Airbnb’s Silent Killer: 19 Carbon Monoxide Deaths In The Last 10 Years, But The Company Still Doesn’t Require Detectors

Family members and representatives of people who died said the company has not done enough and called for it to mandate that carbon monoxide detectors be installed in every rental.

In February 2014, Airbnb made a commitment: The company would require hosts to confirm that carbon monoxide detectors were installed in every listing by the end of the year.

Months earlier, the short-term rental company faced one of its first reported deaths involving carbon monoxide: a Canadian citizen staying in an Airbnb in Taiwan. The company wanted to do more, it said in a now-deleted blog post.

“By the end of 2014, we’ll require all Airbnb hosts to confirm that they have these devices installed in their listing,” the blog post said of carbon monoxide detectors.

Nearly a decade later, the company has not made any such mandate — and more lives have been lost along the way.

NBC News has identified 19 deaths since 2013 that occurred at Airbnb properties and are alleged to have involved carbon monoxide poisoning, according to interviews with family members of victims and a review of news articles, autopsy reports, police records, and court and government documents. The company is currently facing at least three lawsuits pertaining to carbon monoxide deaths or poisonings.

Airbnb has issued statements in seven of the cases, which accounted for 17 of the deaths. In five of the statements, Airbnb said it would pay for costs associated with the deaths or that it had removed Airbnb listings associated with the incidents. None of the statements contested details of the reports surrounding the deaths, and none addressed carbon monoxide’s role in the incidents. Other statements expressed condolences. In the two cases in which the company has not commented, Airbnb was the target of lawsuits. One of those suits was settled and the other was dismissed.

In a statement provided to NBC News, the company said: "The safety of our community is a top priority, incidents on Airbnb are exceptionally rare and we take action when a concern is reported to us."

Family members and representatives of people who died said Airbnb has not done enough to address the situation and called for the company to commit to a mandate that carbon monoxide detectors be installed in every rental. Some said Airbnb promised to work with them but that they now feel brushed aside.

Jennifer Winders, whose father and stepmother died from carbon monoxide poisoning in an Airbnb in Mexico in November 2018, said that the company agreed to meet with her and her brother on potential safety improvements as part of a settlement that included financial compensation.

Winders said they had one meeting in February 2022 with the company where they gave suggestions.

“I feel like that’s something that would be really beneficial is to have Airbnb continue to reach out to people who are continuing to feel the effects of what happened in one of their rentals,” she said. “I wonder after seeing all these deaths in 2022, to be honest, if any steps were taken.”

All of the deaths reviewed by NBC News happened outside the U.S., where regulations regarding carbon monoxide detectors are inconsistent (48 U.S. states have laws mandating the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in at least some residential buildings, according to First Alert, a company that specializes in fire and carbon monoxide safety). Four of the cases reviewed by NBC News happened in Mexico. The other cases happened in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, China and Taiwan.

Airbnb’s international footprint amid the patchwork of carbon monoxide regulation presents an already-challenging compliance landscape for the company, which says it's advocated for carbon monoxide detector regulation in Mexico and other countries. But family members say the wide variability of regulation is even more reason for Airbnb to step in and set its own standard on carbon monoxide detectors.

A life cut short

Jaime Mejia jumped on a flight to Brazil with little information other than a message from an Airbnb host telling him that his son had died.

Sebastian Mejia, 24, had moved from Miami to Rio de Janeiro in October 2022 on a Fulbright scholarship to study Indigenous communities. His budget was tight, but he found an affordable Airbnb. He called his family every week to check in, and they were proud of how far his hard work had taken him.

On Oct. 5, 2022, Sebastian was found dead in the shower of his Airbnb. A water heater in the bathroom had been leaking carbon monoxide, according to a technical report from Rio de Janeiro police, and the apartment had no detector to warn him. Carbon monoxide levels measured in the apartment were four times the maximum acceptable levels, police said.

“This shouldn’t have happened. It was easily preventable,” Sebastian’s brother, Daniel, said. “It should be something that’s the most basic thing that you should be able to go take a shower and not die.”

After Sebastian’s death, it took 10 days to go through the repatriation process and return his body to the United States. Over 300 people from across the U.S. traveled to Florida to attend his funeral.

Sebastian’s family believes that if the company required property owners to install carbon monoxide detectors, he might still be alive.

Sebastian’s family said that Airbnb never reached out to them after Sebastian’s death. In June, they sued the company in California state court. An Airbnb representative said that communication from the company was directed to the family’s legal representative.

