Children? Do you allow / Do you allow to sleep in double bed with parents?

1

Hi fellow helpful hosts. I enjoy your answers on here. It is much appreciated!

What do you guys do in case of enquiries with young children?

I have had it a couple of times now, where a couple has looked to stay with a young child (between 6 - 21 months old!!). AND after talking for a bit, finding out that they intend to sleep with the child in between the parents in our bed. Which is standard King (Double).

Not being a parent (Yet - one on the way), I am dubious about having the risk of child being smothered by bedding or bodyā€¦ I am on the understanding it is relatively common for parents to do it, but is it really risky or not?

Alongside that, I know young children are messy and can cause (unintentional) damage to walls etcā€¦ What is peopleā€™s opinions on that?

My house is not exactly certified for accommodating (other peopleā€™s) young children. We dont have baby gates, high chairs, cots, plug socket covers etcā€¦ and I am not sure that Airbnb insurance would cover any issues involving minors, does it?

Some of the requests have been for a whole week whilst looking to finding proper accommodation prior to relocation to the area. I see that as they would want to be in our house a lot. What do people think to charging extra cleaning costs due to this?

(This is rooms in my house, not an ā€œentire placeā€ rent.)

Thanks all in advance!

2

Hi Nick_n_Jo

Although I have an apt and not in my home I have that the accommodation is suitable for 2 adults only and just recently added not suitable for children and babies.

I get quite a few enquiries also who will ask if they could bring their baby or child and will supply their own porta cot.

I always reply immediately and say "Iā€™m really sorry but the apt is not suitable for children and that I would not want that to spoil there holiday advising that there are some great 2 bedroom accommodation places nearby and decline the booking.

All have replied with a Thank you for getting back so quickly and are quite understanding.

Its your home and you have a right to choose your guests; just like they choose you.

Good Luckā€¦

3 Likes
3

Our home (also rooms in our house) are not suitable for babies or children, so we donā€™t accept them anymore. When I did once, I got my down duvet wet on from what I assume was a changing accident or just leaving baby on the bed without a nappy (huge urine soaked patch). This was probably getting off lightly, as my mattress could have been wet which would have been far more expensive to replace, and I hear that happens often. Not a good idea to accept babies if you are not set up for it, unless you are prepared to deal with bed wetting, hands covered in food rubbed over sofas, cushions curtains or anything else you can think of. Babies get sticky hands quickly and tend to get them everywhere. Parents promise to take care, but the fact is toddlers are tiny missiles, and extremely difficult to manage constantly. A little accident or two (three or four) are bound to happen during a stay, and the chances increase during a longer stay.

Ps, congrats on YOUR baby! Your own will be much cleaner and well behaved :slight_smile:

5 Likes
4

iā€™m glad this was posted because iā€™ve been giving this a lot of thought. I often receive inquiries for guests that want to stay with infants (less than 9 months) who always say the baby will sleep in the same bed as to imply a discount on rate. This scares the daylights out of me as i know of two cases where babies have been suffocated sleeping with parents and died. the most recent was the grandchild of a co-worker last year. I feel this behavior is irresponsible and even criminal and i want no part of it. I have yet to accept a request of this type and iā€™m seriously considering banning children all together to prevent a tragedy.

2 Likes
5

Do what I do: require all guests to be 18 or over. Why on earth would you want to have young children in your home? You assume so much more risk with zero benefit.

2 Likes
6

Thanks Sandy!! haha. Hopefully!

What you have described, really is what I am worried about. So, I feel it may be a no goer. I think I may have to add it to my listing tooā€¦

Thank you for your advice!

1 Like
7

It really scares me too!

The fact that you actually know someone it has happened to, really solidifies my worry that it could possibly happen. I dont think I would want to consider risking it. Even if we were a fully fledged accommodation business, it is not really something we could bare. Dont think my partner and I could deal with that mentally, either! That would be alot to shoulder if it happened under our roof!

Thanks for your time and your story. That really helped.

Cheers

1 Like
8

Thanks Jackulas

It sounds like a good roundup of the responses I have had so far. And no one to back up the other side.

So I think it is the route I am going to go down.

(I already declined the guest in question. But for further requests of similar, it is definitely going to be refused. And a line on my listing to to state so too.)

Thanks for your time and response.

