UK Quarantine 14 Days After Arrival

10 May 2020, today was the day our government announced that anyone coming into the country would need to go into quarantine for 14 days upon arrival at our borders. They have said that people arriving into the country will need to isolate in a private residence for the 14 days. This will mean that anyone arriving from outside the UK and Republic of Ireland will need self-contained serviced accommodation and we are ready and able to accommodate these people.

As a short term rental operator we have been housing various groups of people whilst on lockdown. Our serviced apartments and houses have accommodated railway workers, nurses, engineers, ship builders and delivery drivers, all of whom are on the key workers list. We are taking precautions and following government advice about sanitising and disinfecting surfaces, door handles, light switches in addition to our usual every day cleaning. In addition the cleaning companies we outsource to provide PPE for their staff to ensure everyone is safe.

During lockdown both Airbnb and Booking.com have blocked out our calendar as per the government guidelines. Airbnb where the first to do this but did say we could join the “open homes” programme which offered accommodation to front line workers for free? I’m still unsure how we can be safe providing free accommodation but not safe to provide accommodation that costs the guests? Surely Airbnb should realise that if we are paid for the stay that would enable us to ensure that the highest levels of hygiene and cleanliness were achieved. Booking.com did initially allow bookings and as the government had advised we could only accommodate key workers, we actively requested documentation for each guest proving that they were a key worker and where staying with us for business purposes. This worked perfectly well until Booking.com decided that “partners” were incapable of doing this for themselves.

So this has now lead to a very unusual situation in that the top 2 booking platforms weren’t taking any bookings. This then fuelled the book direct revolution which had already been started and was now gaining legs. Na’ím Paymán founder of Zeevou set up the website Here to Help, which has been successful in gaining direct bookings for operators such as us in a time of uncertainty and insecurity. Prior to Covid–19 the direct booking revolution was gaining momentum and as a serviced accommodation/short term rental operator direct bookings are the Holy Grail. For the guest it means the exact same stay is up to 15% less than if booked via a platform and for us the operators it means we don’t pay huge commissions to the platforms that allege we are partners but as soon as we have an issue they are nowhere to be seen. As a guest I try to book direct wherever possible, it means I’m helping a parent to buy treats for their child, helping grandparents visit their overseas grandkids more often and more importantly I’m not helping some executive buy a 3rd home or 4th car and the money I pay for the stay is going to benefit the owner/manager of the property where I’m staying. Over the next few months more and more people will be realising that booking direct can and will be more beneficial to them, not only financially but morally too.

Contributed by: Joanna Simcock, Air Host & Clean