Is there anyway to not allow guests under 25 to rent?

[Tracy291]

We have been very lucky over the past couple of years of hosting, however, the few times we have had issues it has been with guests under 25. In those instances, our cabin has been used as a party house, left with some damage, large amount of clean up and reeking of marijuana (it's in CO). We have stated NO Smoking in our listing,  we reiterate it in our intro email and it is also included in our notebook at the house. Is there any way to NOT allow guests under a certain age to rent our cabin? 

[Helen3]

Why not just remove IB, vet your guests more carefully, tighten up your house rules and invest in CCTV.

Unfortunately guests of all ages can behave badly.

You can't discriminate on airbnb but other platforms might allow this.

[Pete69]

I'm not sure if this is a Federal or state thing, but at least in California this would qualify as age discrimination and invite a lawsuit.

[Kelly149]

You are allowed to discriminate (even thru IB & ABB) IF something outside your control (ie your insurance provisions) requires that you not allow anyone under a certain age. Otherwise abb expects you to take any 18YO with a credit card. 

However, I somewhat agree with @Helen3 you can have bad behavior from any age group. My strategies:

price well (more people, more problems, therefore more money)

vet well (I get ID from primary guest always. Name, age, address, contact # for every additional adult & reserve the right to request their ID too)

supervise well (I’m on site, but security cameras, a good local supervisor, and a willingness to step in/be the bad guy if needed)

[Huma0]

@Tracy291

I have hosted hundreds of guests under 25 and have not really encountered these problems, except for once when I was away on a work trip and the guests smoked weed in my house and had friends over without permission, but not a full on party.

I guess that is the difference between hosting in your own home rather than a separate rental. Maybe it also depends on your location and why people travel there?

Firstly, I think you need to vet your guests more carefully. Many under 25s make wonderful guests. You need to pick out the ones that don't. Turning off IB if your listings can take it might help. I find IB useful in the fact that it's much easier to cancel a reservation penalty free if you feel uncomfortable with it. I just make sure that I message the guest straight away to request all the info I need.

How far are you from the listing? Are you able to go there to check up on things during a stay? If so, find a logicial and reasonable excuse to do so and mention this in your listing/correspondence with the guests. If they think you are going to be dropping by, they are less likely to take advantage.

Talking of listings, there's probably a lot of stuff you can add to yours and your house rules, if you haven't already, to deter the party types. How about stating that there will be fines for any evidence of smoking or smell of smoke? Seems to work for most hotels. Sure, it might be difficult to collect on that, but stating it could be a deterrent to many.

[Huma0]

Oh and @Tracy291 do you have CC TV at the entrance? If not, install it, but make sure you mention this on your listing and remind guests of this when they book. In the UK, we are supposed to always have a little sign mentioning there is CC TV. I would put one up if I was you, even if it isn't a legal requirement. Again, could be a valuable deterrent.

[Tracy291]

All good advice. Thank you!