9

Well this topic is right up my alley. I just went through the couple booking my room for two in a shared house. They arrived with a toddler already in stinky diapers. I let them in, I always give people what they ask for, even when they have not been honest. Up to that day, I had been taking all comers, infants, toddlers and up! Most babies and young toddlers came with a porta crib, which is very helpful! My daughter always brought her porta crib for our grandson.
But lets be honest here. How many of us police our rooms or apartments to meet a toddlerā€™s safety standards!
And you will have problems, not one toddler or baby got through a stay here without something bad happening. My beds have homemade expensive and beautiful quilts, these invariably are wetted, or worse, get the strong diaper smell from the child being wrapped up in the quilt. Every time I am forced to launder the quilts, blankets and sheet sets. Normally blanket and quit are washed depending on use, every two weeks or less.
Look at the risk you take if baby or toddler has an accident or is hurt in your home! Is the rent money worth that risk? Parents all claim junior is well behaved, and no trouble. Sorry folks, I am 60 years old, nobody can pull that over on me!
My advice, from 3 year of taking children and toddlers, Do Not Do It. I did it, it was always trouble. The rent was not worth the damage and mental fear of lawsuits. If the child fall down your stairs, I assure you 100%, they will come at you with all the force of the law! How do I know, my daughter practices Law! Believe what you like, those smiling parents whose child is no problem, and just love your house, they will eat you for breakfast should anything happen to the child! That is fact, born out by history.
I LOVE kids, Iā€™ve had them, I have grand kids. My 4 year old grandson was here all weekend, and it was great. But, we are talking other peopleā€™s children, and do you really know how responsible the parents are?
I had a sweet young christian couple book with a 4 year old prefect angle. Great! He hit this house like an army of invaders. Grabbing things and throwing them all over the house, picked up by Daddy. Then taken upstairs for a time out, he screamed for an hour, and stomped the floor. A nightmare. Even the Bible was no help this time!

3 Likes
10

So to add. In short, it is best not to take infants and toddlers. That is what hotels, motels, rental cabins, and rental condos are for. Not peer to peer rentals of oneā€™s own home or apartment. I tried to be the perfect host, taking all children and doing all in my power to help the parents during their stay. But NO, it is not worth it. I put in my description ā€œSorry, I can no longer take any children under 8ā€.
I will lose maybe 4 booking a summer from this, but think of the peace of mind!

3 Likes
11

NJ,

Just say no. I do. Right at the top of my listing. ā€œMy place is not a good fit for babies or toddlers, but I can take one adult and one older child.ā€

I just received an inquiry during the busy holiday season, and they wanted to bring the baby who was about to turn one. Would have been for three weeks, but I just canā€™t do it. Just too many things Iā€™d have to babyproof and remove to accommodate a baby learning to walk. To say nothing of the extra utilities theyā€™d use, running baths, using more water and everything else. It would have been a couple grand, ouch. But still.

Iā€™m not anti-children, (I had twin boys who are now 20) but babies and toddlers are much better accommodated at a hotel, which is what I suggest when they write.

I find it amusing that they all say the baby sleeps with us so thatā€™s why it shouldnā€™t count as a personā€¦

12

I donā€™t allow children under 10-12 and have had ZERO inquires. Why? Because I clearly state that I board dogs and that there are typically 6-8 dogs here. I clearly state that my place is not a good choice because of the dogs. It is a convenient way to keep people with young kids from staying here. Also the room is very small so there would be no space for 2 people, their things and a baby.

1 Like
13

Hello everyone,

I just got an inquiry for a couple with a month old child, and this (somewhat old) thread was quite helpful in helping me making a decision about whether to host. Iā€™m wondering if I should add a lower age restriction on my listing, and if so, what is should be. Currently I donā€™t have one.

14

I just hosted a couple with a 6 month old. Although I clearly have no children policy ( itā€™s a bedroom in our home), we made an exception this time for a one night stay and all went well. However, after reading this thread I think I wonā€™t allow it again. Btw, they brought their own porta crib but the baby slept with them which they told me after the fact.

15

This thread made it sound like a potential nightmare. But even before reading it I was leaning against. But I think the people writing here are correct - there is just too much that can go wrong with a small child, and a small child of strangers, whatā€™s more. Why take chances?

2 Likes
16

Hi faheem

I started this post some time ago, when we were awaiting the arrival of our first.

Not being the over-broody type we were skeptical about having children in the house. And we stayed away from it as best as possible.

