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Hi there, new-ish Airbnb host here! I just had an inquiry from a guest telling me her and her boyfriend were 18 years old and were hoping to be able to book with us. Right now we ask that guests be 25 or older to book with us, and guests are unable to instant book without a government issued ID.
I looked at the potential guest’s profile and noticed that she didn’t have a government issued ID on file, just an email address and phone number. I told potential guest that if she was able to upload an ID to her profile then I would approve her stay, as I believe Airbnb only allows users to upload an ID if they are 18 or older.
I was curious about how other hosts have handled this situation and how I could better handle this in the future. So far there’s been no reply from her so I’m wondering if she’s really underage.
Also of importance: I am in the US and based on the guest’s inquiry I assume she is from the US as well. Thanks!
I only allow 25 year olds and over. Twice I accepted younger kids but after talking to parents as of why they were traveling: sports competitions and such.
We are considering a similar policy, but are trying to be a bit more flexible in the beginning to get more folks in the door. If she is able to prove her age I figured I would require check-in to be done in person so that I can assess the situation better and remind them of house rules, etc. face-to-face (I live upstairs from the listing).
I would not rent out to someone as young as 18. Chances are they will be drinking and maybe even drug use. I worry too much and I would be afraid of underage drinking.
With all due respect I am not asking for opinions regarding whether or not you would host an 18 year old guest - I’m simply asking whether my response to the guest’s inquiry was appropriate and if anyone had suggestions on how I could better address this in the future.
I do have another question though - I still have yet to approve or decline the guests request to book as I am waiting for a response from her. Can I be penalized by Airbnb for not approving or declining?
I have had great teenage guests. On most occasions these have been 18 or 19 but the youngest was an eighteen year old girl and her seventeen year old boyfriends. (As far as Airbnb is concerned, only the person booking has to be eighteen).
I am always careful about stereotyping here but I have found that teenagers from Europe tend to be more adult than people of the same age from the USA.
I have always found teenagers to be quiet and respectful and I truly believe that teenagers today are far more sober than I was at that age. The teenagers I know are concerned with their careers, their jobs, their studies and not at all interested in booze or drugs. (Very much unlike me at that age!)
I have just seen your second post (we were typing at the same time) and I realise that I have not answered your question but I want to let new and potential hosts reading this that there is no need to be wary of teenage guests. I’m not sure whether age discrimination would apply.
And this is a public forum. I will say that “under 25” is about 25% of my guests and that group is the only group that hasn’t been any trouble at all. They leave handwritten thank you notes, lol.
But, now, to your point: Have you checked to make sure that is not illegal for you to discriminate based on age, where you live and host?
Airbnb requires the person making the reservation to be at least 18 years of age, no? In this case I’m not denying the guest because she is under 25, I’m just asking her to add an ID to her account in order to confirm she is in fact 18. Considering her silence I’m beginning to think she isn’t 18 after all.
The city I live in doesn’t have much in the way of laws/regulations for short term rentals so I’m not sure where I could find that information. That’s a great point though!
@lauren_g Yes, I think your response was appropriate. And yes, you have to either approve or decline a booking request within 24 hours or you get dinged on your response rate. If it’s an Inquiry rather than a Booking Request, you only have to answer within 24 hours, and can ignore the Pre-approve/Decline buttons, if you like, as well as the pesky reminders from Airbnb to Pre-approve.
Thanks for your feedback! On second glance it looks like it was an inquiry rather than a booking request so I think I’m okay not pre-approving or declining
I think that maybe the department from which you get your license might have the details. Here anyway, they know all the whys and wherefores of local STR rental laws. It’s a tricky one because Federal Law does not allow for age discrimination. Airbnb says that hosts can’t ‘decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law’ so it’s that last part you’d need to worry about.
Well, if you require verified ID to book with you, then, yes, ask her to verify her ID. I don’t see what that really has to do with her age though. If you are only asking some people to verify ID and not others, that’s when it starts to seem like discrimination. If you require everyone to do it, then there’s no problem.
The people I know that age aren’t into much drinking and they don’t do drugs at all, except for passing a joint around. They are hiking, snowboarding, mountain biking, going to school, working to save the environment, volunteering to dish out food at the local soup kitchen, that sort of thing. And I can assure you they aren’t squeaky-clean missionary types.
What I’m most leery about with people that age is that they aren’t that great about knowing how to clean up after themselves.
Thanks for the suggestion! The city I live in seems to have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for STR’s…a detailed search on my city’s website yields no results. They definitely don’t require a permit. We just purchased our home and even had our realtor looking into the laws regarding STR’s (he’s an experienced Airbnb host himself). Would almost be better if they had some guidelines!
I’m thinking for any future guests under 25 that I will simply require a face-to-face check in so that my husband (cohost) and I can get a feel for the situation (unless that’s age discrimination…thoughts?). We live upstairs and the Airbnb is our small basement apartment. We only allow four people to occupy the space at any given time in order to prevent unwanted partying as much as possible. I feel a little better about 25 and under guests as we do live upstairs and can monitor the situation better than someone that doesn’t live on the property.
This. It’s easy to imagine that under 20s are irresponsible and anyone over 50 will be super mature and respectful. But nothing could be further from the truth. Bad guests come from all age groups, genders, nationalities, social classes and any other classification you’d care to name. I think this is one of the greatest gifts that doing Airbnb has given me (apart from the money!). Don’t ever assume anything about anybody. Ever.
You want practical advice so JJD has given it in a nutshell. If she doesn’t upload verified ID, then she doesn’t get to book. Age is irrelevant.
Gotcha! Yes, we only allow guests to instant book if they have an ID on file, which is why this guest had to submit an inquiry before booking. To my knowledge, every other guest we have hosted has had an ID on file. I will certainly be checking inquires in the future though to make sure they have an ID on file.
