Advice please! Guests changing fellow travellers ages

[Shou-Kee0]

Hi there to all hosts - will be grateful for your advice here please!

I had a guest making a reservation enquiry as 4 guests and 1 infant initially, and was asking me a cheaper price due to a perceived discrepancy on his his side which I later on explained to be due to Airbnb service fees.

However later on he made a booking as 3 guests and 2 infants instead, which I find a bit suspicious. This is because i charge extra for per person over 2 guests so he is essentially saving on 1 more paying guest.

How do you think I should approach this - should I just directly ask him for his guest ages with the possibility this might be a bit confrontational?

If I do find that they have been dodgy with their childrens' ages, is this sufficient grounds for me to request Airbnb to void their booking without penalty?

Many thanks for your time

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Shou-Kee0 

according to Airbnb infants are up to 2 y. of age so at the time of booking maybe he realized he has 2 infants and not just 1. To make sure you can ask him how old are his kids.

To avoid such situations in the future you can charge all guests the same - adults, kids, toddlers or infants.

[Shou-Kee0]

Yea thats true, should also give him the benefit of the doubt. Shall check it up with him.

For clarification, I charge the same for any guests after 2 and there is no mechanism for you to charge different age groups differently anyway - Airbnb automatically does not count infants under 2 years old as a chargeable guest anyway. I think they have the infant age group and children age group 2-12 to exclude guests from booking properties that are not child-friendly.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Shou-Kee0 

You could say proof of age is required for babies since they stay for free and that if proof of age is not provided they need to be included in the guest count and have to pay the additional guest fee. 

I suggest you include this somewhere in your listing description and in your house rules too. 

[Shou-Kee0]

Thank you very much for your advice - shall look into that. Always learning something new from all of you here all the time!

[Thomas1033]

@Shou-Kee0Has the reservation  stay occurred yet and if so what was the outcome?