And plenty of alcohol…to disinfect.
But that is OK for the house. How about the ride to Kenting? That’s probably not kosher…
Based on some responses from @bingobango here and @Joesox, @EnglishTsai, and @chaitea in the thread Do people traveling from the USA have to quarantine? it seems that Airbnb works for quarantine, at least in some areas.
Based on what @intercitydisco and @tando have written, the city government of Taipei has announced that they won’t allow Airbnb quarantine. But in other cities it should still work, right?
If arriving travelers are planning on using an Airbnb for quarantine, what should they say at immigration at the airport (and on entry paperwork)?
My girlfriend and I are planning on sharing an AirBnB in Taipei for our quarantine. The AirBnB has 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms which will allow us to avoid sharing facilities. We have rented the AirBnB for 1 month, so it does not qualify as a short term rental, and as a practical matter if either of us is sick during the first two weeks and deposits coronavirus virions somewhere in the apartment, they will be completely inert at the end of the month.
Planning on telling immigration that we’re staying in our apartment, which has 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, and that for the first 2 weeks we will avoid contact with each other, keeping interactions to conversation at 2+ meters apart (all of which is true). If pressed for details, I will mention that it’s an AirBnB but we booked it for over a month. (The purpose of not interacting during the quarantine is to prevent a scenario where one person passes the virus to the other person halfway through quarantine and the other person is still infectious post-quarantine).
We’re also planning on getting tested 3 days prior to flying (which is not required for ARC holders but still good as an extra precaution).
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When your plans involve trying to obfuscate what you’re doing from the authorities, maybe you should consider that you might be doing something wrong.
Why don’t you just ask the relevant authorities whether or not your Airbnb plans are permissible and if they’re not, change them so that you’re in compliance with the rules?
Why would it be such a big deal to stay in a designated quarantine hotel/facility if that’s what you’re told is required? Foreigners caught breaking the quarantine rules or god forbid causing an outbreak would be a disaster for all of us. Don’t be selfish.
The law is public information. There’s no need to conceal anything. This is the law on airbnb, specifically Article 55-1: https://law.moj.gov.tw/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=K0110001 A rental under one month would fall under the definition of Section 2.8. A rental of one month or more would fall outside the scope of this law.
Problem with quarantine hotel is that space and amenities are limited and theyre poor value for money - no kitchen, no washing machine, no balcony for fresh air, no opportunity to change your sheets, etc. And from the few hotels that I’ve looked into they only deliver ubereats to the room during regular meal times and there’s no microwave. Hungry between 7pm and 6am? Want some food that’s not lukewarm and hasn’t been sitting around for an hour? Tough.
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This isn’t about the legality of >30 day Airbnbs in general. It’s about the legality of this type of accommodation for quarantine. There are a bunch of posts on this topic and it’s not clear this type of arrangement is permissible in every city.
Does the host know their place is being used for quarantine? How will trash be disposed? Is the building managed such that food delivery is possible without person to person interaction? What happens if the poster shows up and the Airbnb is not as described?
The biggest problem is that instead of finding out what the rules are and making sure his plan is permissible, the poster says he’s going to try to obfuscate the situation (“If pressed for details, I will mention that it’s an AirBnB but we booked it for over a month”).
Quarantine hotels are a horrible value but everyone’s safety shouldn’t be put at risk because some people can’t live without a microwave for 14 days and would rather not ask what the rules are lest they find out they can’t do what they want.
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Tell that to the government. Some countries require all arrivals to quarantine at specialized facilities. Taiwan does not.
As long as the government allows home quarantine, what difference does it make whether the “home” was located through airbnb instead of 591? What if I contact the airbnb host and rent the place directly by bank transfer and a 7-11 form lease? I don’t follow how that makes it safer. If anything, isolating at an airbnb puts the general population at less risk than sharing the same living space with non quarantined family members. The provisions on eating meals separately and wearing masks in the house are unenforceable.
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AirBNB quarantine is completely legal. Many people are doing it, they disclose the address. Taiwan is not a country of fools. The purpose of quarantine is quarantine, and they care about you following those rules. Hosts often dont want foreigners quarantining, and many will cancel your booking. Most hosts will ask you to say you are staying at a friends because AirBNB technically falls under hotel rules, but if it was such an issue Taiwan wanted to purge, they’d just go to the website to find all the hosts. Dont conflate these issues. airbnb is OK for quarantine, providing you have 1 room and 1 bathroom exclusively available per quarantinee.
