Guests getting around occupancy limits

[Natashia1]

We have a 3 bedroom house that sleeps 7 comfortably (2 x master, 2 x guest room1, 3 x guest room2).  We have noticed that our guest booking lately have been for groups of 8,9, 10 even 11 once. When i look into their booking its like 3 couples (6 adults) +1 child and the rest are  listed as infants. what do you do in that scenario? do you demand id's to verify kids ages? cancel bookings? report to airbnb? yes the kids appear to be under 5 - but they aren't infants.  and yes i have learned from experience that it really does show when there are too many people in the house...wear n tear...breakages...plumbing gets blocked...sinks get blocked...trash/diaper pileups - i really do only want my max and no more (including infants)

[Lorna170 · Accepted solution]

@Natashia1   Many people are under the impression that kids are free.  

You have to be EXPLICIT in your advertising.  My house rules and my communication with the guest states that the property may be occupied by X number of guests, INCLUDING infants and children.  This is per local zoning ordinances and licensure.

Zoning does not differentiate between adults, infants and children.  The property is permitted X number of human beings, based on square footage, number of bedrooms and number of bathrooms.  If the guest registers a bunch of "infants" I will tell them that I cannot accommodate that number of human beings and I will ask them to cancel their booking.

[Ivette92]

There should be a way for each host to establish a hard limit on occupancy. This has been an issue for hosts from the beginning of this platform. This is not a difficult thing to fix! Airbnb, please fix this!