So you think it’s fine for families with kids to leave a mess and damaged furniture just because I allow children?
Try brown wrapping paper, or blotting paper. The latter might not exist anymore now that we no longer write with proper ink pens, but both are/were super absorbent of wax like stains.
But what shitty folk/parents. I despair of their sense of entitlement and I’m sorry this has happened to you. I am so totally glad that I can say no children as the stairs and garden are unsafe!
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I feel for you! Mine is a family friendly listing as well. So far I’ve been pretty lucky. Just some random fingerprints here and there and a few crumbs. My house rule has always been children must eat in the kitchen. And no food in the bedrooms for anyone. As far as getting the crayon out, you’ve gotten some great suggestions, but to get the last little bit/residue, you might try Goo Gone. I use it at my other business, a children’s play center, and it cleans up all kinds of things like crayons, pen marks, gum in the carpet, etc. You can get a specialized cleaner for the plate of your iron at most fabric stores. Good luck with the next guests! I hope they are above par for you!
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It’s not right. But you can’t fault the guest entirely for this mess. It goes with the territory. It’s like how a guest will cancel on my reservation and get a full refund by faking a medical certificate. I bear the entire cost and as much as I can wail and complain, I already knew what I signed for. I can either remove my listing, or suffer this abuse and continue giving feedback to Airbnb.
Since doing Airbnb guests have chipped my softwood floor , drew on my table, scratched my table top, pulled out my artwork, scuffed the walls badly, broke the balcony door, broke all the door stoppers in my house, stained the sofa set. I have spent hundreds of dollars repairing these things and countless hours cleaning. I have never collected anything from the guests because it just goes with the territory. I could, but considering the administrative hassle, you’re better off taking preventive measures in future.
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I don’t understand why you wouldn’t hold guests accountable for those things. Accidents are one things, but negligence resulting in damage is another. Dropping a plate and breaking it = accident. Kids drawing on the furniture because their parents let them have crayons and didn’t supervise them = negligence.
Not holding guests responsible for their actions means that they will continue to be bad guests at future hosts’ expense. I don’t understand your comment about the “administrative hassle” because it’s a pretty easy process to request funds through AirBnB. If the guest refuses to pay and you can show damages, Air will pay it for them. It’s not a hard process at all.
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Sure. I wish you luck getting the full amount requested. No sarcasm here because the guests deserved it. My point was only whether being deserving of the compensation always translates to getting it. Sometimes, the effort is not worth the amounts involved.
Fyi I hold the guest responsible through their guest reviews, which I’ve always been honest with, good or bad.
And since those damages, I’ve turned down guests with no prior reviews, even if they are more profitable than the ones with reviews. I have blocked chikdren, and I also don’t accept guests who ask for discounts. I also ask questions before I accept guests. I’m earning less than what I could have, but I’m not complaining. If you want the revenue from the children and family segment, you should also accept the things that go with it.
I may have to stop allowing people with no reviews as well. Most of the problems I’ve encountered so far have been from people brand new to AirBnB. 
I will continue to accept families with children, but I still won’t be okay with damage from poor parenting. I have kids myself and would never expect someone to just eat the cost of damage done by my kids.
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I agree with both you and @Jess1. I think that you have to ‘expect’ though that some kids, just like guests are going to be messier and more of a problem in general. The problem is that when kids are a mess, they are REALLY a literal mess. You will get some angels and some devils. I do agree that it’s ghastly for a parent to have left the house in that state. I would have been mortified or offered additional cleaning fees. And then my kids would have sat in the back of the car or in the cargo hold of the plane home, but I think that if you are going to charge here and there for the messes of children, I would put a deterrent in my listing. An excessive cleaning fee or something. $50 for rugs/ $50 for ruined towels or whatever.
I am pet friendly but I expect their dog to be housebroken. If they aren’t, I warn them that there is a charge for this on top of the regular fee.
I do have that in my listing, that excessive messes requiring cleaning beyond 3 hours will get charged at $30/hr. I did just add a blurb about possible charges if people ruin the towels as well. I hate that I have to spell that out for people. I would never leave ruined towels at a hotel and NOT expect them to charge my credit card for the damage.
Have a clear rule not allowing any food in the house apart from the kitchen and dining room. It will make it easier to prove rule breaking and claim via Airbnb for damage. Also it provides a clear boundary for parents.
I think that if people were forthright and came to me and told me that they had broken something or accidentally stained a towel etc, then I would be more than willing to let it go.
But when its several issues and they are all left as they are with no thought, then they obviously are very careless regarding others. Then I wouldnt hesitate to charge extra.
A hotel would likely allow a ruined towel as it’s part of the business but would likely charge for a stolen one. But Airbnb isnt a hotel. Its personal and you feel vulnerable opening up your home, and often a little violated when your things are.
As I wrote that, I could hear the new advertisement for the Airbnb movie that is coming out in the summer of 2019 with the tagline "This time, it’s Personal!"
Oh my gosh, YES. If this mom had sent me a message saying, “I’m so sorry- my toddler just got ahold of a crayon and drew on your living room chairs, but I’ve cleaned it as best I can,” I would be much more forgiving. But just to leave a dryer full of stained towels and food stains and crayon all over the furniture? And then complain about my house rather than apologizing for the damage when I call them out? Not cool.
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@jkamm I have learned the hard way that this is not the case for guests when the host has pets unless they can prove that the pets did not have access to the area that was damaged (in the case of rooms not whole homes, obviously). That’s what happened to me recently. They refused to make the guest pay my requested $90 out of their $200 security deposit so they paid me $45 because they could see the damage in the pics but couldn’t say who did it.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this thread so lord, I hope I haven’t responded already!
But I do want to reiterate that I, in no way, condone bad behaviour on the part of parents or kids. I think there is something really wrong with people who think that because they are paying for the right to be in another’s home that it allows them the ability to be a pig. They should treat the place like they would their own home…
NOW, that is the problem…If your renters are the type to naturally think that a bit of mess here and there from the kids isn’t a big deal, or eating in bed, etc, etc., that is where it becomes your problem. Everybodys view of cleanliness (unless its an extreme) is really subjective. People are as varied as grains of rice and because you are the one opening up your home to the world, and in this case, the worlds kids, you have to be extra tolerant of peoples differences, in my opinion. This is exactly why I don’t allow children. Adults are one thing, but if there is an accident or a problem centering around someone and their child, it’s never going to end well, in my opinion. It’s going to be messy, or someone will be liable, it will be emotionally charged, etc.
Yes, do I think that everyone should be kind and considerate and courteous when staying at an airbnb? Yes. Do I think that they should raise their children up well to have respect and be equally as courteous? Yes! Is what I want generally going to always click into place when renting out my space to an absolute stranger? No! What I want and what may happen do not always coexist. I can wax poetic about it all day long and this will not change the fact that I am angst ridden because my white couch now has crayon marks all over it or that my late mother’s vase got broken. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best!
Now isn’t crayon removal one of the many uses of WD-40?
Sure, if you want a giant grease stain on your fabric. On clothing, that might be okay because you can throw it in the wash immediately after, but definitely not on a fabric chair.
@jkamm
I figured you had long solved your crayon problem, so this was a comment on crayon problems in general.
Edited to add: Dawn is supposed to help with grease stains on upholstery. Plus sprinkling talcum powder on fresh stain also helps.
Plus, WD-40 isn’t just grease, I think. It’s also a solvent. But what do I know?