Should children under 2 Free? I think Not!

[Monica4]

I have hosted families for over three years. Children are the most work because they.....well...they are children. I just recently found out that my listing shows that children under 2 are free. My goodness....the spilled juice on the floors, the fingerprints on my glass doors, extra laundry, diapers in the garbage......all OK "if" I get paid for the extra work but it seems that Airbnb has decided that I should do this work for free? Sadly, the only way that I can stop this free promotion is to change my settings to "unsuitable" for children under 2 and now my listing will not show up when a family is looking to stay somewhere with small children.

Oh well, I had better go and check the other two platforms that I use.

[Melanie58]

Monica, if it helps to think of it this way, I think this is what happened.  I am a parent of three children.  When I book a hotel room, It is $70 a night and that just is what it is.  They don't ask if I have children, and they don't ask how many people are in my party and what their ages are.  You just book a room.  On Airbnb, you disclose a number of guests, and some hosts charge for extra guests above a certain point.  The first time we stayed at an airbnb I have no idea if we even ticked the boxes, but I automatically assumed our children did not count as guests because we weren't using beds, they were traveling with their own sleeping bags and pillows, and we were just crashing for a night - arrived at 11pm, left at 8am.  I literally could not conceive of counting a child as a guest because my background was just not Airbnb culture.  

You don't have to have a very good imagination to imagine some of the unfortunate situations that have come up when parents guessed wrong about what the policy would be - families turned away at midnight, people upset over cancellation fees on both sides, and potential guests (i.e. our income stream) wary of using Airbnb because their policy was so unclear.  So now the policy is very clear.  0-2 is automatically free (As a parent, this makes sense to me.  0-2 year olds don't take a bath on their own, don't typically use a bed (parent would provide or co-sleep), and usually a parent would be bringing the food for that child along), and anything above is charged as a full guest.  Plus, now you actually know how many guests you are getting and what their general ages are right off the bat, making it easier to prepare the room and stock the fridge.  Parents don't have to wonder if they need to count their 6 year old as a guest, and hosts don't have to grill people to the nth degree to find out who will be staying.  

My thought if you are concerned about urine on the bed is to charge a deposit.  I've got news and it is this - children are not the only people who urinate on matresses - just check out the forum here and you will see all the confirmation you need that matress covers are essential no matter what the age of clientele you serve is.  My thought if you don't like cleaning up after children specifically because of the types of messes they make is turn off your listing for those people.  But on the whole I think this policy clarifies things a lot for guests and hosts and gives you the potential to make more income, not less.  I have hosted several families in the past four months and all have been wonderful, respectful, and clean.  

[Jiw0]

Y'all hosties want to see something funny?  🙂

Not just are infants not charged and not included in the total number of allowed guests, it's actually possible to clock up a whole volleyball team of the little rug rats. 🙂

See below: perfectly possible to book a place suitable for 5 as a group of 5 adults and 5 infants. 

[Monica4]

@Melanie58 Thank goodness my listing is not set to Intant Book. A couple of weeks ago I had a request from a couple to wanted to rent my entire house for a wedding in town. They were the only guests paying, but wanted to have all of the wedding party's children hosted in my house - an children under 2 would be free. I refused the reservation request outright.

I welcome children of all ages, but I am bristling with indignation that Airbnb has decided the my hour cleaning up after the little ones are worth $0. If you have hosted the under twos, you will have experienced food under couch pillows, dried up juice on hardwood floors, broken night table lamps. I don't want to penalize guest who come without children but charging them more than what is reasonable for them - just so that my expenses and time will be covered if someone books a child for free.

Guests who expect children to stay with them for free SHOULD book hotel rooms. That is what hotels do. My house is not a hotel. The rules are very clearly stated on my listing. If it puts families off because they don't want to pay for their children, then those are not the guests that I want to host.

[Linda108]

@Monica4  There have been several great responses but I especially appreciate your points. Thank you

[Melanie58]

I have hosted under twos and had none of those problems, though maybe it is different because we are in the home while guests are here?  Or maybe because we have children things tend to be a bit more child friendly anyway.  Who knows.  At any rate, I get where you are coming from, but on the whole I think it is a great compromise considering the global nature of the platform.  I always try to think of the guests I get off easy with and how that balances out the whole.  Yes, sometimes the shower is hairier than I would like, but sometimes a guest leaves the bathroom in such spotless condition that I wonder if they used it at all.  Again, I think for broken items it is handy to take a deposit.  For the general mess, with the new platform, at least you know who is booking/the approximate ages, and can decline if that isn't your cup of tea.

[Melanie58]

But for a potential Airbnb customer, there is certainly nothing in the Airbnb advertising that suggests families with kids should always stay at a hotel.  And there is no requirement that people charge, or not, for children.  I am just saying, in global society as a whole, there really isn't a strong precedent for charging extra for children at a certain age.  We don't have a general social more on this topic.

