Airbnb housing rental service makes smoke and CO detectors mandatory

Airbnb will require its hosts to confirm that they have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors installed in their listed accommodations by the end of the year. To help things along, the company is distributing free devices to eligible host in the US. Airbnb announced plans Friday to distribute various safety tools, including the detectors, to hosts in the United States. 

As Airbnb’s housing rental service continues to grow in popularity, the company wants to ensure that all guests have a safe stay. Today, Phil Cardenas — who is Airbnb’s “Trust and Safety Manager” — published a blog post revealing that all hosts will need to confirm they’ve installed both smoke and carbon monoxide detectors by the end of 2014. But crucially, that doesn’t mean you’ll have to go out and buy the devices yourself. Instead, Airbnb says it will provide a smoke and CO detector free of charge to each and every US-based host with an active listing. They won’t be mailed out automatically; you’ll have to put in a request to take advantage of the free offer.