This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
It seems that a lot of hosts worry about having younger guests (under 25) but I maintain that they have been, overall, my very best guests. I get about an equal amount of guests from the 4 main generations (Z, Milennials, X and Boomers) but the Z’s are the only generation of which I have never had a bad guest so I feel like it’s important to ‘go to bat for them’.
We had 2 Saturday-night only bookings last night. One apartment had 5 kids in it that were all about 19 years old (booking guest graduated HS in 2018, wow). The other apartment had 2 guests that were early 20s, maybe 21.
I took the dog out at about 9pm and could hear TV being watched in each apartment. Good sign! However, I could see the top of a liquor bottle and a beer can on the kitchen counter when I passed by the group of 5’s apartment windows. Maybe a bad sign. Eeek.
We left the house at 11pm to make an appearance at a Christmas party even though I thought it might be better to stay in and keep an eye on our place. However, when we returned at 12:30AM, the house was completely dark and quiet. We had to take off our boots to go up the stairs so we wouldn’t wake any of them. Lol.
Both groups were out an hour before check-out time and both apartments were immaculate and all check-out instructions followed. They even handwashed their dishes perfectly (which is super-rare). And both sent thank-you messages. This is actually typical of all of my very youngest guests, not just these, so I wanted to share.
I agree with you. Some of my nicest guests have been teenagers. And (since I’m stereotyping here ) teenagers from Europe.
I wouldn’t be bothered about seeing the booze though. In England and other countries over there, kids are more accustomed to drinking way before they get to 19.
I haven’t had any teens from Europe but have had several groups of Chinese and Korean teens.
I wasn’t very bothered. And if I didn’t read so many posts about Airbnb parties I probably wouldn’t have thought anything at all. It seems normal to me too, even though it’s technically illegal here. I don’t know anyone who drinks that didn’t start drinking by 19. They stayed in all night and watched movies from what I can tell, though it looks like the Scrabble was used as well. That’s a good responsible drinking night for anyone really.
We’ve had great guests of all ages, from six continents. We’ve had teenagers to people in their upper 80s. No one age group has been better (or worse). Our one guest who’s not welcome back was a 25-year-old international college sophomore who had the maturity of most 10-year-olds.
Everyone else has been good or even great, no matter whether they were local or from the other side of the world. No matter whether they were first-time guests or world-traveling Superhosts. No matter what nationality.
I may be wrong, but I think that most guests who stay in a host-occupied Airbnb are on their best behavior. Ours certainly have been.
I stopped to pick up food for my son at a burger place recently and as I was waiting for his order, three different groups of happy young people who left made a point of saying, “Bye! Thank you!” to the people working behind the counter on their way to the door. Yay, GenZ!
As former young person and as teacher for 3 decades, I noticed that older people always tried to hate on younger people. But in actually dealing with younger people I’ve seen no consistent pattern in the behavior of such youngsters. “Kids today” are not worse than they were in the past. It does seem like the current Gen Z is more socially conscious and less selfishly materialistic than other age groups seem to be. I’m a boomer but I have to say they are one of my least favorite groups. But we can’t stereotype our individual guests. There are great ones in every age group.
Oh cmon, why not? What about entitled boomers who pee of the deck? and the millennials who are not up to adulting and have boomer parents book and pay for them, and the…
At this forum though we do seem to get hosts who don’t want to host younger guests. So hopefully, it’s a good thing for us to remind ourselves and new or potential hosts reading here that yes, there’s good and bad (usually good) in every age group.
I’ve never quite understood why some hosts insist on under 25s or whatever age limit they set. I hear ‘they want to party at that age!’ but actually I find them quite a serious lot these days.
I think that I’m more of a partier at my time of life.
) teenagers from Europe.