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Problem is how are you going to pick up your Uber eats/Food Panda delivery? Unless you are on a first floor, how will you pick it up unless you go out your door? Which you cannot. Can this delivery person go upstairs? Most buildings no. Some gongwu, maybe.
So, have you considered this? It is 10k to 100k fine stepping out the door. One million out of the building.
And if you think you won’t get caught, see you on the local TV news.
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Uber Eats deliver to the door. Chose an apartment where you can buzz them in from the front gate/lobby.
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Front gate, yes. Lobby, most buildings management do not like it. Ask first. Make sure. Be careful, again, the fine is high.
Oh and you need to live with your garbage two weeks. You cannot chase the truck/pour it down the chute. As a matter of fact, it should be disposed separately, in best case scenario.
When we did home quarantine, they gave us a sheet with instructions for how to handle trash. Each county has a phone number to call. They only came twice and the sheet told us not to separate our trash. We put it just outside the door and they said they would take it to Taipei and burn it.
Of course, whether or not this is possible depends on whether they can access the door. Not knowing what kind of AirBnB they’re intending on booking, I can’t say for sure if they could follow this same process.
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“Home quarantine” implies that you’re quarantining in your home, a place you already own or rent.
Arriving in Taiwan and checking into a place you have never lived before for the purpose of quarantine isn’t the same thing as returning to your existing residence. To me this doesn’t seem any different than booking a hotel that isn’t approved for quarantine for 30+ days and claiming it’s OK just because you booked it for a full month.
The check-in process alone might cause the OP to violate quarantine if he isn’t honest with the host and make proper arrangements.
But this isn’t even about what we think. It’s about the OP not knowing whether his plan is allowed under Taipei’s rules. Instead of asking beforehand, he basically says he’s going to trickle truth the authorities if asked for details. When someone says he’s only going to provide complete information “if pressed for details” to me it kind of suggests he knows that he might not be doing something that’s kosher.
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It worked fine for my wife and daughters to quarantine in an Airbnb above Taipei Bus Station in late July. The landlord had a number of places and was quite geared up for quarantiners. I think there was someone picking the rubbish up every couple of days.
But, it was getting more difficult after their quarantine because the community stopped allowing Uber Eats and the like delivering up to the actual floor instead of the lobby. So the landlord himself was waiting there, taking food up to people for a while. Not sure how it is now.
And yes, Icon’s right that there’s no point sneaking out – many neighbours will be watching and the cellphone positioning is also quite sensitive. We heard of somebody getting an alert just because they were on their balcony (not that that’s forbidden; just that the positioning is so sensitive).
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The rules are clear. We already cited the law but you don’t think its strong enough and want to promote regulations that don’t exist. Multiple people have already told the CDC reps at the airport that they’re staying at an airbnb and we’re allowed to proceed. End of discussion. Why doubt what’s already certain?
Here’s the issue. With a short term rental of two weeks, I get infected on the plane, I get a long incubation and am still infectious when I move out at the place, host fails to disinfect properly and immediately rents to the next people. So cracking down on airbnb hosts running a high turnover quarantine outfit might be justified. If I extended my stay to one month, as the anti-airbnb law put in place by the hotel industry lobby requires, this entire problem goes away. I can’t be still infectious by the time the next group moves in.
The quarantine form I just filled out even puts 親友家 on the same selection as 自宅. The authorities clearly do not care whether “home quarantine” is in your own home or someone else’s home. Booking into a hotel for 30 days doesn’t work the same because a hotel is a public place. There is much more turnover in your neighbors so there are more potential contacts and tracking a breakout becomes more difficult; housekeeping comes in and fondles your belongings everyday; there’s no fridge and kitchen so you’re more dependent on the outside world.
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Just know the law in Taipei city says no, it is NOT legal to stay at an Airbnb for quarantine. That’s all.
You think you found a loophole, be careful, be respectful, wear masks at all times.
Call it hotel lobby against Airbnb, but there are reasons why the ban is supported. Basically, lack of safety features, scams, etc. There is already enough trouble with normal rentals. At least the hotel industry is better regulated and has insurance.
If it’s not allowed , wouldn’t the easy fix be to email the landlord and explain the situation and ask to move the renting outside of Airbnb so that you can quarantine?
Hmm. We had planned on staying at ours friend’s vacant apartment. But after reading this thread, I guess we might have to get a couple hotel rooms for our family of 3.
Plenty of people stay at rentals, it doesn’t matter if you rent it from a friend or if you don’t know landlord personally
You can stay at home, and many rent their apartments
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What law? Did the city council pass a separate law because one does not exist at the national level?