Airbnb housing rental service makes smoke and CO detectors mandatory

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.