In the old way, lots of people were getting offended in both directions - hosts who felt lied to and frustrated when parents showed up with children (while the parents were quite used to booking hotels/vacation homes/etc without being charged extra for children or even having to disclose children), and parents who felt like they were being extorted because the booking information was not clear (for example, a place might have a max guests of 5 and charge extra after 3 guests, but a parent with a 2 year old and infant books for two so you don't go to the extra trouble of putting out additional towels that won't be used.  Then they show up and are turned away or asked to pay an additional fee).  Now things are very clear for both sides.  Certainly, there is plenty of disagreement about the similarity between 3 year olds and 12 year olds, or infants and two year olds.  Maybe the distinction isn't 100% perfect.  But it does seem to be a step in the right direction as far as making things clear for all parties.    

There are tools available to recover the fee you would like to charge for the 0-2 crowd - cleaning fee & security deposit.  I would actually suggest not thinking of the 0-2 year old as a person in the party.  Don't put out a towel for them, don't provide bedding, etc.  Then, if people ask for these things you could always charge for that.  I have to assume that is the intent between 0-2 being free.  Just like on an airplane, if I fly with a lap baby, I am hardly surprised to get on the plane and realize there isn't a seat for my child.  If I want a seat for them, I have to pay full price for an adult seat.  I just have the option of allowing them to ride on my lap up to a certain point.  So, you say you aren't charging for the child, you are charging to provide linens.  Linens are not provided for guests age 0-2, but are available upon request for a fee of x. 

[David641]

Keep in mind that flying with a lap child is putting your child at grave risk for injury or death, and is also putting other passengers at risk.

[Melanie58]

Well you don't have to worry about my children being projectiles anymore - youngest is 5 yo.  

[Fiona95]

Thanks for this thread! 

I recently declined a booking (a couple requesting to come with a baby). The room is simply unsuitable for children, even though I accept children in my other units, it states clearly not in this room.(And I didn't have another option available)

As a result I lost my super host status! 

Just because people think they can bring their babies for free! 

Watch out - check your listing!

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

Fiona, I understand if you cancel a booking you will lose your SuperHost status.  But if you decline a reservation request it should not cause you to lose your SuperHost status. Did you cancel a confirmed reservation or did you just decline a reservation request?

[Stacey-And-James0]

I'm going to echo the earlier comment that it clarifies who is charged and who isn't. In addition to saying your place is not suitable for guests under age 2, a few of you might just put a comment in your listing and rules that you don't like messy kids who always make messes and that you will charge extra For cleaning up after any rugrats. Or even that you would rather host pets than kids. Those with kids will I'm sure be glad for the heads up and look elsewhere.

[Michelle140]

I'm sorry. I don't care what is "normal" in the hotel industry. We are not hotels. As has been stated, many of us deal with guest restrictions in order to have insurance coverage. Airbnb forcing extra guests upon us puts hosts at a serious liability risk. That is unacceptable for me. I wouldn't be surprised if this caused a significant decrease in the number of hosts accepting children under the age of two.

Personally, I never have, but did accept pets. I have recently removed this allowance after one set of guests arrived with two dogs (when I was not home) without notifying me they were bringing them. They also assumed that since it was "pet friendly" that they could just bring them. Completely not the case. Hassle and risk is not worth the extra fee I charge (just $10/pet/night). Benefit gone.

[Chrissy-and-Greg0]

We (in New Zealand) sometimes get the situation where guests simply do not declare that they have children with them.  Some guests from certain regions in particular seem to think children under the age of 5 do not count as people!  I always inquire further when I get family bookings for one of our listings which is an entire house.  You get to know what to look out for in the guest messages, that gives hints that there might be children as well.  I usually ask things like: "what is the mix of people in your group?"  "How many beds do you require?"  "How many couples require double beds?" - that sort of thing.   If they reveal there are more guests than the number they have booked, I politely tell them that if they require beds for the children, they need to increase the number of guests in their booking.  Or sometimes I offer a portable cot for very small children at an extra charge, or suggest they bring one with them.

AIrBnB is certainly not helping this situation.  I have just done a check by trying to book my own place, just a room in our house, with 2 adults and 5 "infants under 2yrs".  It does in fact let me make a booking inquiry, despite our maximum persons is set to two.  This is ridiculous, as our "private room" is just one bedroom in our house, with one Queen bed in it - there is simply not room for five cots in the room.  And if guests do not clearly state they have infants, how can we as hosts know?   I suggest everyone leave strongly worded feedback to the AIrBnB team about this, as this is clearly not acceptable...  use this link https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback      Good luck!

[Jean119]

Thanks for the info.

Regards

Jean

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I think that if you have house rules with "not safe for children 0-2 and 2-12" on, then families with children can not instant book but have to require booking.

If they book them as an adult or don't mention kids and just show up on your doorstep with them, then they are breaking your house rules and you are allowed to cancel the reservation without refund with the help of ABB (I asked that ABB and get this answer)

I charge extra people just 7 € but this is not enough for babies and kids. Just to set up a crib and mattrass and then pack it again in a storage I need 1 hour! Not to mention extra cleaning costs after some kids. 4 out of 5 of them have peed in bed ! I do have waterproof sheet but somehow they managed to pee on the side of the mattrass and on the duvet as well.  I was seriously considering charge more for babies or children or at least to charge extra cleaning fee.

But, at the end I  realized that my apartments are not safe and suitable for kids anyway and I don't want to be responsable if something happens to them. I don't host kids of any age any more and problem solved