Children Are Not People

I had a couple stay with me once. They did disclose that the had a <2yo before booking. I opted not to charge for the extra person, and I also called ABNB to make sure that the child would be covered by Airbnb policies. Airbnb confirmed that they would be… though I can’t find the follow up email that they always send that confirms the phone conversation, so if I ever hosted someone with a child again, I’d have to go through the Q/A process again.

It is interesting so many guests asks to wave the extra-person fee for children, as though children are low-impact. Unless I am missing something, don’t children flush the toilet and use linens? Don’t children track in dirt and charge electronic devices? Even infants need to be bathed and produce trash.

When we were still renters, my partner and I rented a basement from a married couple with a toddler, and I appreciated that they included their toddler when we split the utilities bill five ways. Their second child arrived while we lived there, and they adjusted the utilities bill so it was then divided six ways. I just thought it was normal that children counted as people in a household until I started hosting AirBnB and got the questions about waving fees when children were the extra guests.

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They use way more utilities. I had twins and for the first several years my life was all about laundry. :smile:

Last weekend my guest (who had reserved for 4) announced after her arrival that maybe 4 extra friends were coming. The 4 extras turned out to be 5–the fifth was a 2-year-old who sneezed everywhere and nobody made an attempt to cover his mouth or wipe up after him. Of course, I caught his cold… Today, whilst blowing my nose and coughing, I am reading this listserve avidly to find out how others handle these awful situations. l was so shocked that anyone could do such a thing (I have been a host for over a year with nothing but great experiences) that I was like a deer in the headlights. And, to add insult to injury, I state outright in my description and remind guests when they reserve that I have dogs. The “extra” guests turned out to be terrified of dogs and insisted that I lock up my friendly little fluff-balls. I was tempted to say in my review that now I’m terrified of children. Anyway, thanks for these posts, everyone, I’m learning a lot.

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Their party size went from 4 to 9? How many does your unit sleep? Please do leave an honest review.

Yikes. You need to learn how to control your guests. If four people were booked, then only four are allowed in. You need to head them off at the pass before they get into your property and when she told you that extra people were coming you should have just told them that it wasn’t possible by the terms of the contract that she and you have with Airbnb.

I don’t have dogs but if I did, and a guest ‘insisted’ that I lock them up, then I’d insist that I most certainly wouldn’t and suggest that she finds other accommodation. (And I’d contact Airbnb).

I don’t mean to sound harsh here because I’m sure that you were just trying to be hospitable but this situation not only was unfair to you and your dogs, it is also unfair to the guest and to other hosts.

It’s unfair to the guest because she now has the opinion that her behaviour is acceptable and if she does this to a less-tolerant host she’ll get awful reviews. But in a way, she is now ‘trained’ to think that she can walk all over hosts and their house rules.

And it’s not fair to her future hosts who will get ‘well, other hosts let me bring extra people and locked up their dogs’.

Hope this makes sense :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the reply. I think that in future I will develop a spine. (In the private part of the review that goes to airbnb, I outlined the situation in detail, including some other things I didn’t mention in my post to this listserve). I was also concerned about liability (airbnb offers host insurance, but what about guests who are last-minute extras?). This forum has been really helpful in revealing other hosts’ concerns and their responses to, and management of, similar situations.

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Any insurance that Airbnb provides (which can be a little dubious) would not be extended to additional people so you’re right to be concerned about that. On this subject, be sure to have your own STR insurance for your property and not rely on Airbnb.

My place is huge. Sleeps 10 easily. I think there was a language problem (possibly), since the guests did not speak English as a first language, and I had difficulty understanding the heavily accented speech of the official guest (who made the reservation). I tried to err on the side of benefit of the doubt and thought that maybe she was clueless. There were some other serious problems that I didn’t mention in my post to the listserve. I told everything to airbnb, though. Not sure how they’ll handle it, but I have taken everyone’s advice received here very seriously and will heed it. Fortunately, this was my first bad experience with guests. Since this problematic stay I have had two more groups that were perfectly fine, so my confidence is slowly returning.

I don’t even discuss it anymore. If we don’t know you personally, we don’t want your kids in our house.

No exceptions.

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I do not play on this issue! In my house rules people agree to:
Every guest ages 0-99 who will be staying in or visiting the unit during your stay will be mentioned TWICE: 1.) up front to me in the inquiry or confirmation message and 2.) in the guest count section of the booking. I will not open my home to surprise guests.
I also tell them that my downstairs neighbor will call me immediately if there are more people in the party than spoken for, just to make sure they know I’m watching when I’m not there.