Hosting with free infant policy

[Lynette57]

I know this topic has been an issue many times but now I have taken it upon myself to overcome this .

Once an enquiry comes through and shows a free infant attached, I immediatly contact the prospective guest and let them know there is going to be an extra service fee for (each) the infant that will require additional sleep area, additional bath towels , additional rubbish removal of soiled nappies, additional heating/cooling  additional notification to neighbours to allow for possibility of crying child in the midde of the night etc, and this charge will be an additional $100. or they can just register an additional guest for the meagre sum of $18.00 per night

Then if there are more guests  than my home is registered to sleep I can decline the booking as not being suitable as insufficient bedding. 

No back lash from ABB then as Any one can cancel or decline a booking with no recourse if the number of guests exceed my max numbers allowed.

This has worked when I had an enquiry with 9 adult guests then later during initial contact found out that there would also be 3 infants for free.

My home is only suited to max 9 guests.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lynette57

1. you can decline as many inquiries you want without any penalty.
2. You can decline as many requests you want but if the number is too high you will be pushed down in search results and as I've heard lately your instant book setting can be turned off.
3. Cancelling booking is still a gray area.... you said you did it without penalties but others have said the best is to contact Airbnb and ask them to do it

 You could put in your house rules that you do not except infants, just children 2-12 y.o. But... in this scenario your listing is not qualified for "family collection" so yes, sending alteration requests and messages and cancelling bookings / declining inquiries is the only and time consuming solution left.

The easiest and the best solution would be if Airbnb doesn't have free infants as default and let hosts decide if they want to charge them or not. But, Airbnb doesn't listen to his hosts ... 😞

ps

You said "extra service fee for (each) the infant ..." . Service fee is the sum Airbnb charges for their work . In your case it would be "extra cleaning fee/per stay" or "extra guest fee/per night" and to be able to collect it , it should be written in your house rules.

[Cor3]

Hi @Lynette57, @Branka-and-Silvia0,

I really do not understand, why Airbnb considers infants for free (and allow the additional number of infants in a group - to exceed the maximum number of persons to stay).

Typically infants will incur significant costs on the host. So, why can they stay at no charge?

[Linda108]

It is my understanding, @Cor3, that when this policy was instituted, Air BNB was mimicking the hotel/motel industry in an effort to appeal to a wider range of guests.

Perhaps the "family collection" will evolve for families traveling with little ones and the rest of us can continue to provide accomodations for adults and older children.

[Christine615]

Because hotels don't charge for infants. I don't either but I do make it clear that I consider babies and children to be part of the total headcount. And that my apartment is "adult space" and we're happy to help families but we are not child-proofed and have items that - if damaged - will be billed at replacement costs.

My apartment is decorated to accomodate my own family's style and taste (because we use it frequently) - so guests are warned before booking.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lynette57

it was on host voice, there are 8 pages of comments and the status is "under consideration"... already for 2 years.

Here you can also read the answer from Airbnb

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Free-infants-up-to-5-free-infants-In-a-listing-that-i...

If you browse through this forum you will see numerous posts about it and they are all against free infants policy

[Mark116]

It's another dumb policy by airbnb.  One size doesn't fit all.  Why not let the hosts decide if they want to make infants free of charge or not?  We don't accept children under 2 because the house isn't child proofed, but certainly, having to host them for free, so you could have a situation with 4 adults and 2 or 3 toddlers, which is too many people for the space, is no incentive for us to childproof so we can/would host younger children.