Coronavirus! My Guest on Airbnb is From China, What Should I Do?

In this episode, we are going to talk about what should you do if you have a guest on Airbnb that’s traveling from China or places that have been affected by the Coronavirus.

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Full Interview Transcript

Julian Sage:                       00:00                    In this video we’re going to be talking about the Coronavirus and what you should do if you have a guest traveling from overseas like China. So stay tuned.

Julian Sage:                       00:09                    Vacation rental machine helps hosts just like you learn how to start, grow and scale your short term rental business. The show’s all about creating systems that help you automate your business, give any more time and money freedom. If you’re ready to start living the vacation rental life, then subscribe to this podcast today, come and join us on our Facebook group, the host nation where we’ll be talking about starting automating and scaling a short term rental business. Now onto the show.

Julian Sage:                       00:36                    Hey, welcome back host nation to another episode of vacation rental machine. I’m Julian Sage and I am of course with John Bell and we are talking about the Corona virus because this is something that is impacting a lot of people’s businesses, especially in China. Airbnb has had to refund a lot of guests, a lot of hosts who had guests that were going to be staying with them just because people are not traveling. This is a real concern. This is something that is affecting a lot of businesses, not just hosts, but things like manufacturing, things like a lot of Amazon businesses are getting affected because they’re not able to ship their products to the U S but as a host, I see a lot of people in the groups asking, you know, should I be declining people that are coming from China? What should I do if I do have a guest from China?

Julian Sage:                       01:22                    So Jon, what are your thoughts with the Corona virus? Is this something like, do we have the right to be declining guests if they are coming from China or they are Chinese? Is this something that we have rights as hosts to be able to do or is that discrimination and that we should be allowing people to stay in any of our properties?

Jon Bell:                              01:39                    You know what, Julian, to me, this is just discrimination. We really, if you’re going to target just one section of the world that you say, I just don’t want people to come from here. That is discrimination against those people. In this case, we’re talking about the Corona virus. Of course, we all know the severity. In which it spreads and how it is actually one big massive epidemic at this point and killing people. We also know that they have quarantine people that have been around or with the possibility of being exposed to the virus in general.

Jon Bell:                              02:15                    For us that means at least at this date and time we shouldn’t have the fear that somebody with this virus is traveling to one of our locations. Let’s also talk about what the actual symptoms are for the Corona virus. Of course, this is definitely not something that we are proficient in. We can read just like everybody else, but we’re not really a part of the CDC and we just can go off of what they suggest and what they say. Pretty much this virus spreads just like 80 other flu. That means the person that’s standing beside you that just happens to sneeze does not necessarily have the Corona virus, so you cannot discriminate against people that just are coming in and they’re not feeling well. It is wintertime. The cold and the flu are very common. How can you protect your space? You just need to make sure that your cleaning practices are good enough to reduce the spread of those things.

Jon Bell:                              03:13                    Most of these viruses, you need to be within six feet of the other person that is actually infected and you need to either inhale or the droplets need to get into your mouth or whatever from a sneeze or a cough. If they’re not in front of you and your cleaners are going and they’re going to clean a space, the likelihood that they would get sick is very low. We do need to make sure that we’re disinfecting door handles, door knobs, door pools, anything that your hands touch. We want to make sure that they disinfect those things almost in every time that they’re cleaning. So it’s not just a special circumstance that they’re doing this thing. So we want to make sure that one, we protect ourselves, but more importantly, we protect the next guests that are checking into somebody else’s space that they just left.

Julian Sage:                       04:08                    Jon, I think it’s really important that people understand if you are not allowing somebody to stay at your property because they are maybe from China or they are a particular race, whatever it is that is discrimination and they do have a right to be able to Sue you for discrimination. So you better have some type of general liability insurance, something to protect your business if that’s what you’re going to be doing. But chances are that is not going to ho hold too well in court. You have to think of it like a business. Imagine if a Chinese person or a just whoever went to, let’s say like the Marriott. Do you think that the Marriott would say, Oh because you’re Chinese or you came from China that you’re not allowed to stay here, that would not go well. There are things in place that other people are doing such as airports.

Julian Sage:                       04:53                    They are looking at thermals and checking if people are sick. But that is not our job and that is not our role to be screening people if they have the Corona virus or not. So just remember that just because you are a host and maybe this is your own home or maybe you have multiple places. You’re in the hospitality business, you are a business, you’re operating a business out of your home, and if you are discriminating, even if you’re just saying, I don’t want someone to stay, that is discrimination. As part of your business, your business is a home. Now you are in a business. Let’s remember, this is a business. So question today, when would you not allow somebody to stay at your property? Leave it in the comment section down below.

Julian Sage:                       05:35                    Until next time, host nation. Keep on hosting. Hope you hosts found value in this episode. If you did, please go on over to iTunes and leave us a review as that would greatly support the show. If you’d like to connect with Jon, the community, and I then go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation, talk to you hosts in the next episde. Keep on hosting.

 

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