Potential host trying to charge more?

[Sabeen0]

Hi - i just have a question about policies. I tried booking a place and put all the guest information in correctly (my daughter is 1 and I selected 1 child under2). The host sent me a message that a 1 year old is actually considered a 4th guest and they will charge my 20euros in cash when we check in and if I agree they will accept my reservation. I was annoyed and cancelled it but I am curious if a host has the right to do this even though Airbnb sees kids under 2 as free.

[Lisa723]

@Sabeen0, No. This host was operating against Airbnb TOS. You can flag/report their profile.

[Sandra126]

The thing is that many hosts disagree with Airbnb, and see every human regardless of age as a guest. The only way around it is not to allow small children at all. Charging cash on check in is an absolute no.

So if you want to stay there, have them bill you via Air (not hard to do). Or stay somewhere else that welcomes children for free!

Airbnb didn't use to have this free child policy, so hosts may have joined prior. Then it changed, and hosts felt it unfair as small children are also generating rubbish, using linen and hot water, creating mess (more than an adult usually) etc.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sabeen0

by default Airbnb doesn't charge for infants up to 2 y.o. but every host is allowed to charge for infants if he wants. Usually, in this case guests just add their infant as a child into the total number of guests and problem is solved.

As @Sandra126 said - many hosts disagree with Airbnb and don't want to host infants for free. Since Airbnb introduced this " infants stay for free" policy many hosts don't want to host children under 2 y.o any more. The problem is - Airbnb allowes up to 5 infants for free + max number of adults and this is absurd for obvious reasons like not enough room, beds, more cost for hosts ... and becuse of insurance.

Airbnb wanted to help but in fact made it diffiucult for parents and for hosts.