Lucky I don’t have IB. Though I suppose under the circumstances Airbnb would have cancelled the reservation. Though I don’t know what policies they have about early check-ins.
I don’t know of a list. My place is not child proofed at all. I do allow kids of all ages. I don’t know what age kids go out of diapers and should be potty trained. I was just picturing your guests trying to take a small child to the restroom in the middle of the night. Would they walk through the house versus going outside?
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I’m not sure what you mean. The bathroom is not attached to the room (i.e. not en suite), but not very far away. However, not ideal for a small child emergency in the middle of the night, I suppose.
I know it’s not attached. I just didn’t know if they would likely be walking through the house, or if they would take the outside stairs.
Oh. Yes, you have to go through the house to get to the bathroom, but just the entry hall. And most of the time there is nobody there.
I found this somewhere on the Airbnb site. Their guidelines for having a child friendly place.
I’d say it lets us all off the hook for accepting kids if we don’t want to.
Hi @Australia,
Wow, I think I fail on most of those counts. 
Thanks for the list. Airbnb really should make this (or something similar) visible alongside the child-friendly options. But of course they won’t.
I don’t even know what “Removable safety gates for stairs” means.
So, what ages is this relevant for? Up to 12? Less?
Additional random question: is the children’s novel “Playing Beatie Bow” popular in AU? It was also a film. Both novel and film were in the 80s. It’s set in Sydney. Part of it in 19th century Sydney, specifically, the Rocks - it’s a time -travel novel.
The only one I DON’T fail on is the pool fencing.
Temporary /removable low gates (often wooden or plastic bars like on a cot)
that can fit in a doorway or at the base of a stairway to block off a room or stair that you don’t want a child (or dog) to access. They are extendable to fit different sizes and then you screw on each end it to hold tight.
Hard to describe!
Just don’t use the temporary ones at the top of a stair! Only a fixed permanent one. I once had the horror of watching a child push through one at the top of the stairs. She landed on top of the gate and skillfully held onto the bars of it as she slid down a full flight of stairs like she was surfing on a Boogie board! Scared the hell out of me especially as she wasn’t my child. Not so much as a bump or scratch on her! She was about 18 months.
If you mean the safety gates only good til the child can’t climb over them (2ish)
If you mean the whole list… Hmm they don’t say, but I’d think about 5 and under. That’s why I’ve pick 6 years as my magic number. But that list is still assuming good adult supervision is a constant
Well I have vaguely heard of it, but I’m not a big reader so I don’t know how popular it is amongst the young readers. Had a quick look at it and it sounds like something my 12yr old daughter would love, thanks for the intro.
Hi @Australia,
The removable safety gate sounds complicated (and expensive). I’m definitely not doing anything like that. And the only stairs it would make sense to block are the ones leading to the terrace. I don’t know whether they would be hazardous for a small child. But perhaps it’s best not to find out.
I don’t have a clear picture of what happened there, but it does sound scary. Did the gate come loose then?
Yes, I did mean the whole list. But 6 years old could still be a lot of trouble. I’d be inclined to go with 12 or up, if I was to set a restriction. But I haven’t set one yet. Maybe I’ll decide on a case by case basis. I only really need to make these things explicit if I’m going to go with IB, and I doubt I’ll ever do that.
Ah, so not a household name, then. I thought maybe it was better known in AU. I remember it quite well from when I read it in the 1980s - I’m not sure if I have read it since. Which itself is a recommendation, I suppose. I was just thinking about it today, for some reason.
All stairs are hazardous for young children meaning less than 2 1/2 - 3 years old. Many children in the USA don’t actually have any stairs in their lives, in which case, they have no experience going up and down them.
That silly HGTV show “House Hunters” has couple after couple where one or both of the people have never had to use stairs, ever! They panic at the idea of their 6-year old having to use stairs to get to their bedroom! Ludicrous!
I suspect that your listing mentions the stairs to the terrace, so people like the HGTV-everything-must-be-granite kind of people would not choose your home with an 18 mo old.
At 18 months, children are very mobile. They have no common sense. [That is not distributed until they are older.] They can’t walk over cords without tripping. They get hurt on sharp table corners, especially ones that are table height. They are still in diapers and have to be changed on something that doesn’t allow them to tumble [center of the bed is often the chosen spot.] Many are still putting anything they can into their mouths. They are eating solid foods, but it often needs to be prepared for them [i,.e. they can’t use a knife to cut their meat or vegetables.] Some mothers are still nursing them in combination with those solid foods. They have no ability to assess risk at all. And they are filled with wonder, absorb information at a rate that is extraordinary, and can often be found laughing just because. Or crying, just because.
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Haha so true. When we built a new house someone actually asked me why we didn’t get granite bench tops!!
Eer about $5000 and I’m more than happy with my laminex brushed stainless steel look tops!
Oh and great summary of a toddler by the way
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Yes a bit complicated but not expensive for the dangerous type!
With the cheap fully removable type there’s nothing drilled/screwed into the wall. It’s just got these 4 rubber knobs that screw into the wall tight so it’s wedged in. Feels secure but anyone with kids knows the force they can put on things. So this child stood right in the middle of the gate, pushed it forward which made the whole gate come free of the wall. The gate fell flat on the stair with her laying flat on it and they both slid (head first) down the full flight of stairs.
Hi @smtucker,
Seriously? Just elevators then?
Well, there’s a photo of the stairs. I don’t think I specifically mention stairs to the terrace. Then again, you can’t fly to it, nor is there an elevator to it.
I must be missing something. What’s special about granite?
Thanks for the vivid description. My contact with small children is very limited, though I find them charming in small doses, and I remember almost nothing myself from when I was a small child. My earliest memory is having a conversation with my mother when I was 7.
And your words irresistibly recall to mind Wordsworth’s great Ode, particularly the lines that begin with
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
I think I mentioned in another thread that I like Wordsworth.
It’s beautiful and nearly indestructible. It was/is very popular in high end homes but now middle class buyers want it and the truly rich are moving to different surfaces. When I had my kitchen re-done in 2010 granite was already starting to be “out of style.” But I got it anyway because I love natural materials and the idea that I have something millions of years old in my house. It’s great to be able to get what you want and not have to worry about trends or styles.
Now that is completely astonishing,
When you read a review on Air from a guest mentioning stairs and especially the EXACT number of stairs to a listing, review is always from an American guest 
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Sure, I like granite too. But why is it child-friendly? Because children can’t destroy it? Or for some other reason?
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My husband and I still quote one particular episode of House Hunters where the couple finds this incredible house on the water, but there are 3 steps in the middle of this ginormous deck that goes out to the boat. The wife kept saying, over and over “those three steps! What if my children fell on them?” It was truly one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. They rejected that house and got some crappy little place inland because of the 3 steps.
On the subject of granite - I keep hearing that it has “gone out of style” but yet I’m not entirely clear on what the new stylish thing is. Marble and other very similar rocks that come in slabs seem to be it, but it’s still rock, as opposed to wood, laminate, Corian or stainless steel. I’ve seen concrete, but it hasn’t caught on. For about 2 nanoseconds I considered getting glass, but it costs about 2-3x as much as granite and isn’t as durable (though it can be lit up from underneath, which is cool). There are also things like recycled glass, crushed and put into a matrix, but I didn’t like the look.
We recently installed granite in the Airbnb bathrooms, and I think it looks nice and clean, as well as being durable. It was a huge improvement over the 1980’s cultured marble and ugly faucet.
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So true! There are stairs up to our rental and over the years I must have gone up and down them gazillions of times but even so, I don’t know how many there are. If a guests asked, I’d have to go and count