Baby Proofing & Welcoming Kids

[Kimberly718]

After a year of hosting, I've learned some things that work and definitely managed the challenges of hosting guests with kids and pets. Originally we were not too keen to welcome pets as we were worried about the mess but what I have come to realize is the more challenging guests are young parents who come with unachievable expectations of what a guest house should come equipped with. I am curious to learn how others have dealt with this and if some of you charge an extra fee for set up and clean up of baby/toddler items?

Personally I wish Airbnb would add the option to charge as they do for hosting pets a fee for special baby/toddler amenities. Currently, we offer: a crib, toddler potty, baby bath, kid robes, baby shampoo, high chair, baby gate, outlet covers, games, books, toys and more. Often guests leave things crusted with baby food, allow their kids to scribble on furniture, and books and games are left poured back into the toy bin. They use twice the amount of linens and often don't follow even the most basic clean-up before you leave house rules. I don't want not to allow kids, but I'd really like to have the ability to charge for all the extras and time that families would never get at a hotel or even a fine resort. 

[Sudsrung0]

@Kimberly718 

We decided long time ago not to allow pets,

We only have one property on airbnb and it's a condo we dont allow children as we dont consider it to be safe, with floor to ceiling windows,.

We had someone try to book the other day with  1 year old we did not accept it and gave the reason why, although we do say in the listing info,

We do have some villas and we dont supply anything no more it all got damaged and broken even games for kids they got trashed so I threw them all out guest just could not put them back in the box as they were and peaces missing, 

We also found with children the washing machine going all day,

[Kimberly718]

I'm not wanting to eliminate having pets or kids, just curious how others were handling the set up / extra cleaning and if anyone was charging extra. I do wish Airbnb allowed for an extra charge

[Wende2]

@Kimberly718   Hello, just this summer I decided I'm done with kids, the pets have been far better guests than the kids.  If you're going to have babies, if you aren't supplying a diaper genie, or something like that, you may walk into a stinking condo, been there too.  Not all children have been horrible, just a shame some parents have ruined it.  Why they can't tell their kids to keep their hands off of things that don't belong to them, is beyond me.  So I'm done. 

[Wende2]

@Kimberly718  Just had a thumbs up from another conversation, small children.  You might search that to see what everyone was saying on that one.    

[Gillian166 · Accepted solution]

@Kimberly718  we allow kids and pets, and they only make up about 10% of guests (perhaps over summer with school hols it will be more). We don't supply a lot of baby stuff, and we make it very clear the cottage isn't "baby proof", the onus is on guests to look after their kids. I do agree that young parents (and actually by this I mean 30-40year olds!) are probably my least favourite guests, as they have really high expectations (aka: entitlement) and really low levels of personal responsibility. I 100% agree that it would be marvellous to be able to charge for baby gear, BUT if I did this then I think i'd have to also provide a higher level of service for families, which I don't want to do. 

We have over 50 board games that we loan to guests, initially we kept about 5 games in the cottage, and then we found 2 games had been upended in our coffee table trunk and we immediately cancelled that idea. Having to put back board games after each visit is very time consuming, so now we make guests come up to the house to borrow games, and so far they've all put them back appropriately as well ( I did also write on the inside lid of all games "please put game back tidily, as you found it"). This works for us because we live on site, I don't have a good solution for hosts leaving a nice selection of board games out. You can't really expect the cleaners to sit down and check that all the pieces are there, and it's all neatly put away. It's a shame that a few bad apples ruin it for all. 

@Wende2  we don't supply a nappy bin, although I do provide nappy baggies (something parents should bring anyway) and there have been a few occasions where we've walked in to a very pongy space. I need to come up with some wording on how to dispose of nappies thoughtfully. 

[Kimberly718]

great idea on the board games. I just changed out all of my house rules and wrote it with a little humor in hopes that parents would read through it all. 

[Kimberly718]

So I decided to rewrite my house rules to add a little tongue & cheek humor. As a marketer, I have found that people, by and large, don't read unless you give them a reason to or if they enjoy the read. As a farmstay, we have to cover off more than is typical with other Airbnb's as we have the liability issue. I have also decided to add the $50 Baby/Toddler Amenities. If people don't want to pay then, they get the house without, but if they want all the extras and clean up I'm no longer going to do that for free.