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I do, but I charge for them - my listing says in several places “children of all ages are considered people and must be included in the guest count”. I find them to be as much a drain on the household as adults, or more so. There’s no way I would say they are ‘free’. However, my prices are on the low side to start with.
My very young guests from Malaysia just checked out. My husband says they left the room looking smarter than it was when they arrived. They cleaned up, made the beds, and brought the trash upstairs. Also left us many packets of Malaysian (white?) coffee for us to try.
But see, they are working kids, not kids of privilege. The family that left my bedding and towels a disaster were doctors - and able to have a nanny, a cook, and a maid. They were just honestly clueless. These kids know what it takes to make a place nice.
I love when guest clean up and take the trash out, but I always laugh when they make the beds since I am stripping them right after they leave anyways. =)
I know, right?! They made them up perfectly, even placing the decorative pillows ‘just so’. Seems a shame! I almost like it more when the guests leave for the day and the beds are unmade - makes me feel like they are truly on vacation. Of course I once had some young guests who were here 30 minutes before heading out - I had to go in their room and I looked around and thought “They must have had to WORK to make it this messy this fast!”
In several places. The longer description (not the ‘opening’ because there’s not enough room), in the house rules, and in the ‘other things to note’. So far, no problems.
Thanks for your reply! My only 2 bad experiences was with 3 boys in a band (all in their 30s) bad choice and thus my caution with future occupations which could have been avoided if I’d applied some common sense, they were in a metal band and trashed the room, drank beer all day and basically acted like pigs. Albeit they said they were “really respectful, clean, love cooking healthy food and won’t be parting”, all BS. My other was a mother, her friend and 14 yo son. The child was a delight but his mother was frankly a nightmare and invited all her mates (5 one night) over and seemed to forget I actually lived here so I wouldn’t have expected that. She even left the poor kid here for a day on his own when she flew back to China and he cleaned all her mess! I have had mostly groups of girls (3 lots) 18-20 and they have all been a delight, loved playing with and walking the dog and so clean and courteous. They were all here to go out and socialise and see Melbourne and one group were moving here and found a flat around around the corner and still visit the dog! Currently I have 2 21yo medical students who are also a delight. Having had homestay students for more than a year before I did this I would have a 17yo here if I was in communication with them and their parents beforehand. My son went to visit his Dad in Wales for Xmas and given its a 24 hour flight I wanted him to see some of Europe while he was there and check out potential universities for next year so I booked him a week in Paris at an Airbnb I had previously stayed and a week in London. I stayed in contact with the hosts throughout and there were no issues, he is very independent and I was clear with him about my expectations about keeping everything spotless, not being a pain and going out and doing his own thing each day which he did so I would accept a ‘child’ under similar circumstances myself. But that’s just me. There are many groups of young people, and older ones, that I was declined as they seemed disorganised or disrespectful, e.g. Make an enquiry without reading any of the details on my booking and asking 100s of questions, making an enquiry and asking where the nearest bar is, not booking and then contacting me the day before (months later), is the room still available after never having responded to my initial response to them etc. my point is I have had really good experience with really young people and select suitable people based on their attitude and plans rather than age and this seems to work well. I think very young ppl are often too scared to be outrageous as opposed to a 25-35 who might having been living independent for a while and think you are their hotel slave without having developed the life skills and insight to be good guest so I would just be cautious about declining purely based on age. Young ppl are also easier to say “remember this is a house rule” etc and an older person may not respond well if they are the entitled type and closer to your own age.
With respect to travel to India specifically, certainly it is a place that in general, very young Australians travel, especially Uni students (we started Uni at 17 or 18) as it’s cheap, exotic, close by compared to Europe and America but travel is also notoriously challenging in many respects so this is not an older persons destination when they are looking for more comforts etc. thus, my concern you may be forgoing a lot of your potential market. Also wealthier and older travels I would suspect are more inclined to a 4 or 5 star hotel in India, not an Airbnb.
Hope this helps
Thanks for the detailed reply and the anecdotes! Very helpful information.
So, the take-home message that I’m getting is that one should do one’s homework
and due diligence, and not have preconceived notions about age.
I’ve never met an Australian in Bombay, at least. And in fact I see very few foreigners.
But I don’t get out a whole lot. And I imagine there are a fair number of foreigners living
here, as well as coming and going, but they’re probably swamped by the large number of Indians.
I occasionally see youngish Western looking people with backpacks wandering around, but I don’t know where they are from.