“Unfortunately he has not been the first and he will not be the last, and other families have to go through the same experience,” his mother, Rosa Elena Martinez, said. “And that’s terrible that Airbnb, knowing exactly what’s happening, they haven’t done anything to stop it.”

Martinez said their primary motivation for bringing the lawsuit was to inspire a policy change at the company.

“They could pay us $1. But if they change the policy, and we make these public, it will be totally worth it,” she said. In court, Martinez is seeking damages exceeding $25,000, according to the complaint, and a legal injunction that would force Airbnb to remove listings without carbon monoxide detectors and mandate the use of detectors along with the inspection of fuel-burning devices. No trial date has been set.

Sebastian’s family isn’t alone in their pursuit. NBC News identified six lawsuits pertaining to carbon monoxide poisoning at Airbnbs. Three are ongoing, two were settled and one was dismissed

Lawyers and families say that in their disputes with the company, Airbnb has attempted to push them into private arbitration. Users consent to private arbitration when they sign up as part of the platform’s terms of service. The private arbitration system used by many corporations has been criticized as favoring businesses in disputes. An Airbnb representative said that arbitration is typically faster and more cost-effective in resolving disputes for all parties.

A persistent killer

Carbon monoxide is an invisible killer: a colorless, odorless gas that can be fatal depending on the exposure levels. Poisoning symptoms mimic the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes poisoning hard to detect until it’s too late.

Deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning increased every year from 2012 to 2019, according to a report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on consumer product-related carbon monoxide deaths. In 2020, Congress passed a bill to require carbon monoxide detectors in public housing, after an NBC News investigation uncovered at least 13 deaths of public housing residents from carbon monoxide poisoning since 2003.

Globally, carbon monoxide poisoning remains an issue, with 28,900 deaths recorded in 2021, according to research published in the medical journal The Lancet, most of which the study noted were preventable.

“Out-of-date, ill-maintained, or incorrectly installed heating systems have been linked to many cases of residential unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning,” the study said.

In recent years, carbon monoxide deaths have also occurred at hotels and other short-term rentals.

Airbnb has taken some steps to address carbon monoxide concerns, primarily by encouraging hosts to install detectors. In 2014, it began offering one free carbon monoxide detector to hosts; Airbnb will not distribute multiple detectors to a single host, despite the prevalence of multi-unit Airbnb businesses. The International Association of Fire Chiefs recommends a carbon monoxide detector be placed on every floor of a residence. Airbnb’s program has been running for nine years, but in June the company said it had only distributed enough detectors to cover 2.3% of its 7 million active listings. The company said in a statement to NBC News that it had distributed detectors to 230,000 hosts out of over 4 million, or around 5.8%.

Airbnb listings display if rental properties do or don’t have carbon monoxide detectors. A listing that lacks detectors displays crossed-out text that says “Carbon monoxide alarm” at the bottom of the “What this place offers” section, among other features like “Kitchen,” “Wifi” and “TV.”

Airbnb says that it flags if listings don't have carbon monoxide detectors to guests in confirmation and reminder emails.

A 2018 study in the journal Injury Prevention found that only 57.5% of U.S.-based Airbnb locations were listed as having carbon monoxide detectors.

Charon McNabb, founder of the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association (NCOAA), noted that Airbnb has taken other sweeping actions affecting all of its listings previously, questioning why it wouldn’t do the same for carbon monoxide.

“Airbnb implemented mandatory Covid-19 protocols to save lives. Implementing the same type of safety measures with carbon monoxide alarms would also save lives,” McNabb said. “Recommendations are not enough and carbon monoxide alarms should be mandated in all hotels and Airbnbs.”

Poisonings and deaths can still occur, though, even if detectors are installed. In one 2022 case, three Americans reportedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning in an Airbnb rental that was advertised as having carbon monoxide detectors inside. It’s not clear whether or not they were functioning.

According to the NCOAA, 565 were victims of carbon monoxide poisoning in the U.S. this year. And the CDC estimates that over 400 Americans die annually from carbon monoxide poisoning, which McNabb said only represents known cases.

“We know that that number is far too low,” McNabb said. “There are many, many more carbon monoxide poisoning deaths and injuries that are not included in that number due to the nature of the poisoning.”

Andrea Vastis, senior director of public education at the National Fire Protection Association, said states ought to have codes and laws that compel companies such as Airbnb and VRBO to install carbon monoxide alarms.

“Peer-to-peer rentals are another place where there is a lag in terms of statewide regulations and laws enacted for what has to be safety equipment involved,” she said.

