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BTW I just called airbnb cs on another matter, and spoke to someone named Alex. When we concluded discussing that issue I asked if anything new was being done about the free kids situation. He had NO IDEA what I was talking about. He’d never heard of that change!!
This is like, what we all do, when do don’t want to do an onerous task, we find something else to do that is still working - but not what we are supposed to be doing. THEY should be fixing the tax issue, at least adding a line-item for us to enter the taxes, or something, and instead they are monkeying around with this.
How do they think the can control our pricing? Incredible. That’s totally NOT what the website is for.
@dcmooney I’m hopeful my contact at Air is working on a fix to the issue, but I am sure it will take some amount of time to change. I asked him to advise me when I would be able to check ‘Family Friendly’ again without concern of blowing my max guest count. I will def let you know if I hear back!
I turned my family friendly off today, no way I am going to be responsible for someone’s toddler drinking my dish liquid because they think I am Airbnb babysitter and I am not baby proofing my home. With a 17 yo I am way over that. I had a guy once try to book for 2 and then slip in he and his wife would be bringing their 8month old and 3year old. I changed his request to a special offer including the extra $25 pp per night x 2 and he sent me this outrageous response statiing he was so upset as he did ‘not feel he should pay for his children so he didn’t put them as guests and they won’t eat your breakfast’. ( I’d be surprised what a toddler eats if not fruit, toast or cereal for breakfast) Oh and that he wanted a discount (I only charge $50 a night in the most expensive suburb of Melbourne with breakfast, get real) because he didn’t want my 2nd bedroom I was offering free as my son as overseas ‘as we like to protect our children and have them sleep with us’. Loser. I promptly declined his booking and stated ‘I didn’t FEEL I wanted someone with his attitude in my home & it may surprise him to know my costs include electricity, linens, water, noise, mess, heating, and taking up space in my home not just the free breakfast I offer at a loss’. I was so offended by his creepy comments about the children only being safe with him after working in child protection for 10 years. Most ppl with small children IMO would be demanding, complain about noise and wanted this and that moved for the children I decided after this I wouldn’t accept any of these bookings but I certainly never intended to take any Without payment. Dumb rule by Airbnb.
I want to be Family Friendly, I really do … our grandkids love our house, garden and pool and have a great time … and right there is the problem - POOL. In Spain there isn’t (yet) a regulation for the pool to be fenced, and ours isn’t. I therefore state that we can only accept children from the age of about 7 who can swim, or VERY small non-walking babies as our garden apartment gives straight onto the poolside. You’d be amazed at the number of parents who insist their two-year-olds will be “fine, because we watch them all the time”!
Sure, and I’ll remind you of that when you’ve turned your back for a minute and the poor mite falls in …
I believe someone on another forum indicated that venetian (horizontal) blind laws are now in effect throughout the EU - that you cannot have cords in any rental property where under-3yos will be guests. I haven’t had to invoke it specifically just yet but it’s the one I will be using if I get a booking that mentions a small child. I am a parent myself, and it’s not that I dislike children, but my property is in a tall building, has adult furnishings and no room for a travel cot, nor are my cleaning products locked away. It’s just not suitable for toddlers and I don’t want them there or drawing on my flock wallpaper. Even a five-year-old would be bored stupid in a city pad. It’s just not a good choice for kids. The youngest I’ve had was a 9yo with her mother, but that’s quite a different situation to a toddler!
We have never even allowed friends to bring kids to our house. We have a indoor pool and frankly we cant stand screaming bloody kids. We never agreed to have kids with airbab-- never in a million years.
Airbab have no right to tell anybody kids are free - even if you dont mind having them- or you like kids.
Kids are more trouble than grown ups. Anyway its none of airbab dam business.
You should build anew web site - and all you hosts promote it and tell airbab where to stick their bloody stupid rulers.
Arrrrrggghhhh!!1 Where is this “family friendly” thing, i have not seen it. Is it OFF by default or do you need to turn it off? I am absolutely NOT family friendly! I Air in my own home and there is now way I am having rug rats or screaming babies in my house!
Ahh never mind I see it. Its always been there, not a new thing at all
The dreaded infant question. Not via AirBnB, but we had a holiday park. One cabin had a maximum of two persons. The client arrived with a one year old infant. That is, two adults and one infant. She claimed that an infant doesn’t count and she didn’t have to advise us. We offered her a different cabin at the same price that took extra people. (Note we don’t even charge for infants) She kept insisting that she doesn’t have to advise us of her having an infant. Said this was standard practice in the hotel industry (?)
My comeback…
Lets imagine there was a fire. You stated on your booking two persons. The room has a maximum of two persons. The fireman race in and rescue two persons only. They weren’t looking for an infant as well.
I just booked a unit in Miami on AirBNB and there was no point where I was asked how many infants/pets, even though I clicked the “family-friendly” tab when I searched for a place.
Is there a list of cities where hosts are being subjected to this? Surely, AirBNb will yank this horrible idea given the response. I can see how AirBNB is trying to target travelers with young kids and pets as new users but forcing this on unsuspecting hosts is not the way to go about it.
was it a instant book? in the new host forumn I ask asked about instant book and a member was able to book my place two adults and two infants. I instantly turned off instant book.
Yes – it was instant book! I wrote inquiries to 2 different units in Miami and they were both IB – I didn’t get the infants/pets option at any point, including during the booking when I made payment. So it seems to be only in certain markets at this point.
(I also used the family friendly filter when I was doing my search…)
Does anyone know whether AirBnB is actively advertising this child thing? Our rental is clearly marked that it ISN’T family friendly (the checkbox) with a fair bit of blurb about why we can’t accommodate children in the house rules. Today I got an enquiry asking if we could accommodate a toddler . That hasn’t happened since last December (before I added the blurb). Coincidence?
The customer service folks that I’ve spoken to at airbnb - two different people - didn’t even know about it. They had to look it up before being able to discuss it with me.
