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I thought there was. I am aware that one must be 18 years old here to enter into a binding legal contract. I checked AirBnB’s “help” section and could find nothing there. Tonight I received this message. The prospective guest’s name is removed but he’s from Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh location isn’t concerning; I get a lot of weekend bookings from neighboring states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio.
Here are the concerns: 1. Brand new account. 2. His family is moving and part of the deal is letting him have a weekend away with friends…sounds like a high school or college kid to me. 3. Why come here to play golf? There are more and better courses in the Pittsburgh area! I’ve never had a guest come here to play golf.
I’m thinking this is a young guy, intent on a party weekend, out of the local area where he can be away from parental scrutiny.
Other worries. This is an entire 3 bedroom, 2 bath, nice house. Another family—parents and 3 kids—are arriving the same day this guy checks out so if the guy and his friends make a mess or damage things there is minimal time to fix it. Also, I will be in England on vacation so I won’t be on the spot to take care of things if the booking goes south or there are damages.
On the plus side, we have a Ring Video doorbell so any parties or sneaking in additional people will be caught quickly. Also, my son (age 42) will be in town keeping an eye on things and he’s not a “don’t worry, be happy” kinda guy—if he thinks there are issues, he will step in.
I’ve used the “not comfortable hosting these guests” get out of jail free card once already this year.
I would be curious to know if he is
. Under or over 18
. Why he need such a big place, and
. Is he aware of the rules as far as guests are concerned?
In my Landlording days I did not have the right or interest in someone’s age, but a may need to know because in my case insurance won’t cover anyone under 19.
My other concern is that if Junior turns your home into a fairway, or if he loses control of his guests turned vampires, how will that feel for YOU? After all, you’re the one to please.
I just had similar!
Brand new account, person didn’t put any info no photo nothing, just the minimum.
In my house rules I state minimum age of primary renter 26 to avoid this problem.
in my experience young kids do not know what is expected when staying in someone’s home, if they break stuff they don’t tell you, they think that paying for cleaning means they can leave the place filthy, etc… They do things like ringing neighbors doorbells if they forget their keys etc.
In this case she did read the house rules, and asked if I would allow them as guests, maybe because I am required to take their ID so she knew I would find to they were under my minimum age.
It was a big mistake. Apartment is brand new with luxury finishings. They left it a filthy mess with sand everywhere, in the bed, the sofa, etc. Worse they forced and broke some things and didn’t tell me.
It’s a new listing so of course I couldn’t ask for damage and risk getting a bad review or comments. So the stay cost me more than It brought in and I almost rented it to the next person with broken equipment that they didn’t tell me about.
It’s a problem on the Airbnb site though because if you get an inquiry from someone like this and you refuse you are penalised, I have noticed it, you will get less inquiries for a while until you bring up your acceptation rate.
I wouldn’t cancel! It would be much better to put a minimum age in your house rules, and say you don’t accept groups of friends only families and couples or something like that, then contact support and have them cancel it for you.
Even if you are not “officially” penalised for cancelling a booking, I have noticed that if you refuse or don’t respond to a few inquiries you start going down in the search results.
You never know you might have a bad streak usually these things come in twos or threes you’ll have a few problem reservations in a row…
If you don’t have anything about minimum age / not accepting groups of friends in your house rules, maybe try to get the guest to cancel by himself:
explain that you will be passing by the property regularly during his stay at any time of day to check on things?
Say you live next door or upstairs?
be annoying or demanding, ask a bunch of questions?
say that you will be doing a thorough house check on arrival it will take at least an hour and he’ll have to sign a paper with the house inventory and pictures of the property before you give him the keys
tell him he will have to wait to get the keys and/or check out at your earliest time
I’ve had kids like this before try to rent and if they can smell that you are going to be annoying/supervising the property there is a good chance they’ll go find somewhere else where they won’t have a hassle.
Interesting that other people including yourself assume he is a youngster. To me it sounds like he is the father. Is there anything else in the message that makes you think he is the adult child? @Keugenia
It would be unusual in the UK anyway for a teenager and their buddies to be interested in a golfing weekend.
Yep. The sentence “My family is planning on a move to the East Coast, and part of the deal included a getaway golf weekend for me and my oldest friends!”
Um, I don’t often see adult men using exclamation marks when talking bout a golfing weekend…or anything else.
I’ve never heard of a move including a golfing weekend as part of the “deal.” It sounds like parents bribing an older teen to go along with the family move, to me anyway. Older teenagers can get really upset at a family relocation move and the parents may have used this as a bribe. That’s my take anyway.
I really don’t think a grown man would sound this excited about a golfing weekend in a small town in West Virginia… As far as I know, the local courses are nothing special at all.
Not so unusual here. The local high schools have teams and they compete in State Championships. There are college scholarships available for the really good players.
I was right. The courses here are nothing special at all. I’m sure there are much better courses closer to Pittsburgh.
Fair enough I was checking because most teenagers here wouldn’t be seen dead on a golf course. It’s seen as an old fashioned sport by many in that age group.
You’d be surprised at how excited a older man can get by having a weekend away with their buddies
Like @Helsi I don’t see anything to indicate that this is a younger person. And if it is, all young people aren’t out to party and cause damage! (And there’s an exclamation mark from a woman in her sixties )
I think the telling phrase is “my oldest friends”. Doesn’t sound like teenager speak to me, more like an old geezer wanting a blast with his mates before heading off into the sunset, or whatever.
Be careful with the minimum age thing. If you don’t share the property with guests this is considered age discrimination, at least by Airbnb. They only allow it certain cases - like if you live in an age restricted community.
Age and Familial Status
Airbnb hosts may not :
Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.
Airbnb hosts may :
Provide factually accurate information about their listing’s features (or lack of them) that could make the listing unsafe or unsuitable for guests of a certain age or families with children or infants.
Note in their listing applicable community restrictions (e.g. senior housing) that prohibit guests under a particular age or families with children or infants.
I agree with @Allison_H here. I do have a minimum age of 25 in my house rules but I realize I cannot I force it. I consider it more of a suggestion. And this is the week of everyone wanting to test those rules.
We see you don’t offer a BBQ grill but do you have one we could use anyway - yes and NO.
Had a couple of 18 year olds IB for 1 night and they might have been the most polite, best guests I’ve ever had.
I see you don’t accept pets but we have a 3 month old puppy we would really like to bring is that okay? No. But it’s a golden retriever. No. He’s really cute, please, he has a crate and we will keep him in the laundry room. Okay. Great here’s my boyfriend’s cell phone and email. Can you send him your listing and he will book! NO No No. Warning email from AirBnB pops in at this time telling me I am in danger of being delisted for exchanging personal information and possibly booking off platform.
*Boyfriend found the listing all by himself at the same moment Air was warning me and instant booked.
*Me. Opens large bottle of wine.
*The good news, Air’s pricing jacked my rate way up because tourist season just started and it’s only a one night booking.
And it’s a policy I agree with. I don’t like, or agree with, the idea that all people under twenty five are going to be partying and creating mayhem. I’ve hosted plenty of teenagers who have been splendid guests - quiet, polite, respectful and tidy.
At the other end of the scale, I also hate the assumption that anyone over 60 (or 55 or 50 or 45) is unfit, mentally negligible, computer illiterate and technophobic.
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