Finally, my first booking with children....nope, not this time either

I had one family bring a baby and it was fine, but it was a lot messier.

I don’t even let my own children in my rental and it’s directly across the road. :joy::joy::joy: Everything is too white and clean for their grubby little mitts.

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Dusty, you have forgotten your own sanity!!!

If it’s in your HR that you don’t accept children, then she should not have booked your place, IB or not. Did she actually read it?

Judging by your later post, I would cancel this booking. The fact that she’s backed off from her original premise that she’d only be sleeping at your rental gives me the heebie jeebies, coloured red.

I thought children over 2yrs were counted as people?

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Why are you making an exception?

Whenever I’ve gone against my standard policies, it usually doesn’t turn out good!

Also kids between 2 and 10 years old are, in my experience, super high maintenance. Worse than coming with extra adults. Fingerprints everywhere, crumbs, stains, etc. And risk of bed wetting.

Let us know how it works out.

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I had a guy book for maximum capacity + a “infant”. Infant was a 3 year old toddler, running around not walking. Had more damage with them than with 20 other guests.

can’t wait to hear how this turns out!

Hi @KKC

How was she able to book for three when you have a limit of two for your listing?

I think it’s great that you are trying to be so accommodating but I think you should stick to what it says in your listing. If you don’t accept children then don’t.

In your situation I would definitely be calling Airbnb and asking them to cancel.

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You’ve just reminded me that I need to adjust our settings, no children under the age of 12.

A lot messier would be an understatement to the last booking we had with a young child, I found myself cleaning toddler shit from the bathroom walls.

I’m thinking about where you’re located and if it’s all white I’ll bet you’ve got the same Spanish rough finish on the plaster. Absolute nightmare to clean as it rips clothes etc to shreds!

Any wonder I have a constantly in use bucket of white emulsion paint :unamused:

JF

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Maybe.

I think you, and others, are right. Allowing her to book while violating two items on my list, not suitable for children and limit of 2 people is just rewarding the bad behavior. I can cancel based on not reading the listing, rather than having children. When some friends with a toddler stayed last year and I recall all the things they did to make it child proof, I don’t see any reason I should do all that for no extra money.

I’ll be calling Airbnb soon, after all my coffee has hit my brain.

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No, it’s drywall with a light knockdown texture. But I don’t want to have to wash the walls. This is a three night booking with a one night the next day and that woman has already said she’s arriving at 3. So turning over the room after 2 toddlers have been in there 3 nights in possibly as little as 4 hours could be a challenge.

She booked for one but stated up front she had the twins. As I said her initial message was promising they would be gone a lot and she’d leave the place clean. I have concerns about discrimination against people with children. But her being over the limit should give me a reprieve.

Children have special needs, safety concerns you may not be able to provide, and do not behave like adults - running, crying, bed wetting, shouting, etc…

I don’t see how it could be considered “discrimination” to not accept people with children in your property!

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Besides outlet covers and cleaning chemicals, the biggest danger I can think of is them pulling over furniture, such as bookcases and dressers.

Do you have a TV? These are easy to tip as well.

Outlet covers are like a couple of bucks.

What’s the window situation? Could they open them and crawl out? Keep them locked, I guess.

Do you have blinds with cords? so, wind the cords up, out of reach.

Was meaning @Jackie_GranCanaria 's walls!

You rarely see smooth plaster in older buildings here, it tends to have a rough textured finish. Depending on how vigorously its applied, you get what I call “the cheesegrater effect” on exposed skin if you rub against it too hard :ambulance:

JF

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Yes.

I was going to screw the bookcase to the wall. The TV is mounted on the wall, high enough they can’t reach. But there’s a shelf that’s tall with a mini fridge on the bottom, microwave above and two more shelves above.

I did a quick search for her dates and with 1 adult, 2 children and there isn’t much left. I see now why she just searched for one person. She probably doesn’t want a whole house. But… not my problem.

I used one of my 3 penalty free-no need to call in cancellations. I don’t have any others for this year. But they way more and more people are just pushing themselves, I can see I’ll be using all three this year for the first time. I just had someone book for one, admit to two and show up with three a few nights ago. They were fine guests other than disregarding rules and they also haven’t left a review. They probably figure they are going to get dinged so they will skip it. Sigh.

I experienced the “cheesegrater” in Portugal one night, whilst trying to get to bed. It had been a very good night out with friends, or so I was told.

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I really appreciate everyone’s input. Eventually I’ll get a single person with an infant or child under 12 and I’ll end up dealing with it. This thread is really helpful. Her being over my 2 person limit gave me an easy out this time.

I also blocked the dates so she can’t have someone else book for her. I get lots of last minute bookings and I’ll unblock them later

I run into the same conundrum. My personal values say everyone should be welcome, but the reality is that not all properties suit all types of guests.

The touchy part is: do we inform people of concerns and let them decide, or are we the arbiters of what goes on our property? We’re not supposed to make the decision for those with disabilities - ie. once informed of layout challenges, that individual gets the final say on suitability. I’m not sure how I feel about that as it applies to kids. If a kid gets hurt because of something I knew was an issue, it’s not going to alleviate my conscience to say “well I told them so!”.

Does it give you pause that Airbnb’s insurance won’t cover their stay?

I send a similar “buyer beware” message to guests. Now that I know Air won’t cover stays with children when it’s against house rules, that’s gone into the message too. In practice I’ve declined stays in the age group I’m most concerned about (1-5 years) and allowed groups with older kids or (actual) infants.

As always I thank you for your thoughtful post. You are the best!

Until yesterday I’d always had good luck with sharing concerns but she decided she was fine with my place despite me flat out saying in the message I have a limit of two and not suitable for children. :angry:

Not so much because I’m not convinced that Airbnb covers anything, ever, for any reason. However, this is interesting that they won’t cover things that they allow. For me, it would be more of a concern with pets.

Until yesterday the small space, no tub, no kitchenette, has worked in my favor. There’s not really much space to even put up a pack and play (though my friends did it last Thanksgiving).

As I said, I have an easy out due to her being over the limit. But I don’t trust that she won’t try rebooking so I put a one night limit, raised my price and blocked part of the time she wants. I’ll open dates and lower prices later and hope for the best. But if I don’t get booked I’ll just do some maintenance in there.

Good call on canceling. I do host kids, but won’t go over my maximum guest count. I inform parents my listing isn’t childproofed and that it is their responsibility to watch the children. About 1 out of 3 families is excessively messy.

What’s this about AirBnB insurance not covering kids? Is it just that they won’t cover you if you allow the guest to break your own rules? (This is annoying since they always beg us to make exceptions.)

Where do the three adults who show up put the third person? The floor? Guests beyond the maximum I can accommodate is one place I put my foot down and resist the move to the hotel model. Not when I’m 1/3 the price of a hotel room.

Yes, I think it’s just if you violate your own rules…I’m not sure since I’ve never hosted children and have had few requests to even consider. The cheapest place I could find that would take the two kids for her dates was $100 more for the 3 days. A bargain since it was a 3 br home but I can’t see chasing 2 kids around a full home would be much harder than my small room.

The kids that came last week did, no doubt, have someone on the floor. I saw them bringing in their own blanket of some kind. That booking for three was a same day thing and yeah, I probably should have greeted them at the door and said “Uh, no.” But I didn’t and they actually were better guests than many of my guests who don’t violate rules. They didn’t run the AC the whole time, they didn’t shower, they didn’t leave any kind of stains. There were a few random bits of glitter, yes a pain to clean up but someone going to a birthday party could have been as bad or worse.