The thought of ā€œco-sleepingā€ as they call it, with baby in the bed was just too risky a thought for us. HOWEVERā€¦

Now being a parent of a three month old daughter and meeting other parents, co-sleeping is not only a very common practice, it is a necessary risk in order to get any sleep yourself as a parent. Not to mention what do tribes people do in Africa or South America, that dont have special cots, high tech medical services and NCT groups on handā€¦? They just sleep with their children and get on with itā€¦

Having said that, is it too much of a risk to allow someone to potentially have an incident in your own home? That is for you to decide. But my opinion has changed 180 degrees since having one myself and we have had no issue in the last few months.

Beyond 6 months, when the kids can crawl and eat solids, however, is another matter. The mess they could make (I have seen many times in the restaurant industry) could be alot. But you would just hope the parents are good enough to clear it up. And then you have the added worry of baby gates and securing things down etcā€¦

Before this age, Mummy and Daddy are always carrying baby and baby has no control over where it goes so to worry about things breaking is only by the parents hands.

I would say a 1 month old is fine. Mention, you would rather they had their own separate crib. And that all responsibility is on them to ensure their baby is kept safe at all times in your home.

Just be wary that they will probably have to get up in the night (every two hours or so) to feed it and so they will probably co-sleep at some point. And there may be some crying, so if you are a light sleeper and have thin walls, may be stay away from it.

I am going up to my hometown this weekend and I am booking an Airbnb place. My baby will be sleeping in our room. In a separate crib but when she wakes at 6am, she will be brought in to the bed to be breastfed. I am booking a whole place for us though. We have our dogs with us too.

Good luck with it. If you have any questions, do let me know.

Best regards

2 Likes
17

Hi @Nick_n_Jo,

Well, I already said no to the lady who asked, and on balance I think it was the right decision for us. This hosting business is dicey enough without throwing babies into the mix. Maybe if I, or my people, had more experience with small children it would be different. But thanks for the thoughts. Disturbance is not an issue for us - the room is quite far away from where we sleep - itā€™s actually in a different building. We might be able to hear guests, or at least a crying baby, if the windows were left open, though.

1 Like
18

Congratulations, @Nick_n_Jo!!!

This isnā€™t hardly a host-topic, but itā€™s an important one so I would like to weigh in with my belief just for a balance. The co-sleeping is a big issue for me. I did not do it - I slept better not doing - but I had acquaintances that judged me for not doing so, so I felt ostracized. My sisterā€™s pediatricianā€™s office had numerous accounts of smothering deaths posted on the wall of the waiting room. One pediatrician I saw in my practice had just come off being an ER doc - he was vehemently opposed to it. Said he was called to attempt resuscitation of infants ā€˜all the timeā€™. My own pediatrician said ā€œoh, the mother always wakes upā€. I almost choked - I donā€™t wake up easily at all - how can he make that assumption - he was saying ā€œyes, thereā€™s a chance youā€™ll roll over your baby and begin to smother it, but donā€™t worry, youā€™ll wake upā€. So for us, it is just not worth the risk. Yet, lots of people do it, soā€¦

But you know, parenting is HARD and exhausting. You have to think through and make these decisions for yourself. And opinions change often, and, are held with a passionate assurance that YOU should agree with whatever opinion is that day. (For example, my mother was thought poorly of by her doctor and friends because she breast fed. My husbandā€™s mother was never really given the option - they just gave her the bottle and it breast feeding was never even discussed). T

he hardest part of mothering is the fact that there are no hard and fast answers for how to do it. I was very alone when I had my baby and it was excruciating every day trying to know what was best.

That being said, lol! I do take families. I donā€™t feel the need to makes sure everything is 100% babyproof anymore than a hotel does. I do state explicitly that parents are 100% responsible for their childrenā€™s safety. I should have them sign something when they arrive.

My problems with stains, etc., are across the board and are HARDLY limited to small children! Not many small children put their make-up covered face into my white towels and go to town - or wipe themselves when they are still yet unclean and leaf the filth for me to deal with. The only difference is, when thereā€™s someone in diapers, I go downstairs to empty the trash every day. Sometimes the crying gets old, but, so does the slamming of doors, the redundant inane questions, the lack of communication, the loud voices when they skype with family back home at midnightā€¦to me the kids are just part of the package of hosting.

However, I do not have a lot of expensive linens - yet, anyway, I find stains on my nice comforter regardless of the age of occupant.

6 Likes
19

I have a newborn and would not allow this practice in my rental. Lawsuit waiting to happen if something goes wrong in your home. If sleeping with their child is their choice they can do so in their home or someone elseā€™s not mine.

1 Like
20

No children for me. Both my rooms are 1 guest only.

1 Like