Child Rules - please like if you agree!

[Susan1188]

I have had a series of parents with "babies" (sometimes up to 3 years old).
More damage.  More use of utilities.  Intensive use of kitchen, laundry, and other stay-at-home utilities (airco, heat, television, etc).
Trouble leaving the apartment tidy on departure.
Trouble communicating, they have too much going on.

Please like if you agree:

- Airbnb should differentiate between true BABIES/INFANTS (under one year, not yet walking talking eating by self) and TODDLERS (walking, talking, with special amenities needs and special safety needs). A 24 month old TODDLER is not an INFANT!

- Airbnb should require guest to input DATE OF BIRTH of child.  I have had guest reserve with BABY (for 3 year old running shouting child).  It is a minimum I believe for the host to know the date of birth of the children we are expected to provide for.

- Airbnb should allow an infant fee, like extra guest or pet  fee, for all of these inconveniences and for amenities such as baby bath, baby bed, changing mattress, etc etc)

- Airbnb should NOT let people with infants send trip request to properties that have expressly selected "not suitable for children"

- Airbnb lets a single person book *any* property with up to 5 (!!!!) infants for FREE!  This is outrageous and the parameters should be changed immediately.  Try it on your own place, you'll see!

- Airbnb should require that if booking with infant or child, both parents need to be on the reservation!!  and in the discussion.  This, after 4x same situation: a father of a new infant assured me that they do not require special amenities for the baby.  Mother was not in on  the conversations or the booking. Only to have a stressful catastrophe on arrival when Mom and Baby arrive and there is no baby xyz. Which they then expect the host to go out and immediately provide. Mom and Dad should be in the loop and know what is provided and what not.  If booking with 2 adults + infant:  REQUIRE both adults to be registered in the booking and in on the messaging!  Mom or Dad who is not taking care of the airbnb side needs to know if the property booked has child amenities and safety or not.

I am a mother of 2 grown children, I know how hard it is with young ones.  Impossible to leave on time or leave the place as tidy as you would like.   In my day we made due or got on with it, finding our own solution in local shops.  Never would I expect my host to go out and provide something special that we might need.  Especially if the property was highly regarded and "not suitable for children".  Never would I mind paying an extra fee for a bit of leniency in the cleaning after leaving with my 2 kids. 

[Rhonda301]

I hailed a baby portable crib car seats toys to entertain said baby the stuff for the baby and a Four year old looked like we were moving. Our house isn’t suitable for children period.  We say so and yet we get requests all the time. We don’t have marked any cjild equipment toys or games and we can not make outlets on the floor safe enough. I agree with you and had I been traveling to an Airbnb with kids I wouldn’t look to the host to provide bring your own.  They are probably used to grandparents buying one of everything for those houses. But that isn’t feasible for us nor did we want to. Most places around me say no pets no children becasue we are rural. Very rural. 

[Susan1188]

Problem is, people who have checked "2 adults" and one "infant" can sent trip request ANYWHERE even places very explicity states as not child suitable.

I get it,airbnb has a lot of requests with infants, well then you should make it transparent and charge for it.

I know from experience when you have your first new baby it's hard to realize that you can't travel as you did before!  

[Enri1804]

@Susan1188  I agree with almost everything you said. The only thing I wouldn’t do is “requiring DATE OF BIRTH of child” this is a bit too invasive and could raise an identity theft issue; some privacy is important with everything online these days. Maybe require the YEAR of birth. I don’t know. I’ve had some good families, kids, toddlers and infants, and some bad ones, so I understand where you are coming from.

[Susan1188]

@Enri1804  I can tell you are coming from a good place.  But come on.  Telling me the month and year of your kid's birth will not put you at  risk of ID theft.
Coming to me in Spain or any other of my millions of competitors, you will need to provide your full ID info to me for scanning and sending to the police, and for me to keep, on record at the property in case of a control, as required by law.  If you don't agree to that, better not come to Spain.

