Question about excluding Children from my Listing...

[Sami459]

Hi all, looking for some advice...

I recently had some guests that brought a child and did some considerable damage. Broke a window, ruined a couch pillow, minor dings on the walls and table and burned my deck with fireworks.  I've decided that I am no longer going to allow any children. The potential for mess and damage is not something I want to deal with, moving forward. I've turned off the kid friendly options in my booking settings.

My question is - should I put this in the description of my listing somewhere? If so, where, and how should I word this in a way that sounds more compassionate than "Children are not allowed"  🙂

[Ricardo85]

Airbnb does not allow to exclude children.

[Helen3]

Yes it does - you can tick the box on your listing to exclude under 12s @Ricardo85

[Ricardo85]

Really? It must be pretty new.

I will check it out.

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo85  It's not new at all. It's been there since I started hosting in late 2016.

[Ricardo85]

@Sarah977 

You're getting confused. Not suitable for children does not mean that children are not allowed.

Under Airbnb's terms of service, not accepting an age-based guest is considered discrimination.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2867/nondiscrimination-policy

"...

Airbnb hosts may not:

• Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.

..."

Ricardo

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo85  That section refers to "the guest", meaning the booking guest, not whoever they might want to bring along with them. 5 year olds aren't the ones who are booking.

[Ricardo85]

I don´t think there is any difference between guests. They are just "guests".

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo85  I'm not talking about what you might think, or I might think, I am talking about the wording of the policy. 

[Ricardo85]

@Helen3 

Can you send a print screen?

[Helen3]

Have a look on the Airbnb Help Website. Or on your listing there is a drop down menu where you have option to exclude 2-12s for safety reasons 

[Sami459]

@Helen3 

While this option is helpful, it really doesn't allow the hosts to exclude their listings in any filter search on the website. There is no checkbox when filtering/searching for "Allows Children" or "Suitable for Children" or whatever.

So, if a potential guest with a child is searching for a place, and you've checked these boxes to exclude 2-12 for safety reasons, your listing will still appear in their search, it seems, since there's no way to filter it out.

Which I guess then comes back to the question of whether or not you are explicitly allowed to say somewhere in your description that children are not allowed. I don't know the answer to that question.

[Lisa723]

@Sami459 see my earlier answer with references below. Airbnb defers to local law on this.

[Mark116]

@Sami459  Don't open yourself up for trouble.  Keep the boxes checked, in the drop down where you explain why the unit isn't suitable outline the safety issues that exist.  I would not put that children are not allowed anywhere else.  

You will have to be diligent in your communications with guests in terms of ensuring they have the correct number of guests checked, etc. etc.  You could require in your house rules that you have the name and age of each guest, but I doubt you will  need to do that.  If people with children request your place, tell them to withdraw the request because due to safety issues the property is not suitable for children.  The end. 

ETA if you have Instant Book on, put in your automatic greeting message that due to safety concerns children under 12 are not permitted at the property, and if a guest has made this reservation in error they can cancel with no penalty...something like that. 

[Sami459]

@Mark116  Excellent. Thank you so much.