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Just an FYI to those hosts who have house rules about the age of guests (“over 25 only”) and children (“no kids under 10”), etc. The Nondiscrimination Policy has changed and no longer allows restrictions based on age or family status/kids. I’ve been seeing discussion about it on other forums then confirmed the change on the Airbnb TOS (link provided below).
For many years the policy had a clause in it that allowed hosts to deny guests based on age and familial status (kids) because it said the discrimination wasn’t allowed “where prohibited by law” so most hosts could deny based on age and familial status because it is not prohibited by law in most places or in most short-term rental situations.
However, it has been changed to effectively the opposite scenario. Now, if a host wants to require guests to be of a certain age to rent their place or wants to deny guests with children they may only do so if there is a law or regulation that requires they do so.
As an example, a host cannot require guests to be 25 unless there is a local law or regulation that requires all guests to be at least 25. And a host cannot deny a guest traveling with children unless there is a local law or regulation that prohibits renting the property to people with children (like within a legally-designated senior living community).
Seems like they violate their own rules. They say hosts can’t “[charge] more fees for a guest of a certain age” but then AirBnB won’t count children under 2 as a guest. That can be seen as charging more for people over 2 years old than for infants…
@JJD - Is there any clarification on the other forums from AirBnB on whether groups with infants can now Instant Book a property that’s marked as unsuitable for young children?
If they have to RTB, it gives me a chance to discuss with them the safety issues for young children at our place before their credit card gets charged or my calendar gets blocked.
Thank you for trying that out. Hopefully, it stays that way.
Yeah, a lot of the conversations I hear around this, too, are about large groups of young people (spring break, prom etc.). I think some of the hosts that would attract the party-crowd of young people are just going to block their prom, homecoming, spring break, etc., dates on AirBnB and leave them open on other platforms. Some of the owners that only get a few bookings from AirBnB are probably going to stop listing on AirBnB, too.
We’re lucky - we don’t attract lots of young people, other than the occasional honeymoon couple in their early 20’s. We get some groups with young children, but I exxagerate the aspects of being an open-air house to push them away (“Do you really want little baby Johnny to crawl across a dirty floor and eat the ants and bird droppings that he’ll find in the house?” ).
I haven’t seen anyone reference it, but there are Uniform Building Codes that spell out the minimum space (sq ft) required for bedrooms. Commonly the rule will be something like a minimum of 70 sq ft (with no wall shorter than 7’) for two people, and an additional 50 sq ft for each person after that.
I have done this before over Semana Santa, even though I only have a private room listing for one guest. Thousands of young folks who come to my town for the sole purpose of partying, descending here for that holiday week. When I didn’t already have a booking for those dates, I started getting clueless inquiries from guests who didn’t look old enough to travel without their parents (that was back when we could still see guest photos before confirmation). Stuff like “So is it really only for one guest?” or “How far is your place from the place where the rave is?”
After fielding a few of these, I just blocked the dates.
How do you know this to be true? I have a suite in my house that I Airbnb but it’s on the second floor of my house but they have to enter a common door to get there.
I do have an insurance policy that only allows two people to stay in the suite so I wonder if that would cover me. (Going to add it to my rules.)
??? A limit of two guests wouldn’t make it not possible to have a child stay (parent travelling alone with their child) nor prevent 18 year olds from booking.
But the nature of your listing precludes a bunch of 18 year olds throwing a party, and if a single adult was travelling with their child, it’s not that hard to child-proof the place for as often as that might happen, which is probably seldom, so I don’t see why you’d be that concerned about this new policy.
However, it’s never a bad idea to make it clear in your listing, or in your first message what your max guest count is, and that that includes children.
That may be true, but AirBnB can set their own terms for use of their platform. They have decided you may not decide who stays. Go ahead and deny guests based on their age, but you risk being kicked off the platform.
This has really put many owners, especially of large properties that attract young guests for parties, between “a rock and a hard place”. I suspect many of them will take some kind of action, such as blocking dates on AirBnB only, raising their rates on AirBnB or pulling their listings from AirBnB and only renting through other platforms.