You might be right that older/wealthier people wouldn’t be using Airbnb, and would be using a hotel instead, and therefore there might be more young people booking an Airbnb in India.
And yes, India isn’t a great place to travel if you want things to be nice, clean, quiet, and orderly.
One tricky issue about making a call on a booking enquiry is that one only has 24 hours to do it. Do you usually have much back and forth with prospective guests within that short time period, or do you make a call on preliminary information provided + networking sites? I have a hard time imagining people getting significant information from e.g. Facebook, since I have minimal information on mine, and would not consider adding more.
This is something that has honestly never crossed my mind! I do have an over 16 only policy since I do not want children in my home, but I have not set any other age barriers. My guests so far have mostly been in their 20s and I have had nothing but good experiences.
Adding to this conversation, age is a weak predictor of who will be a good guest. I agree with the poster who gets Spring Breakers/Grad Partiers - if you are in such a location an age threshold may be useful as a vetting tool.
Like others I have nervously accepted guests under age 25 and had mixed results. Several were marvelous guests I’d love to have stay again - mostly women from Russia in their early 20’s - very thoughtful and respectful. But when I allowed a teen boy to sleep on our down sofa, I had to replace the set of sheets (no need to say what he did that night!). And then the boyfriend of a lovely British woman who decided the pizza sauce would make great decorations on the white sofa.
Other ways to vet prospective guests: 1. never use Instant Book (many will disagree with this to be sure but I consider it to be highly risky) 2. require full verifications and 3. have a messaging conversation, asking appropriate questions to be sure the person understands what your listing offers or doesn’t - setting realistic expectations will help both of you have a pleasant experience. For example, a mother and adult daughter visited - the mom booked, the daughter never read the listing but expected to use my kitchen any time of the night and to do laundry when the listing clearly states that there is not a full kitchen. The daughter was basing her behavior on another airbnb booking made some time ago in another place. But she was angry with me and hostile during their entire stay, even though I gave them fine chocolates to compensate for her error.
You’ll learn as you go along. Expect to change your house rules when things happen. No one is allowed to sleep on that sofa - my lesson learned.
Excellent. Thank you for the advice. I don’t even know what a down sofa is; it sounds quite exotic. Particular thanks for the advice about vetting guests. I was actually thinking of asking a question just about that. I’m a “try to anticipate problems” kind of person.
Should I initiate such a conversation if the guest doesn’t? If so, any suggestions about doing so in the least awkward way possible? I don’t want to sound like a school teacher - it’s a role that doesn’t fit me well, anyway.
don’t worry to much about feeling awkward. You just have to jump in there. DO sound like a school teacher, if you want well-behaved guests! I’ve started to be very honest - telling guests from certain cultures who use a lot of cologne that they may not in my house, and ‘lecturing’ the guest booking for a group of young people in advance so they know how they are to behave - all to great results - I don’t mind sounding like their mamma at ALL! And remember people really DO like guidelines and structure! And it’s your home not a private place so they have to know how to act in your home.
I always say that a hotel has a front desk clerk, janitor, maids, accountants, maintenance guys…and security guards. We have to be prepared to do all of those roles, including the last one.
Thanks for the tip, @dcmooney . I guess I’ll have to experiment. I have a hard time imagining myself laying down the law to strangers, but I don’t want to be a pushover either.
maybe you kind find a little badge somewhere - put it on your fridge or where you can see it so you don’t forget - you’re the boss. Customer is King - You are the Boss. ; )
I have guests at the moment for a two night stay. When they arrived I realised that they are probably about seventeen years old. (The profile pic was long distance but his enquiry message was polite and literate). They said in their initial message that they were attending a music festival here. They have no reviews.
Would that have raised red flags for other hosts?
They have only been here for one night so far. They are sweet youngsters, with a good sense of humour and they are polite and respectful of our quiet community - I haven’t heard a peep from them.
They check out tomorrow (and I have another guest arriving later in the day) and of course, it remains to be seen what condition the apartment is in when they leave. I don’t expect it to be as wonderfully clean as older guests and as they are girlfriend and boyfriend there might well be bodily fluids (which I’m used to) but that’s fine. I can take the rough with the smooth as far as cleaning is concerned! Keep your fingers crossed for me at checkout time
But I wonder if some hosts’ opinions about youngsters are coloured by how were when we were young? In my day (I hate that phrase, it’s still my day!) as an eighteen year old I drank, partied, used illegal substances and so on. I think kids today are far more responsible. They seem to be more concerned about their studies and their future careers than I ever was.
