well it's finally happened airbnb is mandating that all hosts follow the enhanced cleaning
protocol which is a reversal from when they first released it earlier this year the booking
buffers of 24 hours or three days are no longer requirements in order to commit to the enhanced
cleaning protocol airbnb is also mandating that all hosts follow the covet 19 safety requirements
and if you don't agree by november 20th your listing's calendar could be blocked entirely
these are some big changes to the way that we host and we'll cover them all in this
week's video and as an extra special bonus i'll be going live tomorrow wednesday october 28th at 1pm
eastern which is 11 a.m pacific to answer all of your questions i hope you join me
welcome to another episode of airbnb uncovered i'm matt the creator of airbnb uncovered.com
and airbnb super host on this channel i uncover some of the best-kept hosting secrets
as well as share with you everything that i've learned after hosting over 3 000
guests my tips tricks and best practices are focused on helping new hosts earn more revenue
attract the best gas and achieve super host status faster so if you're new to hosting on airbnb
this is the right channel for you hosting during the pandemic is ever changing and the recent
changes from airbnb are proving just that it's good to see that airbnb is doing their part to
prevent the spread of covet 19. but at least for me all of this seems to come as a bit of a
surprise as there was little advanced warning the good news is that you have until november
20th to agree to following the five-step cleaning protocol and the covet 19 safety requirements
all of these changes can be a bit stressful to help you i've created a two-minute quiz
that you can take to see if you're ready to host during covid the link to the quiz is in
the description down below now let's dive in to see what these changes are all about
so the first big change is that all hosts must follow the five-step enhanced cleaning protocol
the five-step cleaning protocol isn't agreeing to following every single step in the full
38-page enhanced cleaning handbook but there's lots of references to it
instead the protocol leaves the direction pretty broad you simply have to agree to follow their
five steps which are one to ventilate and prepare two clean three sanitize four double check
and five reset even within these five steps the guidance is pretty wishy-washy and then if
you go to the 38-page handbook the guidance is ridiculously detailed and way overboard
the handbook has tons of focus on sanitizing every single surface which according to the cdc is no
longer considered to be a significant source of spread and this news was known when airbnb
published the 38-page handbook a few months ago so it's pretty annoying that the handbook that
was released was already out of date with the best guidance from health authorities
i've done a couple videos on the handbook and they're linked in the upper right hand corner
so you can watch them i've spent months researching guidance from the cdc health
canada and hotel and travel associations trying to get some clarity on what exactly is required
between guests to keep everybody safe i'll be sharing that info in early november so stay tuned
but what i can promise you is that my advice is nothing like the 38-page handbook
and instead of five vague steps it's concrete step-by-step practical advice
you may have noticed that it seems that all references to the booking buffer have
pretty much disappeared and as far as i can tell airbnb has moved away from it but the option to
add it is still there in the calendar settings as a reminder of what the booking buffer is early
in the pandemic airbnb's immediate response was for hosts to leave a minimum of 24 hours
between guests if they were following all the instructions in the 38-page handbook and three
days between guests if they weren't these are now both optional which is a bit of a head scratch
as i just mentioned public health guidance has moved away from obsessive sanitization
and then what i didn't mention is that they have moved towards mask wearing and social distancing
because the real concerning source of spread is droplets in the air these droplets can hang in
the air for up to 24 hours so if you do have to enter your space immediately after your guest has
checked out be sure to open all the windows and turn on bathroom fans range hood and any other
ventilation that you may have in your home so that you can try to clear the air of any lingering
virus it seems that spread through the air isn't completely lost on airbnb since the other big
change is a mandatory agreement to follow airbnb's covid19 safety requirements these requirements
basically require that every host and guest wear a mask and maintain social distancing of at least
six feet or two meters at all times as well as to not travel or host if you're sick or suspect
you may be i did a video on exactly what's in the covet 19 safety requirements a couple weeks ago
and you can watch it by clicking on the little i in the upper right hand corner
of course the best way to avoid getting too close to your guests is by offering a self-check-in
process this way you can truly minimize your in-person interactions with your guests if you
want to add a personal touch you can always call them or use video chat via whatsapp or facetime
shortly after they've checked in i've been advocating for self-check-in for years i moved
to it after a guest made me wait over 6 hours to check them in i decided right then and there that
i would never be held hostage again since then i've done self-checking with thousands of guests
using almost every method imaginable i've figured out the ins and outs and this too is something
i'll be sharing in early november at this point you might be wondering what is the penalty
for not following the five-step enhanced cleaning protocol and the kovid 19 safety requirement
the first step is to be educated and then repeat violators will face disciplinary action right
up to de-listing so it's pretty serious airbnb says that it will be policing it via reviews and
reports from guests with respect to the covid19 safety requirement the penalty for not following
is way more severe if a guest reports that you don't wear a mask and physically distance then
the reservation can be cancelled and you'll lose your payout if you repeatedly do this then you
can be delisted and banned from airbnb altogether conversely if a guest isn't following the rules
i.e wearing a mask and distancing six feet you can cancel the reservation and keep the payout
the big kicker though is that if you don't agree to both that is the five-step enhanced cleaning
protocol and the covet 19 safety requirement by november 20th then your listings calendar could
be blocked share your thoughts on these recent changes from airbnb do you think that they'll
help our community stay safe leave it in the comments below on the whole these changes are
pretty positive ones for hosts they should keep us safer from covid19 and help to protect our guests
i've no doubt that many of you watching right now are already doing the best you can the tricky part
is that during these ever changing times what is the best thing and i hope that you'll keep
watching my channel to find out i've done lots of videos sporadically over the last few months on
hosting during the pandemic in early november i'll be sharing a succinct and easy to follow system
for hosting during covid19 but if you have some burning questions about hosting
then i'll be going live tomorrow wednesday october 28th at 1pm eastern and 11am pacific
to answer all of your hosting questions as always if you have a question about hosting leave it
in the comments below or again join me live tomorrow at 1pm eastern if you enjoyed this video
then please give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you're not already and until tomorrow bye for now
you