VRBO did not respond to a request for comment.

Many people don’t consider that their vacation destination may not have the same rules around safety equipment as their home city or state, or that homes rented on sites like Airbnb could be regulated differently than hotels. Given the patchwork of regulation and the slow pace of legal change, victims’ families questioned why Airbnb wouldn’t step in to require carbon monoxide detectors.

Alarms are necessary, experts say, because it can be incredibly hard to realize you are being affected by carbon monoxide before it is too late.

“Because of the sinister nature of carbon monoxide poisoning, it’s not always easy to identify the health effects that we’re feeling, especially when we’re on vacation,” McNabb said.

McNabb recommended travelers carry portable carbon monoxide detectors, which retail as low as $10.

“We’re not taking our own water test kit to an Airbnb or hotel, that is the minimum level that we expect when we rent a hospitality suite,” she said. “When we go to bed at night we expect there to be a lock on the door. We expect that when we go to bed, we’re going to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about carbon monoxide threatening our vacation or our lives.”

Source: By Ben Goggin and Khadijah Khogeer, https://www.nbcnews.com/ Still, McNabb said that she believes most people operate with the expectation that there is a certain level of safety when they rent a hotel room or an Airbnb.

Airbnb Has A Plan To Fix Cleaning Fees

Pretty much everyone hates Airbnb cleaning fees — those pesky charges tacked on to your vacation rental bill that supposedly cover the costs to get the place ready for the next visitors. Travelers don’t like the expense, and hosts don’t like charging them, either.

Dennis Shirshikov, an Airbnb host who owns a rental property in upstate New York, says cleaning fees are the most common complaint he gets from customers.

“We are strongly considering cutting them off,” he says.

And Shirshikov might get his way. Airbnb is set to roll out big changes that won’t end cleaning fees but could make them more transparent for customers and incentivize hosts to reduce or forgo them altogether.

WHAT AIRBNB CLEANING FEES ARE AND WHAT THEY COST

Airbnb cleaning fees are a one-time charge pocketed by hosts to cover costs such as doing laundry or scrubbing toilets between guest stays. They’re separate from the base price and are in addition to service fees or charges for optional add-ons.

A June 2022 NerdWallet analysis of 1,000 U.S. Airbnb reservations with check-in dates in 2022 or 2023 found that the median cleaning fee per listing for a one-night stay was $75.
But cleaning fees vary widely. An Airbnb spokesperson told NerdWallet that cleaning fees are on average less than 10% of the total reservation cost at properties that charge them. Meanwhile, NerdWallet’s analysis found that cleaning fees amounted to about 25% of the total price paid. In fact, almost 40% of listings had cleaning fees from 20% to 29.9% of list price.

And on a few listings, cleaning fees were higher than the nightly rate.

WHY AIRBNB CLEANING FEES ARE SO IRRITATING — AND AIRBNB’S PLAN TO FIX IT

Besides the cost, Airbnb cleaning fees can feel especially brutal simply given their presentation. Airbnb’s search page displays the nightly rate on most interfaces in big, bold lettering, masking the total price. So the total price, presented in lightly colored lettering, can be easy to overlook.

To add to the confusion, nightly rates often don’t correlate with total price anyway. One listing with a $40 nightly rate could total $90 because of a $40 cleaning fee and $10 service fee. Another listing with a $60 nightly rate could turn out cheaper — $73 total — if it has a $13 service fee and no cleaning fee. A traveler with a $50 budget might be seduced by the $40 listing, only to owe more than if they had booked the $60 listing.

But that’s set to change in December when Airbnb plans to roll out a toggle so travelers can opt for search results to display total price, including all fees . Users who don’t toggle the total price display will still see nightly rates only.

The company in November 2022 also adjusted its search algorithm to rank listings by the best total price rather than simply accounting for the nightly rate, which may sway hosts to lower or remove cleaning fees.

WHAT IF THERE WERE NO CLEANING FEES?

A minority of listings don’t charge cleaning fees. Airbnb says 45% of listings worldwide don’t charge those fees. Yet only 15% of the available listings in NerdWallet’s analysis didn’t have a cleaning fee. The disparity is partly because NerdWallet looked at only U.S. listings, while Airbnb’s number is based on listings worldwide, where the fees are less common.

Shirshikov says he’d prefer to list a final price that includes the cleaning fee for two reasons. First, he suspects guest satisfaction would increase, and second, he thinks guests would leave the place cleaner.

