And if the listing says “not suitable for children” then that’s perfect!
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There are plenty of posters on this board who believe that they have a right to discriminate. The targets of discrimination are mostly Chinese people from China, Indians from India, young people, old people and overweight people. Not only do people post about their perceived right to discriminate, other posters come to their defense. I’ve been called names for posting about my opposition to discrimination.
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I would have no objection to children in principle but a) the apartment has an open balcony and I’d have severe nightmares if young children were playing on it b) we are right on open water with no fence between the dock and drowning potential and c) probably the most important - our homeowners’ association doesn’t allow children under twelve.
So there can be good reasons beyond the host’s control.
I understand completely, believe me. It makes me angry and sad in equal measure to see the defiant declarations of open discrimination against guests from certain countries. But the discussions about young versus old guests and the issues involved in hosting morbidly obese guests are not in the same league at all. You diminish the truly abhorrent (racist) discrimination by making such a comparison.
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I board dogs and make far more on that than I could with only airbnb. I control that and dogs come first. I could allow children but then I would have to lock the door into the house and there would be no coffee in the morning, use of refrigerator or anything else. Luckily I don’t get any requests because it’s obvious my place is not well suited to children.
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When you are old enough to suffer from age discrimination, I bet you’ll see it as real discrimination and yes it is illegal.
I’ve been here less than a week, one of the first post threads I saw was “Problems with Asian Guests,” with over 100 responses on it… apparently they meant Chinese guests, I figured that out quickly, and in a country with over 1 billion people I personally don’t assume that my five Chinese Airbnb guests (so far) represent the whole culture.
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People in this forum are not racist. Others want to turn it into some racist thing.
If the same “stereotype” continues to not follow house rules, and make you risk your business…you just quit renting to this type. Obviously people not affected at all try to sing a different song.
It’s always the people who have not endured a bad enough pattern…they then want to throw stones instead of being grateful something has not affected them. I have never heard one host say “yes, the Chinese flood my floors all the time and each time they rent, I have to close down my rental…cancel reservations…I am not on site. And then the next time I still continue to rent…blah blah blah. But I want to make sure I don’t discriminate.”
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Sounds like the definition of racist to me. By your logic, it would be okay to not rent to women because they are the only ones who bleed on your bedding.
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Don’t put words in my mouth Ellen. Your argument is so weak. Turn it into what you want.
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I’ve hosted over 500 guests. Around 30% of them have been from China, S Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan - Asian countries that are used to a wet room. Yes, I had my bathroom flooded a few times in the early days. Once I worked out the issue, ie. they didn’t understand, I took the time to explain to every guest very clearly and thoroughly how the bathroom works in my place and what they need to do/don’t do. Not had a problem since. It didn’t stop me hosting guests from this part of the world. Of course we all have stereotypes in our head that are reinforced by some of the guests we meet. But I don’t believe in succumbing to them.
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You may be confused. I still rent to Gen X parents with young kids. And I don’t deny them. I think some of you are thinking some are racist.
She’s always on a soapbox! Pm me
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LOL I’m always feckin confused. Life is confusing. Hosting is beyond confusing, it’s another realm altogether. However, I don’t believe I was confused in this message exchange? Until your post, that is. Yikes!
Please, then, read the replies. You will see that it’s not like what you might be imagining.
We don’t normally take toddlers because of the large number of steps and particularly the unfenced pool right next to the garden apartment. However, last week’s guests slipped under the net because we say we can take “non-walking babies” and indeed though the baby wasn’t walking when they booked, she was definitely a toddler when they arrived!
Now it happened that they were great guests, excellent careful parents and the toddler was an absolute poppet. We all gave each other glowing reviews … however, after they left I turned to my husband and said “never again”! Even with such good guests I was a bundle of nerves the WHOLE time worrying about what could happen (oddly, i wasn’t like that when our own grandchildren were small) so can’t imagine how I would have been if they had been less than stellar. Sadly, I’ve decided it’s not worth the rise in my blood pressure!
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I totally agree and am really pissed that my daughter and son-in-law haven’t taken me on their rip to LA this Summer!
OK…I will try to clarify. I won’t refuse to rent to a certain group just because I know they will leave me more of a mess to clean. However, if a group kept putting me at risk to have my business shut down then only a foolish business person would keep renting to that same group.
In your example, you were able to get your guests to understand the bathroom situation. But if you kept having guests who refused to cooperate, caused you to have shut the place down and cancel next guests…over and over and over again. - Soon you would be out of business. That’s what I am saying. I have never heard on these boards anyone claim to keep renting to the same groups even if they continue to put their business at risk. Many of the hosts live on site and are able to control sitiuations if they get out of hand.
Example - let’s say I don’t want to discriminate against young people and decide to rent out a nice high end place to anyone over the age of 18. Each time I do this, no matter how much screening…the 18 year old white Americans lie and throw a huge party. The neighbors call the police every time. My place is trashed and there is thousands worth of damage. To continue to rent to this group would just be plain stupid. They would put me out of business. Whether or not it’s legal discrimination…it’s still discriminating based on stereotype and past personal experience.
Now if someone doesn’t want to rent to someone because of their skin color, they are gay, to me that is a completey different category.
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Wow, I’ve just read through the WHOLE thread and I’m a bit disappointed that in all the meandering, name calling and insults the original poster’s request for information seems to have got lost …
Surely we can agree that, as in any other business, there are any number of different models and, provided hosts keep within the law, how they run their business is their prerogative? We can give advice and then the OP (and I’m sorry, it’s so far up the thread I’ve forgotten who it was …) can take on board their advice and make their own decision.
There seem to be 4 distinct models:
- Take all ages of children and don’t charge
- Take all ages but make a charge as extra guest
- Take only certain ages and either do or don’t charge
- Don’t take children at all.
Plenty of posters have made good points in favour of all of these propositions and the OP can look at all these and consider how they work for his/her own situation and then make a free choice.
We can disagree with the way other people run their businesses but surely it’s up to them? For instance I’ve waded through many posts telling me how awful older people are as guests, but in the end I just shrug and thing, well, if they don’t want to host me, that’s their choice (and their loss, obviously!)
I’m addicted to this forum and would hate to see it degenerate into petty squabbles and factions …
OK end of lecture. Now, can someone tell me how to remove cherry stains from a white lace tablecloth?
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Please share the rules suggested by the ins. company… we all could benefit from this!