Is this my weekly theme now? Infant requests.

[Laura2592]

Seriously I cannot catch a break!

Guest staying in November.  One person, no reviews, joined in 2019. Staying with her dog. All fine. Made a reservation last December and canceled. Rebooked for November this year. Answered all questions well, read the rules, gave us the Easter egg. No problem.

Today I get a reservation request to change to 3 guests. I write her and say:

Hi Guest- I saw your reservation request come through. Can you please tell me who will be staying with you and a little about the changes to the visit? Thank you and hope all is well!"

Guest says: "Hi Laura! It is my friends X and O who live in Y. They are coming with their infant and 14 year old dog. Not 100% sure yet but didn't want to spring on you at the last minute."

I APPRECIATE the heads up, but we don't allow infants, don't allow living beings over 4 (so 3 humans and one dog is fine if the humans are above age 2, but not 3 humans and 2 dogs.) All of this is stated in the listing, reiterated at booking.

So I just said "Oh I am so sorry! We can't accept guests under the age of 2 due to insurance concerns. Namely we have a very steep old staircase with an unusual cut out on one side and its not safe for crawling little ones. Even carrying them up and down could be concerning. I would be inconsolable if anything happened to a baby at our cottage. I will understand if you need to cancel to find a place that can accommodate the new group. Thanks and let me know what you decide!" And declined the request to change. 

She replied that she understood and is still planning on coming. In which case I am SURE the family with the baby will pop by. 

This is the third infant incident in the last week. One guest did a request to book with a 10 month old and I declined. We just had guests stay and bring a baby but not tell us as I detailed in another thread, and this request to change. In 3 years of hosting we have not had this number of people requesting to bring babies in such a short span of time. I can count on one hand the number of reservations where that has been a factor. 

Maybe these are newly minted parents who have had pandemic babies and want somewhere to visit? I just do not see the appeal of bringing a baby to our Airbnb especially as we disclose potential safety issues, not to mention the risk of taking a baby out to a strange place without the option to vaccinate. Anyone else getting more requests for infants?

[Laura2592]

@Marie6762 aw thank you. 

I am protective of our listing because I love it and use it myself. Its a very sweet little house on a nice property. We do get some guests who appreciate the space. A few who have even offered to purchase it, should it ever come available. This past 20 months has been pretty exhausting with some of the people we have around. I know we aren't alone. 

[Hal3292]

@Laura2592I'm so glad you posted how you handled this, in case the situation ever arises for us. We don't explicitly say "no infants," but in one of the checklists, we indicated that our place is not suitable for infants. In the very small lobby of our private guest suite, there's a door to the staircase leading down to the washer-dryer that can't be latched or locked. If someone kept the door to the suite open, or left their child unattended in the lobby, they could tumble down the stairs. I don't have enough faith in parents being vigilant to be comfortable with that. That being said, we've never had anyone bring an infant. (We have had people request to bring cats and dogs even though we say absolutely, definitely no pets -- still scratching our heads about that one!)