@bluecoat
What insurance? Do you actually rely on Airbnb to insure you?
Glad you got them to cancel
RR
I’m in total agreement.
Nonetheless, Ken said their insurance was never meant to be liability insurance, which is true of the “Guarantee” but not true of Host Protection. That second product (or marketing tactic if we’re being honest) IS intended to cover personal injury or intentional property damage.
But only if you jump through the requisite hoops in the correct order and at the right time (meanwhile the stars and the moon also have to align)…
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Thank you for this. My home insurer will not cover anyone under 19.
Let’s think about this logically. Airbnb charges the guest and the host, and those fees are more or less in line with what other similar businesses would charge. They would have to charge a lot more if travel insurance, especially for children, was included. Hosts can’t really operate without their own specific insurance.
Children are far more likely to be hurt in situations where properties are not suitable for kids than adults are. They are also more likely to cause damage. So it’s not really reasonable to expect Airbnb to provide insurance for children who are guests in places which are specified as not suitable or safe.
Yep 
I think you’re making an argument for why Airbnb’s insurance won’t cover us, but I’d be surprised if my HO paid out on a claim where a child was injured due to a known (albeit disclosed) hazard.
Hosts are in a Catch-22 if they can’t take kids:
Family status is a protected class. As a homeowner sharing my property with others I’m exempted from fair housing laws, but those laws state I am not allowed to advertise a bias. (Airbnb’s lawyers probably found the “may not be” language just skirts this line)
Per Airbnb’s TOS we’re not allowed to discriminate on age.
But I’m the best judge of my property and what I’m comfortable with. I’ve identified hazards that make my place unsuitable for young guests.
If I don’t host them and state as much, I’m discriminatory. If I do host them, I’ve put myself in a terrible legal position where Air’s own insurance won’t cover me. If a lawsuit were brought against me after a toddler takes a nosedive down the laundry chute to the first floor, I can absolutely see my own HO insurance refusing coverage because the injury was foreseeable.
If Airbnb’s insurance won’t cover the stay they shouldn’t allow the booking to proceed. If a host says “I can’t host kids safely” both Air and guests need to respect that.
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Why are you not closing the laundry chute???
You mean like fill it in or make it unusable?
Because I enjoy the features of my old house and I like using the laundry chute. Even if I closed the laundry chute, I’m not replacing the original windows that are also an issue for toddlers.
Almost all my guests are groups of adults, so it doesn’t make sense to invest in a change that doesn’t serve the type of guests I attract.
Why should I change a feature of my home that I enjoy?
Why don’t hosts with pools just fill them in?
Why don’t hosts near water build a 20’ chain link fence around their property?
Why don’t hosts of treehouses build them on the ground?
Why don’t hosts with animals on the property confine them 100% of the time?
or…Why don’t parents take their kids to a home that IS well-suited to them?
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Based on @Icklemiss 's post on another thread (Contractor coming in while guests are booked? But no communique from guests?! - #12 by Icklemiss) I would suggest getting her to write a description of your laundry chute that will discourage people with kids from booking. So you could say "I welcome all kinds of families. I just want to make you aware of a few things that may not be suitable for children. [insert Ickemiss’s narrative] Then if they stay anyway Ken can help with the review.
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You are focused on what you want and are not happy guests don’t do what you want and the OTAs not supporting what you want which of course, we all know is not how it works.
OH, yes!!! @Icklemiss is a talented writer! If only they allowed the space for extensive, visual, hilarious prose on the 10 ways a toddler could endanger themselves in my house. Alas, the limit is 150 characters.
Right now it says “Laundry chute drops a story. Please contact me before booking so I can provide a full list of concerns.”
Of course I’m focused on what I want. It’s my goddamned house! Why do you think a guest’s preference for staying in my home is more important than my preference to not have them there?
I get great ratings from guests because my house is set up in a way that makes us both happy. But I can’t and won’t turn my household upside down or expose myself to liability to host children when Airbnb’s own policies don’t support me. What kind of person would I be if I hosted kids in an environment I didn’t feel was safe?
Sorry/not sorry you don’t like it.
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I couldn’t even figure out what that run on sentence, aka post, by klatchers was saying.
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I’m sorry to disillusion you, but AirBnB has no “insurance”. They have a bogus “host guarantee” which is basically useless. If you don’t have your own STR insurance you need to talk to your insurance agent now.
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I had the toughest time fitting my own into such a narrow creative yet informative space too. I had to resort to “3-5 year old set, especially if known as precocious, will be shot on sight” or “electrocuted randomly several times throughout stay” or something. First, I had a positive spin on it, speaking about the opportunities for your child to be electrocuted or enriched. A choose your own adventure kind of vacation. Turns out that people are mundane and ALWAYS choose the safest option. And that is when it stops being fun for everybody concerned.
But seriously, mine is succinct and says something similiar to “we have several rocky inclines and retaining walls and your child will fall off. We smoke and swear alot”. I have had one newborn try to book. But his credit card wasnt any good in the end.
Edited to add: The views in this post are not my own and no names were mentioned to protect the innocent. My apologies if people were offended by imaginary children on rocks or items that electrocute. If I even knew how to electrocute moving things, I would be using that technology for good when I also learn what that is. Seems hard. My views are purely ironic in the truest sense.
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I like your style. 
My first attempt at disclosing “into such a narrow creative yet informative space” (as you so perfectly put it) came off like some kind of slam poetry or badly counted haiku:
Lots of glass. Zero baby-proofing. Open stairwell.
Laundry chute that drops a story.
Before booking, contact us for a full list of concerns.
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Today, after having to clean toddler shit from the wall behind the bathroom door, I have decided to amend our Airbnb house rules and BDC policies to no kids under twelve.
They want to come back for the feria here in a couple of weeks. That is not going to happen.
JF
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I just bought a large planter at Costco. This sticker is inside
I don’t think hosts should hold back on disclosing the ways the property hazards can kill children.
Please be sure to explain to them that it is because of their baby crap issue left behind…
I like it! I just don’t understand the couple of people that have tried to bypass our no child under 12 rules.
What kind of parent are you that you WANT to stay at my house after reading my description?! I had to literally argue with one guy. We went back and forth a few times as he didnt want to accept no for an answer. He has booked and then wrote me that they have a child but “it won’t be a problem”. So, I replied…oh no, no…It stated he had a newborn baby. Then it came out the child was toddler age and walking. Not that I was going to say yes to either, but how bizarre!