Many Airbnb venues in US lack basic safety protection: study

Many Airbnb venues in the US fail to provide the critical carbon monoxide and fire safety protections that are legally required of hotels and motels, according to a study.

The analysis, published in the journal Injury Prevention, revealed that while the majority of rental properties - 80 per cent - were said to contain smoke detectors, only 56 per cent were reportedly equipped with carbon monoxide detectors.

Even fewer - 42 per cent of venues - were said to have fire extinguishers, and first-aid kits were reported in just over a third (36 per cent) of venues.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US said that these numbers are troubling.

The researchers also point to a lack of national safety standards for peer-to-peer (P2P) hospitality services like Airbnb, which they say leaves room for ambiguity about safety requirements for these rental properties.

"Hotels and other hospitality settings present unique fire and safety challenges, such as the fact that guests are often unfamiliar with their surroundings and the layout of the accommodation," said Vanya Jones, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy.

To address these challenges, hotels in the US are legally required to meet safety standards that include posted fire escape routes, fire doors, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, fire sprinkler systems and exit passageways.

However, these requirements do not apply to privately owned, short-term rental properties that are available through P2P services like Airbnb.

Jones said that without national safety standards, these venues are only required to comply with local statutes and codes pertaining to fire safety, which vary widely among municipalities and from state to state.

Jones said many of the venues available through P2P services are private homes, so any fire safety requirements are more likely to be aligned with standards for residential houses than with those that apply to hotels.

To assess the existing fire safety amenities among Airbnb rental properties, the researchers used data on 120,691 venues from InsideAirbnb.com, an independent website that compiles publicly available information posted in Airbnb listings by venue hosts.

At the time of the study, InsideAirbnb was monitoring listings in 16 US cities.

The data used in the analysis was collected for each of the 16 cities during a period between October 2015, and December 2016.

Based on the reported presence of smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers and first-aid kits for each venue, the researchers calculated the proportion of venues with each amenity for the entire sample as well as for each of the 16 cities.

Across all 16 cities included in the analysis, smoke detectors were the most prevalent of the four safety amenities in Airbnb venues, ranging from 74 per cent in Austin, Texas, to 90 per cent in Nashville, Tennesse.