NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 47

and won't let someone come in and tell
them what to do, Miceli said.

GUTTER CREDIT

Educating the guest and
the host
Since jurisdictions haven't come up
with clear answers for the emergence
of short-term rentals, NFPA and others
stress the importance of education for
both consumers and hosts who choose
to rent and rent out units on sites like
Airbnb. "Consumers need to be more
than mindful of the safety features,"
said Lisa Braxton, a public education
specialist at NFPA. "They need to know
what safety features are in place before
committing to an
Airbnb."
On the service's
website, prospective
renters can filter
available properties by amenities
including smoke and
CO alarms-which
the site refers to as
"detectors," a term
commonly and
inaccurately used to
describe residential
alarms. While users
can't filter by fire
extinguishers or
first-aid kits, they
can check properties
individually to see
if they list them as
amenities before
booking. There's
no way to see if a
property has fire
sprinklers, but users
can send a message
to the host asking
any question they
wish about fire and
life safety before
booking.
Miceli agrees
that public education is key to
keeping people safe
in the new world of
short-term rentals.
"Someone who's
short-term renting
may never become

familiar with the peculiarities of a
house," he said. "So we really need to be
regulating common sense."
The experience has been similar in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. About a
year ago, the city, located across the
Charles River from Boston, passed an
ordinance regulating short-term rental
properties. But Chris Towski, one of
the fire prevention staff members at
the Cambridge Fire Department, said
that doesn't mean the properties are all
being inspected. The onus falls on the
Airbnb hosts to be compliant with the
same building codes they would have to
be if their property wasn't being used
as a short-term rental, as well as some
additional measures like providing fire
escape route maps in the same way
hotels need to. Towski doesn't suspect-
or even expect-every owner to be
doing that, though.
For the city's fire department, Towski
said the concern revolves less around
the built environment and more around
occupant load and behavior, especially
as firefighters respond to incidents like
residential structure fires. "As a firefighter, you see a classic three-decker
building and you're thinking, OK, you
have three families in there-but now
you have others taking up those spaces,
so it could be a higher volume of occupancy," Towski said. Overcrowding in
short-term rentals is a concern many
cities have expressed since businesses
like Airbnb began emerging. Like Miceli,
Towski also said there's a concern over
guests not taking the time as they enter
a short-term rental property to note the
exits and safety features. And unlike
an event like a house party, which may
have a similar higher-than-usual occupant load, there's potentially nobody in
the property who "knows the lay of the
land" and can help direct occupants to
safety, he said.
When it comes to educating Airbnb
hosts about the importance of being
compliant with necessary building
codes and providing fire and life safety
features, Miceli said he's faced a lot of
pushback but in some cases has been
able to persuade hosts by bringing
up the potential legal implications of
renting out an unsafe space. "Once you
start talking about risk, the lightbulb

comes on," he said. "The more we talk
about it, the more we can move the
dial a bit in some people, the more
risk-averse people, but there are still
people who say it's their home, it's
their right" to do as they please with
their property.
Some Airbnb hosts don't need that
nudge. In May I sent messages using
Airbnb's website to several hosts who
reported having smoke and CO alarms,
fire extinguishers, and first-aid kits.
While no one took me up on a request
to visit their property, a couple sent
messages back explaining why they
chose to include these features. One
host in the Cambridge area said he
chose to include the features because
it was the responsible thing to do. "I
totally believe [in] safety first," said
another in Newport. "I am in the medical field, and anyone can get hurt."
Airbnb itself has taken actions to
make its properties safer by working
with its hosts. "We routinely run safety
workshops with hosts and leading
local experts and provide hosts with
online safety cards with important local
information for their guests," Airbnb's
website says. "Hosts can also request
a free smoke and carbon monoxide
[alarm] for their home."
Still, after her fire scare in Canada,
Eve has decided to take safety matters
into her own hands when staying in
Airbnbs-and hers is good advice for
any consumer.
"When it comes to your safety, don't
assume anything is taken care of," she
wrote in the Medium article. "Pack the
nerdiest first aid kit you can find, make
a mental note of where to find safety
items (e.g. fire extinguisher), check
the batteries on the smoke [alarms],
etc. Don't be shy about having the necessary conversations with your host
about safety features. Do this especially
... when the place is off-[the-]grid and
quirky, which is a big selling point for
Airbnb properties but potentially risky
for you. Airbnb experiences are generally excellent, and in many cases rival
the hotel experience ten times over,
but they definitely don't have the same
safety regulations. Or any."
ANGELO VERZONI is staff writer for NFPA Journal.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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