Infants not charged?

[Luigi27]

I just realized that infants are not charged with extra guest fees!

Since when Airbnb changed this? And why? Airbnb did not ask me anything about this change! 

I wont accept infants if they don't pay the extra guest fee. This is for sure!

Infants, no matter what, also go to the toilet and use more water and more electricity for the air conditioning. 

How can I charge infants an extra guest fee?

[Mimi13]

Free? Who are they kidding? It's clear that the founders do not have toddlers, or wives who tell them each night what disaster their little darling caused that day. In the US, I believe, the medical profession considers infants to be under 1. One and 2 are toddlers and 3 and 4 are preschoolers. Even though a child under 1 will leave me soiled diapers and the potential for bedding and towels with pee and spit-up, I could accept that. Most of it goes into the washer or garbage quickly. But a 22 month old who leaves finger prints on my french doors, glass coffee tables, and walls, moves all the toys off the shelves, and maybe tears pages out of the childrens books, is someone I will not host for free. They bring in more sand from the beach, pebbles from the swings, etc.

I love having children of all ages here. I had my first guest last June and from July 4th through Labor Day, I had all 3 rooms full every weekend. As soon as the timing allowed, I also achieved superhost status. I did not have a problem with any of the children. But with the new policy, I have decided to no longer accept infants. I decided this Sat. night and made changes on Sunday morning. Of course, I received a reservation request, including a 20 month old, on Sunday night. When I told the mom I no longer accepted infants, she told me I was discriminating about the age. She is right! While management is worrying about our not accepting a guest based on their photo (one of their reasons for Instant Booking), they have caused discrimination of a different kind.

As an older, divorced, woman with a big house and 3 spare rooms, this is a serious part of my income. Due to arthritis in my knees, I had to quit my part-time waitress job last fall. I love this new job and thought Airbnb worked well for me last year. With recent changes, I'm not so sure. I have no other place to list my rooms, so I hope management rethinks this policy.

Not part of the room count? Really? I'd like to know how fire departments feel about this. Do they think these "infants" don't use bedding, towels, baths, flushes?

The "older, divorced, woman" is also why I won't use Instant Booking. I want to know who is coming into my house. But that's another story...

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

Hello, @Luigi27, @Mimi13, @Dawn82, @Jon16, @Sharon103

I posted this in Host Voice, the forum for people to post ideas directly to the company.  If enough people thumbs up/comment, the policy will be reviewed by the company.  PLease thumns up/comment if you agree!

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/New-Infant-policy-Babies-are-people-too-and-lots-of-e...

[Duane-and-Barbara0]

Gotta say...it would illegal in my area to allow infants over our max of 4 persons.  Our county has a 2-persons (regardless of age) per bedroom.  So if 2 couples arrived and 1 had an infant, we would have to refuse entrance. It's the law! 

[Rudy-And-Bea0]

I just became aware of this charge myself.  Is it possible to change my settings so I do charge for infants?  I do not wish to change my settings to not be suitable for children but as I provide a baby cot and additional towels/linen and have additional cleaning and usage charges, I would like to charge an infant fee.

[Landhaus-Osborne0]

@Rudy-And-Bea0 that is the problem....Airbnb do not beleive we should be able to charge for infants. In their eyes, they cause us no work, no extra cleaning and just bring joy to our lives...how wrong they are. Their advice is to mention how much you charge infants in your House Rules and request this extra amount after reservation. However, this is guaranteed to cause issues as people hardly ever read the house rules and also most parents also beleive their children should be free.

Make it simple for yourself - just mark your home as unsuitable. Less cleaning, less noise..... 😉

[Susie5]

@Rudy-And-Bea0 and everyone, until recently I had not thought about the issue of infants much and had actually purchased some items e.g. a booster chair, some puzzles and other things for young kids, cabinet locks, and a couple of inflatable air beds (kid size) so that they could fit into the bedroom where the parents are. 

But I had some neighbors whose boiler had broken down and were looking for a place to stay while their boiler was fixed, and they have a young child. They came to look at my place and immediately spotted the risk of the open spiral staircase, where young kids would be so tempted to play. They opted not to stay with me, despite it being right across the street.  

After seeing it through their eyes, I decided to mark my place as not suitable for infants (if anyone bothers to read that far!)