Are children considered an extra guest ? Should they be charged at a lower rate ?

[Sabrina301]

@Diana-and-Ryan0

Hotels also charge more per night (they pretty much assume every guest will leave a huge mess behind and factor in a huge wear and tear cost per guest), that enables them to forgo charging for children. 

[Brian222]

I think it's the case of a few bad eggs ruining it for everyone else (which happens with so many things in life). My place was 'children friendly' until I had a couple bad experiences and I had enough. I do Airbnb b/c it's fun to host people from around the world, but for the few extra dollars I get from it I didn't sign up to be anyone's babysitter. And then I realized that with these 'not my problem' parents showing up and letting their kids run wild that if there was an accident then I would be the one with a lawsuit on my hands. So even though there are a lot of great parents out there that travel with their kids, to protect myself and my sanity, I had to say no kids.

[Sabrina301]

Not sure how other people do it, but my place is a one bedroom condo that I set up as a vacation home for my husband and I (in our 30’s with NO children). It’s available to Airbnb when we are not in town. It’s not children friendly and was never intended to be. I don’t think its discriminatory to have a target market. Especially if your place is unsuitable for children (ie bedroom upstairs w/no baby gate and rooftop patio that’s accessible from the condo that can be dangerous for an unsupervised child). I do agree with others on paying for each and every person regardless of age (extra person equals extra wear and tear). Even if you’re the tidiest guest, you plus a toddler wears out the place more than just you alone.

[Fred13]

@Diana-and-Ryan0 My 'forward thinking' has taught me, at least in my place (an island, 6 miles from mainland) that kids: get into everything and break things constantly, tend to spill things (including on the new mattresses), be on the Internet streaming all day long (bandwidth, $5 a gig), leave every light/fan on all day (power use, run out batteries, now have to use generator), eat constantly (dishes = water), in and out of the water all day (use outside shower for rinsing and playing = more water), use the snorkeling gear & kayaks and forget to bring them back to the dock (free $1000 kayak for some lucky soul in Honduras 2 days later), etc etc.

   I encourage families, in fact, I promote my place as a 'kid's world' which it is, but they do come oftentimes at some serious extraordinary added costs. 

(P.S. Water is 8lb per gallon, to buy & transport comes to about $.30 a gallon to an island: , couples use  about 40 gallons per day, 2 couples about 70, family with kids about 125-150 gallons a day or 1000 lbs of water per day!).

[Susan957]

Does Airbnb have a written guideline on this topic ? Does anyone know how they view it ? I have a " up to 10 guests" at the booking price, then 75 dollars per guest per night , over that base price, now I have a guest asking if she can have 10 adults, and two toddlers ( 1 yr old each) at no cost.

 I still have bedding and towels and water , sewage, trash all being used by all guests ( the child doesnt go all week without a bath or using the facilities ) so I feel they should pay for them . Looking for insite on this from other hosts and airbnb please and thank you.

[Letti0]

@Susan957 It is my understanding that per AirBnB you can not even count 0-2 year olds in guest count. No additional charge can be made for this age group also. I'm in the San Antonio area also and I do up to 12 per night charge $20 per person after 10 and got the I surly can't charge extra for 2 three year olds? Which she did not even mention on the reservation, nor the baby she brought. I let it slide, but it does increase my expenses to host them also in addition to everyone else mentioned in the actual reservation.

[Susan957]

My listing is actually in Port A . So naturally being at the beach the real estate is a premium, and I’m in line with the costs for local hotels , so more than fair price , people try to book 10 or less and pack in as many as 20 , ( we caught some spring breakers trying this ) I just think everyone should be counted because of the high cost of living in the area , it’s all expensive, from the water bill to the electric ... etc , the extra wear on the facilities matter. 

The guest didn’t end up booking , which is fine as it’s during July high season, and it will book soon , but this is really something that should be looked at much closer by aurbnb and the cost associated  for the host should be considered. 

[Victoria567]

Hi @Deborah8

I don’t accept bookings where there are children.

It is clear in my listing.

I have a dog and my line is never work with animals and children.

Seeing you do accept children......of course they are an extra guest.

They use your bathroom and washing facilities, bed linen, breakfast like everyone else......don’t they?

Just make it very clear in your listing that an infant or child under 18 years old IS an extra guest, otherwise they are a free guest.

[Letti0]

@Victoria567  It's not children that get a free ride it's the Under 2 Infants that do and people lie about a child's age more times than not to get them free. I had one booking for 3 infants and 12 others my limit is 12 the infants do not count in guest count totals, but it was clear when they showed up that 2 of the 3 were in fact over 2 and probably 3-4 years old at least. That was when I started adding all infants to guest count as childen and charge for them. I don't want more then 12 in my home. They got 15 at the price of 12, I have an extra guest fee, so I lost $60 a night and had to supply 3 pack n plays, highchairs, booster seats, etc and clean up all the extra mess for them free. Not gonna happen again. 

[Victoria567]

Hi @Letti0

Its rotten when cheapskate guests are dishonest as air bnb hosts have an element of trust in these people before they enter out front door.

For the very reasons you mention I don’t host children, infants the whole shebang.....can’t be bothered with the he’s an infant/child , not an infant/child.

Basically if it eats, sleeps or farts......it is a paying guest!

[John1080]

Often times trips with children involved require more cleaning and thus they should not be charged less. Of course those under 2 stay for free, but those 2-12 can do their fair share of messing up, including fingerprints, toothpaste drips, etc.

[Letti0]

@John1080   Often times lol... Have you seen the mess a 12 month old being fed Spaghetti O's (yuck) can make to walls, floors and highchairs that parents half heartedly clean up? This seems to be a popular vacation rental food choice we've learned for under 2. A 15 month old with a sippy cup filled with red fruit punch they manage to take the lid off of, another popular choice and the parents use our white bath sized hotel towels to wipe it up and don't bother to even try to rinse it off the towels when there are rolls of paper towels available to use for this kinda thing free of charge to them. The one thing I do not keep in the rentals are crayons, but they manage to all have them. Whether they use a ream of the computer printers paper with them, the childrens books get colored on or the walls get a lovely drawing the mess is always left. Yes these are the under 2 again. A two day stay with a 6 month old and all 8 pack n play sheets and all 4 of the mattress pads there are used and left with baby crap. spit up and other things we have yet to figure out on them. I usually have 1 or 2 of these aged children, but 3 twice and they all stayed for free thank you AirBnB. The last one 12 adults and children (my actual house limit) with 3 infants addded on that broke the camels back they actually told me, did not ask that they needed 3 pack n plays and 2 highchairs and 2 booster chairs, I flat out will not allow it anymore. They make huge messes and the parents don't seem to care or clean up after them. Either they are paying guests or the parents can cancel their reservation I just don't care anymore. AirBnB did back me up on this because it's written in my rules, so I have had one cancellation because of it. 

[John1080]

@Letti0, yes, of course, those under two tend to make large messes and I wish we could charge for them.  At least we can charge those 2-12 the same price as adults and I certainly wouldn't consider charging less for that age group, as the OP was asking. 

In my situation, I would not have to charge as much generally if I didn't have to pay a large amount for my cleaning service.

[Letti0]

@John1080  If you put in your rules that all guests including infants must pay. You can charge for them. AirBnB backed me up on this for one guest that refused for her 2 infants. They cancelled it penalty free for me. 

[John1080]

@Letti0, wow I had no idea we could charge for infants. I guess one would have to charge in the 'request money' feature?