Airbnb has warned hosts that cleaning fees can backfire by creating unrealistic expectations of how much guests will offer to help at checkout.

“With a higher (cleaning) fee, guests may expect to just walk away from your space at checkout as they would a hotel room,” according to a memo posted to Airbnb’s website before the cleaning changes kicked in.

That’s exactly what Shirshikov has experienced.

“If they pay a cleaning fee, they sometimes leave the place looking like it’s been lived in and uncleaned for months,” he says, adding that he has returned to find food all over the floor and drinks spilled on the beds.

IF EVERYONE HATES AIRBNB CLEANING FEES, WHY STILL CHARGE THEM?

For hosts who clean the rentals themselves, the money might cover the cost of cleaning supplies. Often, that money is simply passed on to professional housekeeping services who handle the cleaning.

Sébastien Long , the founder and CEO of Texas-based short-term rental company Lodgeur, says he believes the average cleaning fee of $75 is quite low.

Considering staff wages, supplies and replacement items, Long says he estimates it costs roughly $22 to turn over a hotel room. If Airbnb hosts outsource the work, Long estimates, it could cost $175 to clean a two-bedroom apartment, including $100 for the cleaning company, $50 for laundry services and $25 for supplies, such as coffee or mini toiletry bottles.

The cleaning costs for Airbnb hosts are often higher than those for hotels because they likely can’t take advantage of economies of scale. For example, hotels have commercial-size laundry machines. Plus, listings are typically spread out geographically, so there’s the inefficiency of traveling miles between properties. And short-term rentals typically are much larger and have more space to clean (such as kitchens) than hotel rooms.

But other hosts use the fees simply as a way to squeeze more money out of travelers, clearly overcharging for cleaning fees, which is a practice Airbnb warns against.

“Aim to use the cleaning fee to cover the expense of cleaning – not to make additional money,” according to a 2021 memo from Airbnb to hosts.

And then there are the hosts who charge cleaning fees and still ask guests to clean up after themselves. That, too, will likely end soon. Along with more transparent cleaning fees, Airbnb said it also plans to require hosts to post the cleaning requirements on the listing before guests book. Guests will also be able to leave feedback on the checkout process.

Airbnb also clarified that checkout requests should be reasonable. At your next Airbnb stay, if the host is amenable to the changes, you might not have to vacuum or strip the beds. The only things you’ll have to do are turn off the lights, throw away the trash and lock the door.

For now, though, Shirshikov says he’s sticking with charging cleaning fees because he’s uncertain whether users will turn on the toggle.

“I’d want to see how many people actively turn on the full price display,” he says. “Unless guests use it, it won’t mean much for how we do pricing.”

By SALLY FRENCH of NerdWallet

Airbnb Threatens To Sue New York If Governor Signs New Law Curtailing Its Service

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‘More in sadness than in anger’

Airbnb says a bill that would outlaw advertising short-term rentals on its platform in New York is unconstitutional and is threatening to sue the state if Governor Andrew Cuomo signs it into law.

Airbnb has been fighting an uphill battle for legal status in New York, which prohibits landlords and homeowners from renting out apartments for less than 30 days at a time. The bill to prevent advertising these rentals would essentially cripple the company’s operations in New York, which is among its most lucrative markets.

In a letter to Cuomo and other state leaders, Airbnb outlines the legal action it says it would be forced take should the governor sign the bill, AB 8704-C, into law. “As this unlawful bill would impose real harm on our community, out of respect for the process and to inform your considerations, we want to formally notify the State that if it is signed into law by Governor Cuomo, Airbnb would have no choice but to immediately file suit against the State of New York and ask a court to declare the statute invalid and unenforceable as well as to award any damages and fees as appropriate,” Rob Chesnut, general counsel of Airbnb, writes in the letter.

“AIRBNB WANTS TO BE CLEAR THAT IT DOES SO MORE IN SADNESS THAN IN ANGER”

Chesnut adds, “In making such a formal notification, Airbnb wants to be clear that it does so more in sadness than in anger, as the company believes that there are clearly available lawful alternative legislative options to meet legitimate policy objectives while still protecting the right of everyday New Yorkers to share the homes they live in order to help make ends meet.”

Airbnb has been accused of exacerbating New York’s housing crisis by housing advocates, the state’s powerful hotel union, and members of the state legislature and New York City Council. Some unscrupulous landlords have been known to push out their tenants, many of them low-income, so they can turn their apartments into illegal hotels, which they advertise on Airbnb.

