Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Airbnb rules ‘won’t work’
New stringent cleaning guidelines introduced by holiday rental firm Airbnb have sparked concerns from hosts using the platform.
B&B and hotel owners have been given the green light by the government to accept bookings again from Saturday (July 4).
US tech giant Airbnb - which has hundreds of stays listed in Kent - has now published a lengthy set of guidelines for hosts to follow when accepting bookings.
But some hosts say the rules, which include leaving 72-hour buffers, or deep cleaning properties between guests, will be difficult to impose.
Keen to make up for losses brought about by months of closure, some Airbnb hosts in Kent are already accepting bookings for July 4 onwards. Among them is Charlotte Brennan, who rents a property near the Turner Contemporary in Margate.
She said: “I’ve had two bookings already since the restrictions have changed. I even had someone trying to book here mid-april.” Responding to the Airbnb’s new rigorous cleaning guidelines, Ms Brennan says the company has no real way of enforcing it.
She said: “It seems a bit much - I wash all the bedding and everything gets a good clean anyway.
“And who’s going to monitor it, the Airbnb police?” Tania Hoser, who rents out a penthouse in the centre of Canterbury, struggles to see how to strike a balance between keeping guests safe and making rentals financially worthwhile.
She said: “I can’t see how this would be viable for anyone. “It’s absolutely clear Airbnb need to corporately secure everyone’s safety, so they’re telling you either to leave 72 hours between guests, or follow a specific routine.
“But I can’t see how you could earn, even in three days, the amount that it would cost you in time or money to follow that routine - for me that just wouldn’t work.”