Booking with infants, even though not suitable for children

Booking with infants, even though not suitable for children

I've had my listing set as not suitable for infants or children, but yet I keep getting bookings for guests with an infant. Now if I decline them, it will affect my ranking. Anyone else have this happen?

10 Replies 10
Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

That's annoying...probably worth highlighting up front in your listing description that it's not suitable for children of any age.

 

Are these all bookings or are some inquiries. As you know you can just respond to inquiries you don't need to decline. If it's a booking ask the guests to withdraw the request.

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Holly142 I have had this several times, despite my listing stating that I cannot host anyone under the age of 18 Y/O at time of reservation because of several reasons. 

 

Even if its been instantly booked, its good practice to send the guest a note asking, 

 

-WHO is coming exactly and purpose of stay (maybe add the point re children here)

-dates (often they put down the wrong check out

-they have read the full listing and rules 

-note any pitfalls (eg All rooms are only accessible by stairs, both long and narrow)

 

If you accepted and they then tell you this, then send a note saying along the lines of 

 

Dear xxx, 

Hope you are well. 

As stated in our listing several times, we are unable to host anyone under the age of 18 years old at time of the reservation. We kindly ask that you please cancel this reservation within the first 48 hours after confirming this reservation as to get a full refund. 

Kindest regards, 

xxx

 

This has worked for us over the last 4 years almost. 🙂

-

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Holly142  I agree you should highlight that you don't allow infants in a couple of places in the listing.  Then, if people still book,  first, tell them that you don't allow infants and that they can cancel penalty free w/in 24 hours, assuming that is correct.  As a last resort, you could accept the booking stating that you can host the adults on the reservation but not the infants....both of these actions should prompt the guest to cancel and protect your acceptance rate.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Holly142 

I've had this happen three times. One guest didn't even tell me. I let them all slide because there is a big difference between what I consider an infant and a 2-year-old. And maybe the guests think this way too.

(Airbnb categorizes infants as 0-2.) Two-year-olds wreak havoc and fall down stairs and color on walls. Six-month-olds stay still in a car seat and sleep all day. But none-the-less your rules are your rules. I would ask the guest to withdraw their request since your listing does not allow children/infants and won't be a good fit for them.

IMO there needs to be a clear filter for places that are "unsuitable" for children, or to be more clear, where children are not allowed. I find the language also to be very murky in airbnb here, "unsuitable" does not commonly carry the same meaning as "not allowed", but it appears the hosts or airbnb don't quite want to spell it out. Also, for some reason even when I specifically indicate infant in my search, why are all those places that do not allow children still being shown/offered to me. This particular point requires work on the app I would say.

Absolutely my thinking. Unsuitable for children is not the same as no children allowed. This is controversial because unsuitable could mean they don’t offer baby gates or plugs in their sockets that make their home safe and secure for babies of small ages. Which could simply mean be extra vigilant with your child. This would wave them of any liability if a child is hurt on the property..In comparison it could mean we don’t accept children because we host multiple guest at one time and the environment is not appropriate for a small child as they may make noise, cry or cause a disturbance to other guest. I wonder if they are afraid this could be interpreted as discrimination and that is why they are very vague with the language?  Additionally, as you mentioned when you filter your search results with number of guest and their type it still pulls up individuals that say not suitable for infants in the search results which is very misleading. I almost missed this on a lot of bookings. Luckily I was just paroozing around reading the post in depth. Now I realize I need to reach out to each host and ask for specifications. 

Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Jan-Andre0 because airbnb thinks it is a good idea to pressurise hosts into accepting any guest, good fit or not.  Not accepting a request, our response rate will be hit unless we can convince the guest to withdraw the request - not all can be bothered.  

With Instant Book on and "not suitable for children" ticked,  guests are not able to IB, but they may still request to book.  And infants are not in the total person count, so a property listed as sleeps four, guests can book 4 adults and an x number of infants.  Unless the property is a large one, it would be difficult to accomodate.

There are filters in place for baby bed/cot and for highchair, those could assist you in finding a suitable place to stay.

 

@Holly142 

 

You're not the first and I am very sure you won't be the last to have this problem.

 

Firstly, Airbnb doesn't have an option to indicate in the listing that children aren't allowed at your listing, if you prefer, only adults may be accommodated (it sounds a little less negative).  Clearly Airbnb doesn't want any reservation to be declined, however, for some hosts, myself included, it is not possible to accommodate minors and there is no liability insurance in place to cover this event.

 

I always send a confirmation message to the guest upon acceptance which confirms "your reservation for X adult guests".  The house rules also make it crystal clear that my listing is unsuited to children/minors.

 

If, as has happened, a guest turns up with children, I simply don't allow them to check-in and point them in the direction of Airbnb.

 

These are the same guests who always manage to buy a child plane ticket by the way, yet they will try to convince you that they didn't know they had minors in their party!

I just did this and lost my Superhost as the ‘guests’ left such a poor review. 

Tim2771
Level 1
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Airbnb search is basically broken if you have an infant.

I select 2 adults, 1 infant... search...

Lo and behold the results are full of places that specify "Not suitable for children and infants" in their rules. Very annoying and cannot select infants in any additional filters either.