Maybe surprising to US people, most countries in the world have ID cards and ID numbers and you use this number for everything from opening a bank account to asking for an invoice at your local home depot.  Giving birth date of your "baby"  should not be a problem.

[Gillian166]

we don't need a date of birth if ABB would just let us charge for infants/kids. 

[Susan1188]

you can charge for infants and whatever else you want, just put it in your house rules, listing description, IB message.

[Debra300]

@Susan1188,

I use size, and not age as a guide for babies.  I don't consider them to be infants f they cannot fit in the Play 'N Pack.

[Helen744]

@Debra300 thats funny , I have one little child at the moment who is supposed to be two but after looking at him/her, long hair ,dont know, I made the remark that I did not think they would fit in the porta cot they had requested and left them to it. They must have known. Some two year olds are big though but the porta cot we have is one of the biggest.Its funny because I had removed the extra guest fee before they arrived so it did not matter to me . most children even big ones co sleep anyway. H

[Debra300]

@Helen744,

Pricing for small/young children is tricky, because like you said they often still sleep in the bed with parents.  So, there's no real need for an extra person fee.  However, hosting these human sprouts also incurs additional costs for more frequent laundry, dishwashing, cooking, parents staying indoors longer using more electricity, particularly AC.  These activities are not inexpensive on island, and the guest must pay for them.

[Helen744]

@Debra300 Yes We must cover all inputs as a matter of course and I imagine having everything brought in focuses the mind . I intend to put back my extra person fee but at a reduced rate once the school holidays are over but its liberating at the moment not to have to count or decide how old a child may or may not be.I am only hosting four at the moment instead of five or six , even though I have a booking for five coming up . three adults , all women and two children, so believe me people are looking for a holiday but counting their pennies at the moment . There is another surge I think of people who have not travelled for a while at all. H

[Susan1188]

What?  None of my recent families with babies slept in the bed with parents.
They all needed multiple child amenities, crib, extra mattress, special sheets, special bathtub, bottle warmer, etc etc.

They are inside more often doing laundry and cooking, cleaning up washing and drying, when little one is asleep the NEEED netflix more urgently than any other guest and it is a big giant issue if any one of these amenities is faulty (maybe due to their fault!) 

Also "need" early check in and late check out to accomodate feeding and nap schedules..

Yes it's just a baby maybe sharing parents bed but so many other considerations!

[Richard531]

There absolutely MUST the option to add a fee for all "heartbeats" in a house if we so choose.  I have no idea why there wouldn't be.  Infants/babies/toddlers. . .  All of them are messy, messy, messy.  Don't get me started on how loony parents are hauling 100 lbs of crap for a 15 lb baby.  

As a new parent myself (6 month old) we found it a real head-scratcher that our favorite cruise line (Norwegian) handles infants EXACTLY like adults.  Full charge.  I mean, the infant won't even eat!  But still, that's the tact that the cruise line took and now we have to decide if we think that's OK with us.

It should be the same on YOUR listing.  Host should decide how to charge extra guests.  Of any age.  Dog fees too!  Charge per dog/per night if we'd like.  But Airbnb, for some unknown reason, wants to limit our ability to easily tack on variable charges when all the functionality is already there.  

I just wish I could speak to the functional lead of the team making these decisions.  If there was no good reason, we could improve the experience for guests/hosts.  If there's a good reason, I'd like to know it.  

[Susan1188]

New parents seem to need so much stuff!

Like omg, my two kids did not die when:

- I bathed them in the kitchen sink
- I warmed their bottle under the hot water tap, in a pan of hot water, or for a few seconds in the microwave
- we played with sea shells, leaves, pillows, whatever was around instead of a playmobile play-gym
- they slept in their sleeping bag-sleeper pyjamas in  pack N play or I set them up with a cushion on the floor (I would never have dreamed of calling the host out for a special child mattress and sheets)