How to review? What would you do?

[Laura2592]

We have a couple staying with a baby. We don't allow infants. I'm super worried as our place is not safe for a little one. 

The only reason I know is because the internet went down temporarily and they asked for instructions to reset. After giving them the guest responded that they will try it after the baby wakes up. Uhhh what baby?? Later it was obvious on the Ring that a small baby is indeed there. 

Reservation is until Monday.  It's Saturday.  They checked in yesterday.  

What should we do? I don't relish throwing a family into the street but I'm really concerned about safety and they did not disclose that they were bringing an infant.  

I'm just so tired of dishonest guests.  

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  Review sounds like a pretty good balance to me. I might change the wording about the baby somewhat, as it almost sounds like you made an exception for the guest regarding the baby and others reading it might assume you would do so for them, too.

I assume you reiterate house rules with guests at some point when they book, or at least ask if they have read them? If so, I can't understand why guests are considered to be ones hosts would want back since they clearly didn't bother to read anything, even when prompted to do so, or else just ignored it all.

[Marie6762]

@Laura2592 

I get the wording “honored...baby’s first trip” as a dog whistle for hosts, but I agree that “happy to welcome them back” is an overstatement - especially in light of the liberties they took.

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 separate to the review, this really highlights that you can't use your listing as your only tool for communicating/expectation setting with guests. The things that are important must be disclosed in some other manner, bc guests, with ABBs help, just miss so very very much of what's important in our listings. This "it's just a funky hotel & I rented it, so what" mindset is exactly why I had a separate contract, a guest info sheet, and an entire FAQ that laid out what things like "no unregistered guests" actually meant. 

"Thank you for booking, we have you down for two adults, Please list their names, ages, phone numbers and addresses here. _________________________________________________________ We expect you two to be the only folks on property during your stay.

For your comfort we've included a helpful house guide: it includes operating instructions and also our expectations for how you'll use the space as well as our departure procedures.

If any of this doesn't fit with your expectations, please know that you have just a few hours to make a penalty free cancellation, otherwise we expect that you'll have a lovely visit. Please let us know how we can be of assistance, thanks...."

How bad their review is, should really boil down to did they break rules they definitively knew they were breaking or did they cluelessly skip over things you wish they would have noticed? 

[Laura2592]

@Kelly149 we do have an Easter egg in the house rules that guests are expected to find to prove they read them and we send a check in email similar to what you have posted.  The trouble here seems to be the person communicating. The husband in this team did the communicating while the wife was the person who booked. Somewhere in this combination the rules of the listing were lost or ignored 

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 Ok, so if they read the rules as per acknowledgment of the Easter egg then IMO that bumps them way out of ‘nice guests I’dhave back’ territory. No matter who did the reading & who did the talking. The rules matter or they don’t. 

[Lisa723]

@Kelly149 @Laura2592 a few months ago we had a husband/wife "team" who booked our house. We triple-confirmed with the husband (booker) that they were not bringing any pets, as the people who had rented the other home on the lot were bringing a reactive dog and their booking was conditional on no dogs in the main house. Well of course the first night they were both in residence we get a frantic message from the people with the declared dog that there are undeclared dogs running around at the other house. Yep, husband had not communicated with wife about his "no dogs" commitment and the wife had decided at the last minute to bring them along without communicating with him.

They were extremely apologetic and immediately removed the rogue dogs, and it was a local (!) direct booking so we didn't have to make any review decision, but if we had my feeling would have been that it doesn't matter too much whether they failed to communicate with each other or failed to communicate with me or failed to pay attention to the rules or what-- the result was the same.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I totally get not wanting to be harsh in a review for guests who were sweet in their communications with you, cleaned and tidied up to your satisfaction, even making the effort to ask how you wanted them to deal with the dog poop.

But I don't buy the "she booked and he did the messaging" thing. You say you reiterate to inform themselves of the house rules, so what- he forgot he had a baby? He didn't notice the "Please let us know if you are bringing a dog"?  

What I think happened is she booked without fully reading, and since they didn't want to cancel the booking, they conveniently ignored the rules they were violating. 

[Laura2592]

Okay...revised .

Guests were pleasant to connect with and left our space quite clean. We would advise future hosts to ensure that these guests are very clear on house rules as there were some key things missed: most importantly that our home is not deemed safe for children under 2 due to very steep old stairs (and don't allow them as our insurance coverage does not provide for them. ) We wish them the best and thank them for staying with us. 

