A weird situation...need advice

I recently switched to Instant Booking, not because I wanted to, but because my bookings had tapered off and I knew Airbnb was making our listing low priority because we didn’t have it turned on.

So, OK, this woman books for Easter weekend and says it’s a tradition for her and her 13 year old son to come to our city for Easter. Our room is small, just large enough to accommodate a queen-sized bed. I immediately wrote her back and said, “Just so you know, there’s only one queen-sized bed in the room so you’ll have to share it.”

She replied, “That’s fine…he’s a bean pole :slight_smile: He’s pretty excited about your dog! We are animal lovers.”

Now, is it just me, or does anyone else think it’s kind of creepy that a mom would share a bed with her teenage son?

I think I’ll call Air tomorrow and tell them I have um, reservations about this reservation. What do y’all think?

Seriously :open_mouth:, did you really just ask that?

I have shared a bed when traveling with my mom or my dad at all stages of my life (0 - 37yo…). From a certain age it was no longer the preferred setup, but sometimes one bed was the only setup available (or the only we wanted to pay for).
I don’t see any problem at all in this mum sharing a bed with her son, if they themselves don’t have any problem with it.

Should I also repeat the story where me, my hubby, my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law ended up in 1 queen bed (put transversely) and we all just slept fine. The only awkward moment was when one of our BnB-guests came into the room thinking it was the bathroom and saw all 4 of us lying there together in one bed :joy::rofl:.

Well if all of this is considered creepy, I might very well be creepy :clown_face:.

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Not a big deal, or weird for that matter. I have a mom and son in our small rental with one queen bed as we speak. They arrived yesterday and are staying two nights. In every communication that I’ve had with the mom she’s told me how excited she is!

Disclaimer… my grown son and I share a bed when going to hotels if necessary to save a little bit of coin. We are not creepy that I know of.

When my other son, 12 at the time, and I went to London, we shared a bed …but only because he was convinced there were ghosts. :rofl::ghost::ghost::ghost: he got me so worried, I started to think so too!

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Just because I wouldn’t want to do it doesn’t mean I think it’s creepy if others do. Last week I had an adult brother and sister in my room with a full (not queen bed). Maybe one slept on the floor. I had an adult father with adult daughter in the same room. None of my guests have seemed creepy.

The only thing that would set off my alarms would be an adult man with young “daughter.” Once they got here I’d be evaluating any contact I had with them, etc. I don’t think a trafficker would choose my place (it’s got a private entrance but is attached to my house. And they walk by my front door and window to get to it. It’s quite an indulgence for everyone to have their own bed and/or room in many parts of the world.

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It’s probably not just you, but it’d be a stretch for me to think a mother sharing a bed with her teenaged son was something untoward. Oh what a mad, mad world of suspicion and fear
we’ve created…

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But Guthend - we know all about you liberal Europeans. You even get nekkid in a sauna with your family. We’ll have none of that in Anglo nations thank you.

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No I don’t think it’s strange

It’s only creepy if they ask you to join them in the bed.

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It’s not weird. Lots of people bed share to adulthood. It depends on the space the family has to begin with

Yes, there was ghosts, if in London. Also, a harsh but fair Bobby, swinging his truncheon in the fog! :rofl::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’m a woman in her 50’s and I’ve shared a bed in the last year with my (then) 17-year old son. We don’t do it often - I prefer we each get our own bed, but there’s no “odd” activity going on between us.

When they show up, if there seems to be something “off” about them, then I would worry.

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My two cents: the only time i declined a request like that was because it was 2 adults plus an 8 year old child and the mattress is only full sized.

They swore up and down it would be fine, but the only other time i allowed 3 in a bed they complained about the small bed in their public review.

More recently i allowed a father and adult daughter to book, and then one of them took spare blankets and cushions from a shared space and made a nest bed on the floor. I’d much rather they shared a bed than put family blankets on the floor.

Whee!

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That post just gave me a fit of laughter!! LOL :joy::joy:

Just pictured Charlie in Willy Wonka with all his family in the bed! still giggling…

@Mikaln843 It’s not strange, no. We just had a guest two days ago stay in one bed with their 13 yr. old child. Lovely people! Boys at 13 can still be playing with legos, and sounds like he’s still so young, looking forward to playing with your dog and such. They’ll likely be easy and sweet guests.

Growing up, my family didn’t have much money and our vacations were always car trips with parents, siblings and cousins all crammed into inexpensive motel/hotel rooms. As a host now, I shudder to think the kinds of noise and messes we made…

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It was the Ennismore section of Knightsbridge. Coming from the South Kens station late at night, we would have to walk through the Old Brompton cemetery and would get the spooks from that. Then the way the Ennismore street would get all spooky and foggy… shiver. He made us sleep with the lights on!!! Good times!!!

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gawd blimey guv’nor!

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I don’t think it’s strange either. I would have no problem sharing with my teen-aged son if I needed to save some money.

I hope now that we’ve established that it’s not strange at all.

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My GF did that at my house when her son was 12. It surprised me at first but she’s a great Mom and he just got accepted to Stanford so I’m thinking it worked out okay. My parents would have never done that but you know, to each their own.

I had someone request to book my 6 person home for 8 people two of which were children under 5 that “would sleep in the beds with their parents”. I declined because I simply do not rent to more than 6 people - end of story. If they had read my listing they would have noticed it states “not suitable for children under 12”.