Hi all! I wanted to gather a few opinions about an interesting topic. I currently have a guest staying in my Airbnb room for a few nights, and 1 he left 2
Kids unattended in our pool, and second, he left the house and one kid stayed here unattended. This raised quite a concern for both my mom and I (we both live in the house), and wanted to gather some opinions about this. I will definitely be changing a few rules in my listing about kids from now on. It is not against the law to leave a kid unattended in my state (TX), but yet again it is a concern, especially leaving a kid with 2 “strangers” in the house.
Leaving the kids unattended in the pool is a definite no-no and you should have told the guest immediately he couldn’t do that.
As for leaving them alone in the room for brief periods of time, I’d say it depends on the kids’ ages. There’s a big difference between leaving a 5 year old alone and leaving a 12 year old alone.
1 Like
I think that NO ONE should be in a pool on their own without there being others around. People of all ages can get into trouble in water.
As @muddy says, as for being left alone indoors, it depends on the age of the child.
5 Likes
Define “Kid”, and what is “left unattended”.
According to our local laws you’re allowed to leave an 8 year old alone for half an hour to do some shopping.
It really depends on the child, some are responsible some are not.
And for the pool, this also depends. At 12 I already let my daughter go swimming with friends, without adults. She has been swimming her whole life and even did a youth lifeguard training. She knows how save herself in the water.
This is an international forum; there are many places and countries represented here. Where is your law enforced?
This is also a forum for airbnb hosts. Safety and consequences are much different when, as a host, we find a guest leaving a kid unattended. At that moment, their lives are our responsibility and the consequences can be severe. Since every parent thinks their child is the exception, they are immediately discounted when they do something out of character, like turn on the stove or overflow the tub. No, sorry, a child left alone in MY airbnb is immediately reported to CPS and the guest cancelled. I cannot bear the thought of their precious angel being maimed or worse despite the all-knowing parent’s assurance that their shopping trip means that we are responsible for their darling’s safety.
It all depends on the age of the kids. Are they teenagers?
My kids went swimming with friends at that age, too. But that has nothing to do with parent letting their kids (and we don’t know the age of these kids) swim unattended at a pool at a rental house.
And in case you aren’t aware, many people who were good swimmers have drowned. Your daughter can’t “save herself” if she should happen to slip and fall into a pool and bonk her head and lose consciousness.
Hi all, thank you for your replies and inputs! The kid was 9, but it was hard to tell his age as he looked 6. I told the parent that he could not do that and he seemed to respect it. Considering he is an airbnb host himself I was quite surprised by the whole situation. There are no legalities here in Texas about leaving a child unattended, but we were close to kicking them out. For the future I am going to stop accepting people with kids under 12, as they almost always seem to be a headache and extra messy.
1 Like
You can’t decline guests based on having kids under 12, just because they’re messy.
You can only say your place isn’t suitable for under-12s. You can decline only if your place is somewhere that doesn’t allow children, like a senior’s complex.
1 Like
Thank you for the info! I always see listings that say that kids under a certain age aren’t allowed to stay, I just was not sure if you can enforce that or not. I will just try and add something like you said, “not suitable for people with kids under 12”.
“Not suitable for children under 12”, not “People with children under 12”.
1 Like
Despite local laws, you might find that your insurance company does have rules about it though - have you checked with them?
I don’t know what my state laws have to say about children left unattended but I know that my insurance company has a cut-off unattended age of 16.
If that’s the case with you, then let the parent know. If he really was a host, he’d understand your concern.
While there is no law in Texas regarding at what age a child can be left alone, there is a child “neglect” law.
Texas Family Code defines neglect in Section 261.001(4):
“Neglect” means an act or failure to act by a person responsible for a child’s care, custody, or welfare evidencing the person’s blatant disregard for the consequences of the act or failure to act that results in harm to the child or that creates an immediate danger to the child’s physical health or safety […].
Placing a child in situations that are beyond their maturity level can be considered neglect if it results in an injury or danger of harm."
I’d say leaving a 9 year old unsupervised in a pool could be considered “resulting in danger of harm”.
3 Likes