can I refuse this booking

[Kim2277]

Just got a booking request from 7 high school senior girls wanting to book a week to celebrate graduation. I am very uncomfortable having 7 teenage girls take over my home for a week. Any suggestions?

[Juan63]

Let's not be silly, the amount of people that are lawyers on any forum is tiny. The fact that someone didn't get back to you has nothing to do with the discussion at hand. That's a completely different issue. Besides, I never said Airbnb customer service is all knowing, hosts are in the same boat. The confusion of "the law" is showcased in this thread.

[Lisa723]

@Juan63 nobody here is pretending to be a lawyer. It doesn't require a law degree to understand:

"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."

Unfortunately, many people know that you can ask the same question of multiple Airbnb CS reps and get a different answer from each one. A few reps know what they're talking about, but most have no clue about actual Airbnb policy and seem to invent answers as they go along.

As @Anonymous rightly pointed out, that doesn't stop them from making arbitrary decisions that can significantly affect a host's livelihood, though.

[Juan63]

You are referring to Airbnb policy. Not what I was talking about nor do you know what people are trying to be. It's pretty common knowledge that commenters on the internet love to give expert legal, medical and health advise when they are not trained to be.

[Sarah977]

@Kim2277  Your House Rules say no parties or events. 7 high school seniors booking a week to celebrate graduation sure sounds like a party or event to me.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977   A full week sounds less like a party to me than a one or two night booking does. I wouldn't want to treat it as some kind of rule violation every time a guest volunteers that the purpose of their trip is to celebrate a momentous event in their lives.

But the location is a big factor here - it makes some difference whether the kids are visiting from well out of town, or close enough to home that additional friends are likely to turn up. And is the location in reasonable proximity to enough activities and attractions that you can expect a group to be out doing stuff, or is it in a residential area where guests would probably wind up spending most of their time in the house?

The age of the guests isn't in itself a red flag for me - if anything, 7 teens on student budgets sound a lot easier to host than a family with several young children.

[Juan63]

Unless it's Spring Break, that's a week. In my experience, the worst guests are 18-23 with groups of more than 2.

[Anonymous]

@Juan63  I've never personally experienced the North American "Spring Break" phenomenon but I think the Harmony Korine movie said everything about it that I need to know...

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  Kim's listing appears to be close to the beach, shopping and restaurants, so there would likely  be plenty for a group of girls to do. And certainly a group of people booking a place to get together and celebrate something isn't some automatic red flag. 

I don't know how familiar you are with packs of teenage girls, though. I happened to have 3 daughters, no boys. Think glitter make-up strewn over every surface and every nook and cranny, endless hot showers, hair dryers and washing machine going non-stop (hair dryers are a huge electricity suck and teenage girls will turn the machine on to wash one pair of jeans they want to wear that night) wet towels and bathing suits draped over wooden furniture or mouldering in piles, make-up smeared all over the towels, "washed" dishes covered in bits of food and grease, stovetop covered in grease and cooked-on crud, "products" slopped all over, some of them strong enough to eat the sealer off the floor (just guess how I know this). And those are the responsible teens 🙂

Of course, there are much older adults who leave a place in this sort of condition, and I'm not saying every group of teens would. But I'd say there is a about a 90% chance. 

I know plenty of responsible 18 year olds and wouldn't think twice about renting to one or two in a home-share or "on site host" situation. But turning a stand-alone house over to seven 17-18 year-olds for a week sounds like a big risk. 

[Colleen253]

@Kim2277  You're 'very uncomfortable'. There's your answer. Not all bookings need to be accepted. This home is the realization of your dream. Most important is to protect it. Do you really believe 8 teenage girls are going to be perfectly behaved, quiet and making "no noise audible from outside between 11pm and 8am", keeping only to themselves, and not inviting others in to the house? Can you fully trust they will look after your house with the utmost care and attention, causing no damage? Do you really want to commit to a week of exhausting 'problem mitigation'? Sometimes, the cost exceeds the payout. This is a no brainer. 

[Kim2277]

You are ABSOLUTELY right! Last night did decline the booking and felt so much better afterwards. I knew that's what I wanted to do but really wasn't sure if was within my rights, according to Airbnb policies.

I SO appreciate your affirmation of what my inner self had been screaming!

Kim