What are host's thoughts about not allowing children at multi-unit rental?

[Kelda2]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any experience or opinions on this subject.

I have a property with 6 units and a shared pool, gazebo and garden. Its a mini resort style set up in a semi rural area that is walking distance to the beach. We advertise it as a relaxing place to stay. 3 of the units are only for couples. The other units are a 2 bedroom (6 people), a 3 bedroom (7 people) and a 2 bedroom apartment for 4 people. I am considering not allowing children under 12. The last month or 2 we have had a lot of activity and noise, mostly due to people with children. Young children seem to be incapable of using the pool without yelling and screaming. I know they are not really doing anything wrong, but it sure changes the vibe, especially for the couples who are staying there. 

I would like to know if other hosts have tried not allowing children and if so, did it hurt your bookings significantly? I feel like that might actually make the place more attractive to some people, it would for me. 

I am also afraid if I do this that people will just show up with kids anyways and cause a confrontational situation. In my experience, people are not big on reading or following rules and they especially don't like getting called out for breaking the rules. 

A compromise would be to just not allow kids at the pool after 8 pm. That also could be difficult to enforce, but easier than the previous scenario. I do not have hours for the pool, but I do have a no noise requirement after 8, which people frequently ignore. 

I'm really interested to hear people's thoughts on this, thanks for reading!

[Lorna170]

@Kelda2   With the makeup of your units, especially the ones that sleep 6 and 7, you will have issues with turning away families.   However, as an older person who is done with raising children, I would be more inclined to rent a villa on a property that caters to "adults only" -- even though some adult groups can be just as noisy as enthusiastic children.   I have limited some of my properties (not listed on AirBnB) to adults only, and upped my pricing as well.  My bookings increased.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I would be happier to book a place without any kids on sight. "Relax" and "kids" don't go together 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Kelda2  It seems like challenging demographics to mix- childless (at least while on holiday) couples and boisterous families. If it's just noise at the pool that's the issue, you could set hours for pool use- adults only time and everyone time. As long as you made this really clear in your listing, and reiterated when guests book, that could work. Many public pools have these restrictions.

But if it's more than that, i.e. kids running around the grounds being kids, then I think you have to make it really clear in your listing info for the 2 guest units that this is a family-oriented complex, so if they are looking for a quiet couples retreat, it's not suitable. 

Another thing you could do is add a 2 person unit to a couple of the other listings. If it's a family holiday, mom, dad,  and the kids could stay in the bigger house, grandma and grandpa could have their own private unit to retreat to. With the right marketing, that could be a really

attractive situation to many groups.

[Kelda2]

Great feedback, thanks! I know some of the adult groups can be noisy too, but its still different that a bunch of screaming kids jumping in the pool, playing soccer, running around like crazy, etc. I'm thinking of making another listing that is the entire property (all units) and if someone wants to bring kids it would be fine since they'd have the whole place. It will still drive me crazy, but I am making money and can tolerate it for a few days. I do worry about kids damaging plants and landscaping (which is my hobby and I spend lots of time on), but at least that would cut down on it. I've also found that people with small children tend to be the most demanding and particular of the guests, and also tend to leave the house messier. Not all of them are this way, but a lot of them are. 

[Valerie-Et-Loic0]

Hello 

what do you think about allowing families during school holidays only ?

[Ute42]

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@Kelda2   

You may have a hard time to enforce a „no kids at the pool past 8pm“ rule. Your rule may be followed or not, and then: We're on a holliday, who cares, we don't.

Kids are not only a problem past 8pm at the pool, depending on their age and the energy they have they can be loud, yelling, screaming all day long.

Here in Germany there's a trend that more and more Hotels are working with a „no kids at all“ rule. The minimum age requirement in most cases is 16 years. You may now think that these are hotels for people who hate kids, but that's not the case. The biggest group of coustomers for such hotels are parents who have kids of their own. They are dealing with their own kids all year long, and now, for a weekend or for a week, they want to be left alone, have some quality and recreation time for themselfes, recharge their batteries.

Another group of customers for such hotels are people beyond 60 years of age. Starting at a certain age many people just can't stand noise anymore. They had their own kids and now they have their grandchildren and they love them. But when on a holiday they just want the surroundings to be quiet.

The hotels i have just described are pretty successful.

Maybe concentrate on that kind auf audiance. Don't allow anyone under the age of 16, don't allow music at all on the premises, have extra quiet hours between noon and 3pm and starting again at 8pm.

Maybe call Your places:

• The quiet resort

Come up with a slogan like:

• Parents, leave Your kids at home

Don't let it come across negative as if You wouldn't „like“ children. I have a big family, there are kids all around, I love them, play with them, they stay at my house. But when on a holliday, I don't want sreaming kids around me.