Last year, the New York attorney general released a report that found that from 2010 through early June of 2014, $168.3 million, or 37 percent percent of revenue generated by Airbnb hosts, came from hosts with three or more listings.

AIRBNB HAS SCRUBBED THOUSANDS OF LISTINGS OFF ITS SITE

In response, Airbnb has scrubbed thousands of listings that are known to be illegal hotels off its site. Last July, it kicked 2,233 listings — 5 percent of the total — off its New York City platform. It also released a new dataset of its listings in each of New York City’s 195Neighborhood Tabulation Areas, a geographic designation used by the city’s Department of Planning to describe the neighborhoods in a way that aligns with US Census tracts. This data proves that “96 percent of the hosts on the Airbnb platform in New York City have only one listing,” the company says.

The bill to restrict Airbnb’s advertising passed both the New York State Assembly and Senate earlier this summer, and is now headed to Cuomo’s desk for his consideration. A spokesperson for the governor says no decision on whether to sign the bill has yet been made. “This is one among more than 500 bills that was passed by the Legislature in the last weeks of the legislative session,” the spokesperson said. “It remains under review by Counsel’s Office.”

Travelore Tips: How To Use Airbnb Safely

The well-publicized Airbnb horror story of a young man who says he was held captive and sexually molested by his host in Spain this past July raises the question of how to use the popular site safely.

As was widely reported by the New York Times, on NBC's Today Show, and elsewhere, Jacob Lopez, 19, from Massachusetts, was staying with his host in Madrid when he was locked in his room from the outside. The host then "pressed him into a sexual act," according to the Times, although the host denies this.

But the worst part was Airbnb's response. The company refused to give Lopez's mother the host's address or to call police (the host had shut off his internet access, so he was unable to contact her).

Things happen in hotels, too, but Airbnb guests need to realize that they will never have the same safety net that hotel guests have. It's a chance they take in exchange for saving money. The same applies to home rentals and exchanges.

And although the thousands of guests who use the popular website each day enjoy their experience, this has hardly been the first sensational report of Airbnb stays gone horribly wrong—everything from guests claiming they were drugged by hosts to guests being attacked by a host's dog. There have been instances of fraud (hosts listing apartments without the right to do so).

Airbnb does not do background checks on hosts (or on their pets for that matter). It does not require even rudimentary safety devices, such as smoke detectors and fire alarms (much less the automatic sprinkler systems found in many modern hotels), or bedroom doors that lock from the inside, in the accommodations it lists. There is no front desk to call if there's an emergency, nor are there safe deposit boxes or room safes for guests to store valuables. In short, most of the regulations and safety norms that guests have become accustomed to, even in the most rudimentary hotels, are lacking.

What Airbnb Should Be Doing

The company is making enormous profits and is valued at $25 Billion. They can well afford to begin doing thorough background checks on hosts. Perhaps hosts who have gone through such checks could be listed as such.

Airbnb suggests that hosts have working smoke and carbon dioxide detectors, but doesn't require them or check to see if they are in place and functioning. Again, the company should at least do spot checks. Same thing for "clearly marked fire escape routes," which the company suggests that hosts provide, but doesn't require.

If something goes wrong with your stay—malfunctioning air conditioning or heat, for example—it’s difficult to get compensation or switch to another accommodation. In a hotel, it's fairly easy to march down to the front desk and insist that something get fixed, and if it isn't fixed most hotels will at least adjust your bill or refund that night's stay. 

Steps You Should Take to Protect Yourself

• Talk to your host extensively before you arrive. It's just like online dating: if you get a queasy feeling, back out.Ask questions. This isn't foolproof but it is essential.
• Do due diligence. Is this rental legal? You don't want to get a knock on the door from the building's management saying you have to leave or learn that the person you gave your money to had no right to rent the unit.
• Stay with hosts that your friends or acquaintances have stayed with previously. Don't rent "blind."
• If possible, choose to rent accommodations where the host will not be sharing with you (Airbnb rents both types—sharing with the host and staying on your own).
• Before you arrive, get the local emergency numbers for police, fire and ambulance services and know how to use your mobile phone to reach them.  Make sure your mobile phone works where you're staying.
• Tell friends, family, or another responsible party where you'll be staying. Ask them to check in with you by text or phone.
• Ask if the room you'll be occupying can lock from the inside, and check to see that it cannot be locked from the outside.
• Ask if your host has working smoke detectors. Don't be afraid to test them.

I think Airbnb is still learning, after all these years, what it takes to keep guests safe but the company needs to put safety over profits and their stock price.

From George Hobica, www.airfarewatchdog.com