This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Personally I wouldn’t have allowed it as my house rules state only those on the booking are allowed at my listing. You don’t need two people to babysit a child @Christine_Shirtcliff
Do you not vet guests to ask about the purpose of their stay when booking - this would have helped to flag this issue.
Do your house rules state that only those on the booking can be at the listing?
As you chose to allow her to have baby sitters come to the listing, you can’t really complain about this in the review, but definitely mention it to warn future hosts.
As a guest (and a single mum who brought up my kids and ran by own business) I would never have thought of booking somewhere and arranging for baby-sitters to come to booked accommodation without checking with the owner.
Personally if I wanted to go to a conference I would have left my child at home with relatives/close friends.
If she felt guilty about leaving her child alone with strangers - she wouldn’t have done it.
I think there’s something that you may not be familiar with. And I know it’s too common a refrain but … hotels. That’s why. Not bad parenting. Hiring childcare so that you can work to support your child does not fall under bad parenting.
And because it is absolutely common for babysitters to come and watch kids in hotel rooms while their parents go to meetings for work or go out to a show on vacation. Not roadside motor inns but large hotels literally have a list of babysitting and nanny service referrals that is available for people traveling with young children. My best friend in college supported herself by babysitting people’s kids in hotel rooms.
And I believe that is one of the reasons that this guest thought it was acceptable (especially since she’s working conferences, she’d be familiar with that happening in a hotel).
The other reasons are:
The listing allowed visitors until 10pm so there was no prohibition of unregistered guests.
The guest explicitly told the host that she was going to hire sitters to watch the baby. If you’re not doing it at the airbnb then you don’t tell your host about it. And if you’re a host, you ask to confirm.
The host’s communication was inadequate. Tons of assuming and guessing.
I spoke to the guest on her return last evening and went over the issues brought up in the discussion here. She explained she had been told there was a creche at the conference venue but on her arrival there on Friday (prior to checking in here) she found it was a room only and no one to supervise. As she couldn’t be in 2 places at once she contacted an old flatmate who lives an hour away and arranged her to come and babysit. The flatmate brought her partner too and as they don’t know the area and its winter here they decided to stay in.
So it turned out ok and a good learning opportunity for me and for the guest.
Thanks again folks.
You bring up something that has bothered me for a long time, in general. There seems to be a bit of a double standard where hosts are concerned. Hosts get irritated when guests make assumptions, yet hosts also make assumptions. Hosts get irritated when guests are bothered by something during their stay, yet say nothing, not giving the host a chance to deal with it if warranted, then complain about it in the review.
Yet hosts will often say nothing about something annoying a guest is doing during the stay, biting their tongue in fear of a bad review, then mention it in the review.
And it never seems to occur to hosts that when guests don’t mention something during the stay, that maybe they are thinking something similar- they don’t want to be seen as complainers because they don’t want a bad review, so save the complaints for their review.
Exactly. For many years, people have rented houses, apartments, villas and so on and have taken for granted the fact that they can have visitors during their stay. And many of those people wouldn’t even think to mention it to the company or person they rented the place from.
And as @JJD mentioned, babysitters have been going into hotels for as long as I can remember.
It’s not organised or caring to present you with a fair-accompli a night on arrival. More a deliberate omission on her part to make it difficult to Sat not.
A good mum would be checked with you in advance .
I wonder with you didn’t check with her whether the babysitters would be at your home.
Why are two baby sitters needed ?
Personally I wouldn’t risk having two people I know nothing about in my listing .
Did you not read what the host said later on in this thread? The guest was told there was a child care area at the conference, so had no plan ahead of time to hire a babysitter. Her mistaken understanding was that her child care would be provided. She only found out, perhaps not in time to clear it with the host before arrival, that it seems this was only an area for kids to hang out, but there was no actual child care provided.
So the guest had a friend in the area she called to see if she could look after the baby. No, it doesn’t take 2 people to babysit one 21 month old. But as this was seemingly a last minute desperation arrangement, perhaps the babysitter and her partner needed to work on something together while the baby was napping or happily engaged with some toys within sight of the babysitter, that they couldn’t postpone. Or they just didn’t anticipate that it would be any problem, who knows.
I still think a young mom in a situation like this would not naturally assume it wasn’t okay to have babysitters come over (as JJD pointed out, these “come to your room babysitting” services are offered and common in hotels, resorts, and in vacation homes in touristy areas- they certainly are in my town), and she did tell the host this was happening. That was the host’s opportunity to ask questions about the babysitting, which the host didn’t do.
In any case, the host has indicated that the guest and she had a talk about it, it is now clear what happened, and it’s water under the bridge.
Agreed! If she stated that in her first booking statement, you get to copy and paste the “no unregistered guests”. If you’re comfortable with having her friends come over, you can add them, complete with their names, and they will babysit.
If she states the babysitting situation when she arrives, then you can arrange for her to take the child to the "sitters’ and pick the child up there. That would be my policy. Too much liability.