And it really hurts the in-home hosts, who don’t have lots of other platforms to use to rent out just rooms.
Yes, only 2 people and it’s only available because I live in the house. Most Airbnb’s in Massachusetts have to buy the Proper insurance that is about $1500 more a year. It helps when someone tries to sneak in a third person because I can explain to Airbnb that it’s against my insurance policy.
But, I really don’t want kids in my home. The staircase while in code, is steep, and because I live below, I have a hard enough time when people are up late in the den and wake me up. (I run a sound machine, run a fan and a 2nd sound machine) but I still hear the floorboards squeak. I have extra thick carpet with the best padding you can buy and while I don’t hear people or the tv, it’s the floorboards under the carpet.
A child would be a nightmare. There’s also the possibility that there is some lead on the windowsills. (I live in a house about 100 years old). Moving the cleaning chemicals wouldn’t be hard but I would also have to bolt the Fridge and tv’s to the walls (they are on stands now).
There is just too much liability for me to have kids. When I started 9 years ago I did allow it and there is so much more mess and destruction with kids too.
So, I guess I need to change our Tiny Tiki verbage. Any hints? Although we are mainly popular for couples romance, I have dissuaded parents of those under 10 from booking, with success.
I would think the most effective wording to discourage those with children from booking would be along the lines of “Because of multiple safety concerns outside our control for children at our location (these are outlined in our listing information), booking with children under the age of 12 is not advisable, as it doesn’t seem like it would be a very relaxing experience for parents to have to be constantly vigilent about their children’s whereabouts at every moment and it would also be of concern to us as hosts.”
I actually knew a woman whose 8 year old son was killed by a cougar while he was playing in their yard. And another woman whose 3 year old child drowned in pond on their property in the 5 minutes when the mom thought her daughter was with her friend and the friend thought the girl was with her mom.
That so many parents these days have their eyes glued to a cell phone just adds to the risks.
When my friend said to her 20 year old son, after he and his buddies had stayed at an Airbnb, “I hope you guys cleaned up after yourselves”, he said,“Of course we did- I want those 5 star reviews”.
I would like to point out to those who have never had children of their own, that not all children are rambunctious or destructive, so to some extent it is true that parents can indeed be the best judge of whether a property is suitable to bring their kids to.
While I would certainly never have taken my eyes off my 3 kids in an unfamiliar and non-child-safe environment when they were toddlers, nor booked something where there were safety risks, once they got to be about 5, none were the kind of kids who would go outside, or into an off-limits area by themselves if I told them they weren’t allowed to, nor did any of them ever destroy anything. I never had plastic dishware for them, and they never broke a dish anymore often than an adult accidentally would.
We have always had this verbage:
Unsafe place for children under age 10 or Pets due no containment, no child proofing, wild animals, unfenced cliff and steep terrain.
It is true I guess, not being a parent, that they are knowing their kids best. We have had a few 7 year olds that were definitely fine. I just can’t imagine being able to enjoy Tiny Tiki with a toddler.
The years when I had toddlers were delightful. Just experiencing their curiosity and innocence, their unconditional love for those who they are close to, the funny things they say and do, their unfiltered honesty, their learning of new things every day, etc. etc. brings many parents enjoyment.
That’s not to say it can’t be exhausting or frustrating sometimes, but that doesn’t negate it also being rewarding and enjoyable.
However, when I see people waiting until their 40s or even 50’s to have kids, I don’t envy them- it was okay to chase toddlers around when I was in my 20s and early 30s and had plenty of energy- I can’t imagine doing that full time as a 45 year old.
That’s an excellent point. I’ve been successful in getting some RTB’s with really young children to go away by pointing out that our location is not really a good place for toddlers. All of the nearby activities (snorkeling, diving, hiking, mountain climbing, ATV rides, etc) are best enjoyed by older children. Even the water at the nearby beaches gets really deep really quickly so the beaches aren’t very safe for young children.
I make suggestions for better places for them to vacation and they usually are happy. Maybe someday when the kids get older they come back and book with me.
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