How do you plan on handling Airbnb not counting infants towards hosts Maximum guests?

[Jerry5]

Here is how Airbnb handles infants.

"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."

https://blog.atairbnb.com/more-host-controls/?_ga=2.41608674.1505512829.1510941195-8965376.151094119...

So if your local code enforcement or law enforcement shows up and you are over your legal maximum, What will you tell them?

[Marzena4]

It's more probable that a family of 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 infants would appear, @Jerry5. So that's why I do not host infants. In fact I could host babies, but no toddlers (stairs). And since Airbnb doesn't distinguish between them, I host neither.

[Kelly149]

@Jerry5 if you read the article, it says that you may count guests in any way you'd like, your rules just need to specify how you would count/charge them.

So, you can make any and all infants free

you can ban any and all infants

you can say you'll take one free infant but no more

or that you'll take one paying infant but no more

or you expect all humans to count in the paying adult category and that your max for all humans is whatever it is

you can sidestep this policy, you just need to put it in writing in your rules and if you're trying to exclude infants or children, there needs to be a safety reason -- you dare not say you just don't like them. Not allowed

[Jerry5]

If the guest and Airbnb does not tell you they are there, how are you suppose to know they are there?

This is my point. If the guests know that Airbnb does not count them as guests, why as a guest would you risk getting rejected and include them in your guest list?

Airbnb is giving justification for them not putting them on the itinerary. 

Kelly, it is not a perfect world, so if you have been doing this for any amount of time you know guests lie from time to time. But for Airbnb to give justification for the guests to be deceptive is not acceptable.

[Kelly149]

@Jerry5 This is exactly my point. You can absolutely say that you aren’t safe for infants and that they can’t come. Or you can say that they may come but they must pay. Either way if a guest lies about an infant then it’s the same as if they lie about a boyfriend or a party or any of the other things they lie about. You’re welcome to remove them or not let them in. 

[Stephanie236]

How do you specify that you want all humans to count?

m fine with infants, toddlers, kids, teenagers, but I only want a max of 7 people. Infants are people too.  I don’t understand why they don’t count. And I don’t know how to make Airbnb include them in the total allowed. 

[Allison116]

I think it is wrong not to count them. My max # of guests is 3 for a reason. Yes i could add air mattresses or let prople use couches to increase the # i can host but I dont want to do that because it is in my home and i don’t want a crowd. So now if i allow infants what they  are saying is i could end up with like 7 guests . 

[Jerry5]

I agree Allison. In your home is something you can regulate. But if this is a rental home and you have keyless check in, how are you suppose to regulate it?

Even if you met all of your guests, and they show up with 7 guests and your limit is 5 and they tell you that Airbnb does not count the 2 infants as guests, how do you deal with that?

[Edwin57]

I can host up to 5 I had two adults and three kids but,is in my rules no kids under age I have 12 and up

[Jerry5]

Hi Albert.

If your guests show up and claim that Airbnb does not count them as guests, How will you handle that?

[Edray0]

Hi all,

I have my maximum occupancy set at 16 people on my AirBnB listing. This is the limit that the town has licensed me for and is the fire code. The AirBnB booking engine allowed a guest to enter more than 16 people when they enter an added amount for children and infants. Since I have Instant Book enabled, they were able to book my property with 19 people. This would cause me to get a fine of at least $750 and the town would suspend my rental license (STA). Not to mention that if the guest went in and there was a fire, the fire fighters would mainly look for 16 people. Murphys law could cause a domino of mistakes that could take the lives of 3 "people" (yes infants are people too AirBnB). This is not about a paying person as it it is stying in compliance and for guest safety.

I am on my way to being a Superhost and because I have Instant Book enabled and the AirBnb booking engine allowed more guests that I have set, I am told I will be penalized by loosing my opportunity to become a SuperHost for one year when I cancel the reservation. This is VERY upsetting to me and is most unfair. I should not suffer due to a problem with the AirBnB booking engine. This doesn't happen on the other listing sites I'm on. I'm in a position where I can't legally accept this reservation.

This needs to be fixed as it could cause me and obviously a number of other owners on AirBnB, a lot of trouble in the future. The Town my rental is in has handed out 7 fines that I know of in the last week. One was because there was one extra car in the driveway. I must operate with 100% compliance.

As I said, infants are people too. It's rediculous that on my FAMILY rental, I would have to lie and say that it's not suitable for children and infants. It  would effectively weeken listing by cutting out upfront people with infants using the filters. Fire regulations EVERYWHERE I know of on the planet, count every human as a person. Max occupancy is max occupancy "period". I can write whatever I want as rules which may help a bit, but 7 out of 10 people wont read it. I'm just lucky this guest was upfront. As said in messages above, not all guests are.

If an AirBnB guest drives 2 hours and decides to bring 16 people plus an undocumented infant, with the current model, they could call me out for false advertising. And if you think they wont, I had one guest try to accuse me of false advertising because on arrival, they saw a new unhooked up A/C unit that I didn't even have a picture of much less advertise. They may not have had a case but word of mouth and reviews can make or break us owners.

This is a simple fix that AirBnB can do and I know they have the resources. We owners have the product that makes AirBnB money. Our words and concerns should be heard and acknowledged. I have been in the vacation rental business since 2003 and with that experience, I know it's not an outrageous request to fix this. I've also been a full-time computer tech since 1991 so I KNOW that it is not a difficult change.

Can anyone in this community put me in touch with support (which is a whole other story)? I will not lose my superhost chance quietly since it's something I worked for.

[Edray0]

To add to my anger and punishment that AirBnB has decided to hand out for their faulty system, they have also put a block on my calendar so that I can't book the canceled dates. Yet another reason that reminds me of why I stopped using AirBnB for a year. 1 cancelation in the 16 completed rentals (plus many more coming up) and AirBnB seeks to damage my business by falsely promoting to the public that I am an owner that doesn't keep his word and cancels reservations.

I'm sure the Ontario Business Practices Act and the Consumer Protection Act, protect us owners and give us certain rights in this instance. The Federal Competition Act targets it for sure. I would hope it doesn't come down to me having to submit a complaint. If it could easily talk to customer support at AirBnB and explain and have the situation resolved, I wouldn't even need to consider Protection Acts.