Children under 2 Free? NO !

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

These new policies have me somewhat confused.
I dont mind who stays at my place as long as they pay me so I can meet my requirements e.g. gas and electric, council rates, mortgage, insurances etc on the property.
What I am concerned about is the policy stating that children under the age of 2 no longer count as the maximum amount of people that can stay.
We can accomodate 4 people only at any one time.
If 2 adults come with there 2 children that are 2 years old or under book with us this means we get paid for the adults only.
How can we allow this.
If beds are used by children of ages 1 to 2 years old then all linen and towels will have to be turned over for our next guests on those particular beds.
These 2 year olds or unders will use there required share of hot water, electricity, clothes washing in the laundry. There rubbish will be places into bins that we as rate payers pay the local councils for through rates. 
How can this be there are costs involved with every person that we host, from infants to retirees.
Please some one let me know if I am wrong.
Regards Mark.

[Sara2]

You are right but if you have not read the new t and cS you can be delisted I believe for discriminating against families with small kids and they have been trying the kids don't pay for months now

[Diana305]

Hi Sara,

Obviously this would differ from country to country based on the laws but I don't think it is discrimination if you allow/welcome/host children and charge the same fee for all children. I think people who don't allow children to stay at their Airbnbs may be at risk of age and family discrimination charges (at least here in the US). That's just my opinion, however.

If a host accepts all people and treats everyone the same regardless of race, religion, sex/gender, gender orientation or other protected categories, it is less likely someone could be accused of discrimination. Airbnb might have a different view based on their terms of service and the laws are different in every country so it's impossible to say 100%. 

Take care,

Diana

[David126]

Seems that you can charge extra, same way as you could do for pets.

[Deirdre12]

I totally agree  with you Marc -- here is what i wrote to Airbn this morning:

Hello Airbnb,

I am a Superhost with 38 5-star reviews. I recently received your email about the new "controls" regarding house rules that you are launching. 

I want to clarify what these new "controls" mean. As I read these two below, it does not sound like these are actually new controls for my benefit as a host, but rather that these are new rules to benefit guests that you are foisting on me as a host.

• Infants (under 2 years of age) will not count toward your guest maximum. You can specify whether your home is safe or suitable for infants, and note the maximum number of infants you can accommodate, in your House Rules.
  
• Travelers won’t be charged additional guest fees for infants or pets. If you want to charge an additional fee, put those details in your House Rules and collect the fee using the Resolutions Center.

It sounds like you are now FORCING me to NOT count children under 2 toward my guest maximum and that are you are FORCING me to not charge an additional guest fee for children under 2 or pets. (Unless I do it via the Resolutions Center which is absolutely absurd as it adds a whole other level of work to this whole process as well as making it sound like I have something to "resolve" with my guests.)  Is this accurate?  These don't sound like new controls for my benefit as a host -- it sounds like it 100% percent benefits guests. Why are you dressing it up as a benefit for hosts?

I prefer to count children under 2 as a paying guest and I also prefer to charge the additional guest fee for children under 2.

My house is geared mainly toward families so we get a lot of families traveling with small children. I therefore have a lot of experience with hosting small children in addition to being a mother of two small children myself.  So I am very confused -- why would I NOT want to charge an additional guest fee for children under 2, or for that matter, a pet fee?  The exact opposite is true.  Children under 2 and pets almost always cause MORE work and therefore more MONEY expenditures for a host, not less. Children under 2 mean the guests use our pack and plays and highchairs, which my housekeeper has to fold back up and clean, they use the playroom and make more of a mess there for my housekeeper to clean up, they leave toys outdoors, they draw on walls, they wet the bed which requires additional cleaning and laundry, they throw food on the floor, their parents throw wet wipes into the toilets (despite my requests not to) which result in clogs which result in me having to call the plumber. I say this a loving parent with two wonderful children of my own - so I mean no disrespect to small children. 

When pets come, they often get hair all over the furniture or they poop all over the backyard which requires more time of me or my housekeeper or my gardener, which requires more money from me -- not less. Again, I have a pet and I love pets which is why we welcome them -- but why are you forcing me to not collect a pet fee?

If small children under 2 do not count toward my guest maximum of 8 people, that means I could conceivably have 8 adults there along with 2, 3 or 4 or however many small children under 2 the guests wanted to bring. That is decidedly NOT what I want. That is too many people in the house. And now you are forcing me to accept that.

I also suspect there will be people whose children are over 2 who figure well, I will just say they are under 2 to avoid paying the extra guest fee, so over time I suspect I will lose money that way, too.

Can you please let me know if I am misinterpreting these new "controls" -- I hope I am -- and if I am not, can you please let me know why in the world you would be forcing me to do this?

Thank you very much,

Deirdre **

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

Thanks deirdre,
Can you tell me how to contact airbnb as this seems impossible as well.

[Deirdre12]

Marck -- I agree, it is impossible to contact Airbnb, and this angers me to no end as well!  I first tried emailing trust@airbnb.com and then response@airbnb.com and both got bounced back to me, saying they do not reply to these email addresses (although they had in the past) so had to go to the help section and select issues from the drop down menu that had nothing to do with my issue in order to submit it.  I also emailed the Airbnb CEO at his Airbnb email address because I was that annoyed by the fact that I could not email anyone about this issue.  Also in addition, I am very worried and upset about our US election and I don't need this crap on top of all this!  Argh.