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  You know, I hate that Airbnb wording "not suitable for..."

It seems to me like it's open to interpretation by guests, and perhaps that's even what happened here. Guests might think, okay, the hosts don't think it's suitable, but we never never take our eyes off the kid and we're certainly not going to let him near the stairs, so it's okay.

When my oldest granddaughter was less than 2, my daughter lived in an older home that had one of those really steep, narrow staircases down to the basement with a door at the top into the hallway. I watched my granddaughter open that door to invite the 2 big labs they had up from the basement into the house. 

I instantly saw that as a huge danger- if one of those 60-70 pound dogs knocked into her and she lost her balance, she could tumble down those stairs. When I said that to my daughter, who was sitting at her laptop in the dining room, with a clear view to that basement door, about 3 yds away, she said "Oh, I'm always aware of where she is and what she's doing and I'm only a few steps away". I told her that if what I was visualizing happened, her child would be lying on the concrete basement floor with her head cracked open before my daughter could leap up out of her chair and get there in time.

I went out and bought a simple hook and eye closure the next day and attached it to the door and frame at adult level.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 @Sarah977 

It’s true that “not suitable for —-“ and “—- are not allowed” are two different things, particularly to people who aren’t worried about what is suitable if it’s something they want to do anyway.

Another problem with the handy check boxes is the arbitrary age cutoff points. Why just 0-2 and 2-12?

It seems like fill-in-the-blanks would be more appropriate.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  Having raised 3 kids, and looking after countless others, I have suggested before that Airbnb's age designations are absurd and must have been written by people who have zero understanding of child development.

No parent refers to their walking, talking toddler as an "infant" unless they are trying to get out of paying for them.

Appropriate age categories should be:

Infant: A baby not yet mobile on their own, pre-crawling stage (a baby like that can't do any damage, can't get themselves in an unsafe situation, they stay wherever the parent places them)

Crawling- 5 years old (easily able to get injured if parents unattentive, can make a mess, too young to understand that what they are allowed to do at home may not be what is allowed elsewhere) Require constant adult supervision.

6-11 Can understand and follow  instructions, can understand "Yes, I know we let you jump on the bed at home, but that isn't allowed here". Aren't anymore likely to fall down the stairs than an adult would be.

May still make a mess, but that is the parent's responsibility to clean up. Require supervision, but not constant.

12 and over- assumed to be capable of responsible behavior without supervision.

There are definitely varying degrees of child development- some kids walk at 9 months, some not until a year and a half, some are calm and obedient at 4 and don't require a lot of supervision- they'll play quietly with their toys for an hour or more, others are rambunctious and will be pulling the flowers out of the pots and scribbling on the walls if no one tells them no.

But age designations like I suggested would ensure a better fit for both parents and hosts. There's no reason a babe in arms couldn't be accepted by almost any host, unless it's a shared space where a baby's crying would disturb others (and some babies hardly cry at all) Sure, the parents could leave stinky diapers in an open trash container, flush baby wipes, or not put a change pad under the baby, getting urine on the bedding, but childless adult guests have done just as bad or worse.

But if the age category of 0-2 is classified as "infant", of course hosts are going to be leery of having a 2 year old running around the house and not allow "infants".

Airbnb is actually creating more discrimination against families by their ridiculous age designations than if they classified correctly according to accepted child development levels.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977  No parent refers to their walking, talking toddler as an "infant" unless they are trying to get out of paying for them

Priceless (pun was not originally intended but now is)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Laura2592 

I would write something like:

xx and yy were sweet to communicate with and left our property tidy and clean but they broke two of our house rules:

1. they didn't say they have a dog with them ( we are pet friendly but we charge a pet fee)

2. they didn't say they travel with a baby (our place is not safe for kids under 2 y.o. and we don't host small kids for insurance reasons).

I would recommend them as a guest but also want to warn future hosts to make sure xx understood house rules and disclose who are they traveling with.

[Laura2592]

Thanks everyone for their input! I am going to toy with my wording a bit and wait to leave the review. I have a few more to write before these guests anyway.

[Lorna170]

@Laura2592   Whe you write your review, don't explain or apologize.  for example, I would not add the items in parentheses that @Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote.  I would just be clear that the guests, while nice, did not disclose the dog and brought an infant to an accommodation that does not accept children under the age of X for insurance reasons.  Putting any part of your commentary in parentheses makes it an excuse or so sorry, you need to know...blah, blah.  They were nice guests who did not abide by your house rules.