I have an inquiry for our home and the guest mentions “their family”. The information provided simply says “8 guests”. I could swear it used to say somewhere how many adults and how many children. Am I remembering incorrectly? If they still show it on an inquiry - where is it?
No - when I get an inquiry. My inquiry just said “8 guests”. So now I have to ask the inquirer whether they have any children. I’m not trying to discriminate. We just have a unique home that has safety aspects for young children that I want parents to know about BEFORE they book.
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That’s a Booking Request, not an Inquiry, @James333. The OP is referring to not seeing the breakdown on an Inquiry.
Well, I must be getting old. I swear the adult vs children breakdown was not on the inquiry when I first saw it, but it is there today (they have not booked). Maybe my computer was on the fritz and didn’t scroll down that far.
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While you could have missed it, it’s also possible that it was a momentary glitch. I’ve had several weird glitches that rectify themselves.
Had a Request about a month ago that said the Request was awaiting guest verification, and that it would be cancelled in 24 hrs if the guest didn’t submit his ID verification. It kept counting down until it said it would be cancelled within 30 minutes. Yet below that, on his profile info, there was a check mark next to “Identity verified”.
The guest told me he already was verified, and couldn’t figure out why it would say that, and I kept updating him that on my end it still said his Request was about to be cancelled. He kept uploading his ID again and again, and it finally worked about 15 minutes before the 24 hours ran out. Was really frustrating and time consuming for both of us.
You’re not misremembering—it’s been a source of frustration for many hosts lately. While Airbnb hasn’t officially announced a complete removal of the guest breakdown, updates to the app and desktop interface frequently move or obscure this information.
I’ve noticed the same thing recently. On some inquiries it only shows the total guest count, and the breakdown isn’t visible unless the guest actually includes it in their message or after the booking details update. I’m not sure if it’s a recent interface change or if it just depends on the type of inquiry. When I’m unsure, I usually just send a quick message asking how many adults and kids are in the group. It saves guessing.
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Take these at face value. People doing inquiries, for example, are not booking and they have no reason to tell you the breakdown of guests. I’m assuming they just put in ‘there’s five of us’ and then they ask their questions. The stakes are much higher when they are booking, but often times it is just ignorance that they don’t realize that these breakdowns are important to hosts.
They also might reasonably assume that the hosts already have the details. I recall being surprised when making a booking request on Airbnb that I had to list out the ages of every child under 18 at the same time as knowing that as a host we don’t get given any of that extra detail unless we ask for it or the guest offers it in a message.
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Yes, I’ve read many guest posts over the years where guests are miffed or confused as to why the host would be asking for their email address or copy of their ID, “since I already submitted all that”. They don’t realize that what they uploaded to Airbnb, hosts are not privy to.
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I always tell the guest “I don’t have your email address - AirBnB gives me a fake email for you that goes through their system. Sometimes, their system blocks websites, contact information, or entire files. I can try sending you the information you want to the fake email and hope it makes it, or you can give me your real email and everything should go through. Which do you prefer?”
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It does seem like Airbnb now mainly shows total guests on inquiries, so you’re not wrong—best option is to message the guest to confirm adults vs children.