[Blagoje0]

It is a new Airbnb policy and all we can do is just accept it or not. You can mark that your listing is not suitable for infants (under 2 years) but that does not mean someone will not come with children under 2 years (free of any charge), especially if guest do not read thoroughly listing description and IB the place.

[Momi0]

@Mark-And-Pearl0   That's so cool to see that your name (wife) ??  is Pearl...my name is Momi, which in Hawaiian means Pearl.  

To address your concern, I could recommend that you change your House Rules to "Our place is not suitable for 2 years or younger". That way you never have to worry about not getting paid for toddlers/babies.

 I have had it that way since our first experience back in 2015 with a family from China who booked our PRIVATE ROOM which is clearly marked for 2 people, but the husband booked it for ONE....thats right, he didnt' even count his wife as a guest.  AND, brought along his 5 month old SCREAMING baby that kept our entire family awake IN OUR HOME that we live in, and to make matters worse, they tried to hide that the baby had POOP onto the bed, through the sheets/mattress pad, which I smelled within minutes, but they wouldn't let me into the room to see what the smell was.  Needless to say, even though we allowed this guests to stay with us, after he had booked our private room under false pretenses about how many actual guests, we no longer allow anyone to book our place with a child UNDER 2. And recently, I have now changed it to say, NO LONGER suitable for children PERIOD.  We had a guests (single mom) who actually disappeared for 2.5 hours, leaving her 6 year old ALONE in our home, while my entire family was gone. Had I not come home from a meeting unexpectedly, I would have never known.  Imagine my shock and disbelief to have a small child left alone in a home where we have 2 dogs, 1 cat and the possibility of her getting hurt by furniture.  That irresponsible mum was asked to leave by Airbnb. Now, with every booking, I ask the guests if they are coming with children to avoid this happening again.  But yes, I completely agree with you!!!   Hotels may not charge specifically for 2 years old, but their $379 nightly rate (average rate in Hawaii)  covers the expense of any family staying in our hotels....wash, electricity, trash, damage...etc.  My $69 rate does not.  Enough said, right?  haha

SIDE NOTE:   I just hosted a family of 5, from Australia, kids were 11 & 13, and it was an ABSOLUTE WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE....so glad we did it. So its now a case by case basis.  Plus, they found me on Instragram.  That's my 5th booking to find me through social media 🙂

[Henrique14]

Well. I never charged for children under 6 years old. I agree with you but when you book an hotel children until a certain age don't pay too. So for me it's good news. 

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

How then do you cover the costs of changing linen that people have used yet not paid for.
It costs us $12 per single bed including towels etc for each change.
If children sleep in the bed that that just does not work.
That business model is floored.

[Anonymous]

6 month ago Airbnb tested this new baby free policy in France and I had major issues with some bookings.

For those who don't notice it yet Airbnb introduce an automatical Instant Booking filter, guests have to go to parameters to turn it off. So Airbnb  is discriminating non IB listings.

But if you have IB turned on you don't have any way to prevent bookings which exceed your listing maximum capacity. I tested it: my max capacity is 3 guests but Airbnb allows IB for 3 people up to 2 years old PLUS a max of 5 babies under 2y! From Airbnb point of view this is not a problem and even if you put in your house rules a reminder about capacity in this case you can't cancel penalty free.

My house is kid friendly, I invested in everything needed to host babies I even offer a trolley, high chair, changing table, baby bedding, etc. but I will be obliged to turn off the baby box on house rules and from now refuse tolders.

By allowing any booking which exceed my max capacity I could loose my hosting license, not being covered by hosting insurance and icing on the cake not covered by Airbnb host garantee (ToS clearly stand that illegal listings are not covered).

So no more babies for me under this new policy which is counterproductive and finally not a family friendly one.

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

We have 2 units on airbnb.
Our guests have completre privacy as we are around the corner in our own home.
Our units cater to 4 persons only this means in any formation.
This written on our pages and is quite clear.
Example
2 Adults & 2 Children 
3 Adults and 1 child
1 Adult and 3 children
4 adults
These are all fine, however I did a mock booking on our place and all the scenarios were accepted and heres the great bit if they also booked in up to 5 infants it was accepying the booking, with no fees to be charged.
Our place holds 4 people only as they are not big houses they are very quaint holiday units by the beach.
So it appears people can book over our maximum amount of 4 people and our place simply will not accomodate them.

I adult could book the place and have 5 children in for free under 2 years of age and run there own child care centre and make a tidy profit at the same time.
This is total garbage, airbnb have got to big for thre own good and employed the do gooders of the modern age.
Big mistake here.
I will be watching my bookings carefully and asking for proof of age for children that look to be over 2 years old but are being passed off as 2 or under.
This already happens and now the flood gates are well and truly open.
What a stressful and stupid thing to do to your hosts.
I think the airbnb community almost needs a Union to represent the hosts rights.
After all they are our properties.

[Angie43]

I agree with most posts. Infants are noisiest guests so far. Couples with infants tend to leave more mess and need more assistance and extra's. Will be writing to AirBnB and unforunately making our listing unavailable for infants if forced to accept them for free. 

[David126]

Fire Codes specify how many people you are allowed in one bedroom etc. I am sure they vary a lot between countries and how they are enforced.

I have never heard of a fire code not counting children under 2.