Is It Safe to Stay on Airbnb Now?
Staying home is always a good way to keep yourself safe during a pandemic, but what about someone else’s home? Renting Airbnb comes with a relatively low risk if you take some precautions.
Avoid people
The biggest risk factor for contracting the coronavirus is close contact with other people. I asked the emergency doctor Jose Torradas (who recently talked to us about how to keep a COVID-19 patient from infecting others in their home ) and he advised not to share a room where you live in the same house or apartment. as the owner. So look for a list where you have all the space for yourself.
It is probably impossible to travel without making contact with someone – even on a solo trip, you will have to stop to refuel and buy groceries. But if you do travel, try to stay as far away as possible. For example, check the owner’s procedures to make sure you can pick up the key without meeting them in person.
Bring your cleaning supplies
We still don’t know exactly how long the coronavirus can remain infectious on household surfaces, but the good news is that ground transmission is probably not very common . The more time has passed since the last person was in the room, the less likely something infectious will remain. However, it’s best to keep the rooms clean just in case.
AirBnB asks hosts to carefully clean between guests. You can read their recommended cleaning procedure here . But there is no way of knowing if the procedure was followed, unless the cleaning was so poor that previous guests have commented on it in their reviews.
Both Torradas and our travel writer Imani Bashir advise keeping your own detergents with you just in case. It’s up to you whether you want to mop the floor and do the laundry, or simply wipe down surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops with disinfectants.
At a minimum, you will probably need gloves, a disinfectant spray approved for use against coronavirus , and paper towels.
What to do upon check-in
Here are a few steps that should lower your chances of encountering infectious droplets in your home away from home. Remember that this reduces an already low risk, but does not guarantee safety.
- Ventilate the area as much as possible. Open windows and doors. Turn on the fan.
- Wear gloves, if you have them.
- If you are going to wash the bedding or do other activities like taking out the trash or washing the dishes (hopefully a clean house is not necessary), do it as follows. Wash anything visibly dirty before disinfecting.
- Disinfect heavily touched surfaces with a disinfectant spray or bleach solution . Follow package directions, which may require the surface to remain damp for a specified amount of time.
- When done, wash your hands.
To learn more about how to clean and disinfect, visit the CDC cleaning page . For the rest of your stay, keep in mind all other ways to stay safe , such as ordering takeaways rather than dining in them, and avoiding places (such as elevators) where you cannot stay away from other people.