COVID-19: SA Startup SweepSouth Partners with Airbnb

• South African cleaning service startup, SweepSouth has partnered with global home-sharing platform, Airbnb.
• Aisha Pandor, co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, states that the partnership brings peace of mind to those who want to book a night or two with a nearby Airbnb.
• SweepSouth worked with Airbnb to tackle the challenge of improved sanitation and cleaning strategies during Level three of the regional lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

South African cleaning service startup, SweepSouth has partnered with global home-sharing platform, Airbnb. This partnership comes after South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the move to lockdown level two allowing the hospitality and tourism industry to open their doors to local customers once again.

The project further seeks to stimulate the demand of local people for domestic travel and third-party lodging by ensuring that guests follow the requirements of the improved cleaning procedures for guests in South Africa offered by Airbnb. The World Trade and Tourism Council has given these initiatives a Safe Travels seal.

Aisha Pandor, co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, states that the partnership brings peace of mind to those who want to book a night or two with a nearby Airbnb.

“The long-awaited reopening of South Africa’s hospitality industry comes with unique challenges that SweepSouth has been preparing for months. In addition to providing dedicated sanitisation and hospitality protocols training for SweepStars, our online platform has been upgraded to make booking a dedicated option for Airbnb hosts. Guests can now make Airbnb bookings, safe in the knowledge that accommodation serviced by our SweepStars meets with the highest international hospitality cleaning best practice standards”.

SweepSouth worked with Airbnb to tackle the challenge of improved sanitation and cleaning strategies during Level three of the regional lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. This partnership will allow Airbnb hosts to conveniently access a top-notch cleaning service via the easy-to-use SweepSouth app that provides hosts with an simple solution.

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SweepSouth’s adopted and applied protocol claims to be among the standards in the home-sharing and South Africa industries. With a short processing period, Airbnb hosts who wish to use their platform will be able to use their platform with a high quality of facilities available to ensure safe environments for Covid-19.

Employment opportunity
Not only is the partnership helping to encourage people who wish to travel locally while lodging at an Airbnb, but also offers additional jobs for their employees.

In April, SweepSouth set up the COVID-19 SweepStar fund to provide monetary assistance for its staff, many of which are the sole providers of their households, motivating the majority of them to return to work.

“The fund, which was aided by an R6 000 000 contribution from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation provided vital short-term support for SweepStars, raising just short of R12-million to date. However, the international-standard hospitality training which SweepStars are now being empowered with not only expands their independent employment prospects across an array of hospitality sectors but also strengthens their ability to contribute to South Africa’s economy. They are providing Airbnb and the hospitality sector at large with an indispensable cleaning resource,” explains Pandor.