

[Dale711]

Hi @Maria12752 

Welcome to the community 😊.
In the shared place, we could end up sharing the kitchen, the bathroom and both responsibilities. It's a good way of socializing and saving energy, so it's worth suggesting to survive, in shared living.

My shared place listing offers an economical budget rate without cooking access. We

do provide the guest use of microwaves at specific hours.
The guests possibly for simple cooking like pasta, prepared sandwich, yet inform each other in advance and schedule the times.
We do organize the meeting when the house is complete guests. Arrange the best convenient for everyone using in the busy hours of the shared bathroom and acknowledges the shared bathroom manner.
It's essential to cleanly announce in the listing description and the house rules of the terms in a shared place.
In addition, we send a friendly reminder to the guest on the check-in procedure, how to organize the laundry area, the shared bathroom, the shared kitchen to create a more cohesive and inclusive environment for everyone.

Happy Hosting ✌️

[Anonymous]

@Maria12752   With your hundreds of past reviews, it looks like you've got a deep base of experience with navigating the ins and outs of renting two units in a shared house pre-Covid. But if you've let yourself be strong-armed into signing onto that Corona Cleaning Pledge with the current arrangement, don't be too surprised if you find yourself backed into a corner where guests start getting free stays.  Take a close look at what Airbnb has demanded that you agree to, and ask yourself how much of this really makes sense. Realistically, continuing to list under the current requirements means that you'll be breaking the rules on a daily basis, so you'll have to be sure to screen your guests and filter out people who are likely to report you.

Sure, you can ask guests to clean up after themselves in the shared bathroom and kitchen and to wear masks every time they leave their bedrooms, but are you in the house 24/7 and able to enforce this? Can you guarantee a freshly sanitized environment in the home at all times to an unvaccinated guest who foolishly booked a room in a shared bungalow? 

Any suggestion I could make to you would require that you break the current Airbnb rules in order to run your household the way you successfully did before the new protocol came into place. But I can't advise that in a public forum for the same reason that I wouldn't recommend a drug dealer or propose that you open an illegal hostel in Paris. So I would only recommend that you hold off on re-opening your listing until the current Covid protocol has either been phased out or adapted to a reality in which all people present in your household have been vaccinated.