In the YourLifeChoices Life in a post-pandemic world survey (which you can still fill in for your chance to win a $500 Webjet gift card), travellers over 55 have, so far, clearly stated that cleaning and infection control will be very important to them when travelling post-COVID-19.
Cleanliness standards were already important, but will guide guest preferences for years to come, writes Dennis Schaal in his recent Skift Take.
“Short-term rental host practices will have to undergo significant enhancements to cope with that changing consumer behaviour – a heightened sensitivity to just how clean their surroundings are as an outgrowth of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Airbnb is rolling out Enhanced Cleaning Protocols – two voluntary sanitisation and coronavirus prevention programs for hosts. It is hoped that such cleanliness programs will drive post-coronavirus guest confidence.
The first program includes a ‘booking buffer tool’ that would prevent reservations between stays for up to 72 hours, during which time cleaning would be the only permissible activity.
The buffer tool will be the less rigorous of the two programs and is for hosts who may not be able to commit to a sanitisation certification process.
The stricter program is called the cleaning protocol program, in which hosts pledge to clean every room in a home using enhanced guidance and procedures. According to Airbnb, the more rigorous cleaning protocol program would include a certification process, and there will be a 24-hour buffer between stays.
“However, we appreciate that not all hosts are able to meet the requirements of the cleaning protocol, so the booking buffer – currently set at 72 hours – is an alternative” said an Airbnb spokesperson.
“We have seen signals that the COVID-19 pandemic will shape future guest preferences, and we believe that opting into the enhanced cleaning initiative is the best way for hosts to show guests that our community takes cleanliness and sanitisation seriously.”
“The cleaning protocol will also include specific information on COVID-19 prevention, like a wait period before entering, use of personal protective equipment, like masks and gloves, as well as disinfectants and sanitisers that are approved by regulatory authorities,” Airbnb stated. “These standards will be available to all hosts and we encourage them to commit and adopt these enhanced cleaning practices.”
Other booking sites, property managers, and hotels around the world will no doubt launch similar cleaning programs, as the travel world prepares to come out of COVID-19 hibernation.
Will this sort of program put your mind at ease when booking accommodation?
How has COVID-19 affected you? How will you come out the other side? Why not tell us in the YourLifeChoices Life in a post-pandemic world survey? You could win a $500 Webjet gift card.
If you enjoy our content, don’t keep it to yourself. Share our free eNews with your friends and encourage them to sign up.
Related articles:
Airbnb – great until it’s not
Airbnb: Find out if it works
Are Airbnb hosts spying on you?