Don't try to please everyone. Concentrate on a dedicated group of guests, there's a great demand for quiet holliday places.

[Anonymous]

@Kelda2   You have loads of experience, so I'm sure you know a lot about your market already, but I just want to get a sense of what you mean when you say "mini resort."   When I think of a resort (recognizing the word can mean many things), I picture the common recreational areas being somewhat hosted - not necessarily with a full staff, but even with just one person gently curating the vibe in some small way. Maybe there's a happy hour for refreshments, scheduled activities, entertainment, or a more subtle focal point conveying that someone is actively shaping the experience in the same way that a DJ might read the crowd and harmonize its various elements. This would usually involve having a host or co-host on site during the prime pool hours to sprinkle on the fairy dust and keep everyone happy, maybe even facilitate some kind of social dynamic. If this is the level of engagement you have with the property, I think you could create a cool program that works for families, spring breakers, and senior guests alike.

If the guests are all sharing a common area without a coordinator onsite, I imagine the vibe a little more like a condo or hotel situation where you just kinda do your own thing and put up with your neighbors. If this is the situation, it seems appropriate to narrow the catchment down to your primary target guests - presumably adults with a quiet disposition. Adults-only is an acceptable option if it doesn't run afoul of any local laws.

But I definitely wouldn't recommend imposing different degrees of access to the facilities based on age, as this might run afoul of the discrimination policy.  "No kids after 8 PM" means that either parents leave their kids unattended in the room to use the pool (definitely a no-no) or families with kids are discriminated against by having inferior access to amenities that they paid as much for as everyone else. Nothing good can come of a policy like this - if groups with kids can't be accommodated equally to those without, it's much simpler to maintain an age minimum.

[Dale711]

@Kelda2 

                                              “don't allow children, it’s a Brilliant’s idea !” 

                         “ If, as they say, children are the guests of the future – we’ll wait until the end.”

A pretty sound philosophy: keep the guests of today happy and when the guests of tomorrow grow up, make them comfortable in their own time.

Many unique accommodations are choosing to enforce an over-16 (read: child-free) policy. But, contrary to popular notion, it’s not driven by an aversion towards kids.

All that the holiday vacation rental is trying to do is provide a calm and relaxing environment for those guests who’d like to unwind without being disturbed. And the response to these child-free accommodations has been quite encouraging.

Running kids in the hallway, shrieks, and yells in the garden, children were cannonballing into the swimming pool, their constant chatter in the dining room, and the sudden crash of glass or China, followed by high-pitched laughter.

To some people, this conjures up visions of merriment and cheer, at the center of which are lovely, angelic, children; but to others (and by those holiday goers who’re looking to unwind in peace), this scene can be something right out of a nightmare.

The market for adults-only accommodation exists, as shown by Holidaycheck’s survey wherein 47.9% of users voted in favor of such hotels, with only 9.1 % people being strictly against the idea.

This shows that there’s a massive amount of people who would, if given the option, opt for housing free from the chaos and cacophony created by kids. The majority of these people tend to be singles on vacation, either alone or with friends, childless couples, and business travelers, i.e., people who crave peace.

Where There are Pros, There are Inevitable Cons.

Unfortunately, everything has its own set of negatives, and adult-only housing is no different. One of the biggest cons, in this case, is a financial one.

This one isn’t exactly a con of child-free housing but more so a worry on behalf of all those traveling with kids. It is very likely that with more and more couples choosing not to have kids, the number of housing that accommodates kids will fall to the point where parents will no longer find places to bring their little ones to. But I don’t believe something like this will happen, and it’s all needless worrying over nothing at all.

 I support “ Childfree Housing villa.”

Do consider the title of “ Villa Boutique,” adding in the house rules of your preferences.

Happy Hosting!

[Kelda2]

Wow, some great advice here, thank you to everyone! This is very encouraging, I thought I might just be accused of being the wicked witch of the west for not wanting children as guests. I think I will give it a try starting next year (I have too many bookings right now to change the rules). I don't know of another place similar to mine that is adult only, so I think its a good possibility that it will be more appealing to some guests. 

I call my place resort style because of the way the villas are situated around the shared pool. Its not like a condo complex with a pool, its a whole set-up. There is a large resort down the street from us that we have sort of tried to imitate the vibe of. Its just villas that are tucked into lush landscaping and they have a couple of pools. They are 3 times the price of our villas, so we get a lot of business from people who are attending weddings there but don't want to pay the resort's rates. They are not adult only but I have never noticed them being particularly noisy. I guess that is in part because they have a lot more space than us, but also they have security and employees on the grounds at all times and they can more easily enforce the rules. 

I did think of making kids allowed on holidays or particular times of the year, but I think that will be confusing to market. I think I will just allow kids only if the guests rent all of the villas.