A life-saving feature often overlooked on Airbnb rentals

“How safe will you be in an Airbnb rental?” I asked in a recent column before leaving on just such a vacation.

Well, here’s some advice from one of my skin-crawling discoveries: Make sure you know whether there’s a smoke detector or fire extinguisher on the premises before you arrive at your destination, because Airbnb does not require any safety features at all for rentals in its service.

But I’m getting ahead of the story, which starts with the rental of a cozy cabin north of San Francisco. Part of the blame belongs with us, part with Airbnb and part with the “hosts”  or property owners.

Before I go on, I'll be clear: In addition to writing columns on digital life for Paste BN and other publications, I also act as a "Modern Weddings" expert for Hilton Hotels, which competes with Airbnb.

Back to the cabin. My husband and I had made our Airbnb booking at the last minute for an August vacation after another rental fell through. In a panic, especially after we didn’t see much availability on the Airbnb site, we could have (and should have) read the listing more carefully. Much more carefully. Yes, we had a million-dollar view – for a fraction of the cost — with a vista that included San Francisco Bay. Yes, our “hosts” were lovely and responsive in every way. But ….

We missed a key paragraph about “The Space”: “Note that the stairs going down to the bedroom are significantly steeper than standard. They are also partially open, so can be dangerous for small children not yet good at navigating stairs.”

File that under “U” for understatement. The precipitous stairs were definitely not built to code and were perilous for big people, too. Thank goodness we didn’t have kids — or bad hips — to worry about. I realized belatedly that while the listing contained two dozen photos, not one showed the stairs. No wonder.

The staircase fiasco prompted me to go looking around the place for safety features, say, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, a fire extinguisher or a first aid kit.

Not one such item could be found in the entire guesthouse.

So I visited the listing yet again. Now, reading more closely, I saw: “Safety features: None.” I also noticed with some surprise that among all the customer comments, no one had mentioned the complete lack of basic safety features.

In a non-scientific review of other Airbnb listings in the same area, I found about the same number of places with and without safety features.

I decided to ask an Airbnb spokesperson: Why are basic safety features not required? Jakob Kerr replied:  “All Airbnb hosts certify that they will follow their local rules and regulations, including any applicable safety regulations, and we urge all hosts to take some basic steps to keep their homes safe.”

Which is simply to say: Renters beware. There are no mandatory safety requirements for Airbnb rentals.

The takeaway: Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words but be sure to zero in on the “Safety Features” right from the get-go. No matter how perfect a room or flat may appear, without smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, you are taking a risk. Be sure to read the rest of the listing very carefully so you don’t skip over sentences along the lines of “stairs significantly steeper than standard.”

In the meantime, cities like Raleigh, N.C. have drafted new regulations that would require smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in all Airbnb rentals. If you think Airbnb should require all of its rental units to comply 100% with local rules and regulations, especially when it comes to safety features, send CEO Brian Chesky an email here. I’ll sleep better the next time I’m on the road and you will, too.

Agree or disagree with my advice? Let me know in the comments section.

Submit your question to Steven at stevenpetrow@earthlink.net . You can also follow Steven on Twitter: @ StevenPetrow . Or like him on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow .