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Viking Bay beach in Broadstairs, Kent - a popular Airbnb destination in pre-virus times.
Viking Bay beach in Broadstairs, Kent - a popular Airbnb destination in pre-virus times. Photograph: Lee Rogers/Getty/iStockphoto
Viking Bay beach in Broadstairs, Kent - a popular Airbnb destination in pre-virus times. Photograph: Lee Rogers/Getty/iStockphoto

Minister condemns Airbnb hosts offering 'Covid-19 retreats'

This article is more than 3 years old

Behaviour of some property owners labelled ‘incredibly irresponsible and dangerous’

Airbnb hosts have been accused of irresponsible and dangerous behaviour for advertising properties in Britain as “Covid-19 retreats”.

Laws brought in to combat the spread of coronavirus state that holiday accommodation should only be provided to key workers needing to self-isolate.

But BBC News found that some properties were being advertised as places to self-isolate without any vetting. Only one of the Airbnb hosts it contacted said their rental was available solely to key workers, it reported.

In response, the tourism minister, Nigel Huddleston, said: “Essential travel does not include holidays, leisure travel and visits to second homes - and people must remain in their primary residence.

“It is incredibly irresponsible and dangerous for some property owners to be marketing themselves as ‘isolation retreats’.”

One house in the Cotswolds was being offered to would-be residents as a “perfect getaway from Covid-19” with access to “long healthy walks”. Another in Brighton was advertised as a “Covid-19 safe space” that could house up to 15 guests. The name of the disease was later removed from the latter listing, replaced euphemistically by the description of it as a “deep clean safe space”, made safe “using virus-killing chemicals”.

An Airbnb spokesperson said: “We want hosts and guests to follow the rules and we have no tolerance for listings that ignore health or travel advisories.

“The government has set out clear guidance on the limited conditions under which necessary travel is permitted and we have taken a number of steps to support these measures, including blocking private room bookings and switching off our ‘instant book’ function for whole properties.”

The government’s criticism came amid rising tensions over interpretations of the lockdown. Despite the public outcry caused by the closure of a park in south London on Sunday, the Local Government Association (LGA) said its members reserved the right to take such action again as “a last resort”.

Brockwell Park reopened on Monday after many accused Lambeth council of being heavy-handed for closing it. The council said there were more than 3,000 people in the park on Saturday, “many of them sunbathing or in large groups”, but critics claimed the 51-hectare (126-acre) space was more than big enough to accommodate that number.

Gerald Vernon-Jackson, chair of the LGA’s culture, tourism and sport board, said: “Councils know that parks are a lifeline for residents needing to get some exercise or fresh air and are great for physical and mental wellbeing.

“This is why councils want to keep parks open, but people need to follow the social distancing advice, otherwise councils will be reluctantly forced to close them as a last resort to help prevent the coronavirus spreading.”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he too wanted green spaces to stay open “but that will only be possible if everyone follows the rules to stay at home and not leave unless it’s absolutely necessary to do so”.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, warned on Sunday that sunbathing was against the rules and people could be prevented from leaving their homes for exercise if they did not abide by physical distancing guidelines.

It emerged on Monday that since the lockdown powers came into force, West Yorkshire police have issued 20 fines, while Derbyshire police have issued 30 - half of those over the past weekend.

North Yorkshire police have issued 11 since Thursday while in Bedfordshire, where the power to issue fines came into force on Friday, police have issued one.

In Sheffield, police said late on Sunday night that a man had been arrested for threatening a police community support officer during a physical distancing enforcement patrol among a Roma community in Fir Vale.

That followed complaints that some members of the community have not been complying with the lockdown guidelines and police have not been doing enough to enforce them, raising tensions that were already high in the area.

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