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We are simply renting a room or house to someone. In all likelihood they will be very different than us as to their believes, race, religion, politics, maybe sexuality, how they choose to make a living, raise their children, etc etc. None of those things should have a bearing whether to rent them a place or not since such things shouldn’t even come up. The ability to pay, follow the rules and be pleasant enough are normally the only requirements with most hosts.
Bringing anything else into the picture than those three basic requirements, complicates things, socially and legally, especially in the US. Best to keep it simple, should be easy since people are renting one’s place but for a short stay.
Try making racist remarks or tell them you sell illegal narcotics. But before you worry about getting your wrists slapped, see what Airbnb will do after that:)
Chinese immigrants were the first illegal immigrants in the United States! I’m not accusing you of anything, but since you opened the door (so to speak), if you want to show your papers, it might assure guests that they’re not staying in the home of someone who is in criminal standing with the Department of Homeland Security.
I think the best thing to do would be to add a note about the guests having signed the community commitment and that you expect that this will be upheld and any infractions will result in the termination of the stay with no refund. This likely covers most of the random insinuations that someone could walk the line on legality by including these types of specific requirements in their profile or listing.
From what I have read the main concerns are age, service animals and limited mobility guests. There is a feeling that discretion and choice have been taken away and perhaps new text should be put in the listing to clarify where the host stands?
As far as service animals go, we are not a pet friendly property and have had multiple guests with severe allergies ask if the property would suit them. Two properties have all hypo allergenic bedding mattress covers, quilt cover and pillow protectors. We have stated that we are pleased to provide a dander free accommodation. This precludes service animals from staying since we made the extra investment and a promise to our guests. This is a legal way to not host service animals.
As far as children under 2 being included in maximum occupancy numbers, I did read some years ago that we should not be hosting more than 2 guests per room including children and infants. This does not seem to be monitored, however, we stick to what is regulated and have always done so. We have noted this in our house rules. I believe regulations supersede this new feature on the platform.
As far as accepting toddlers goes, we had our insurance broker visit the property and suggest a number of safety hazards that had to be addressed for our insurance to be valid. We had to bolt or chain heavy shelving and furniture to the walls. We had to have low cables inside the walls. We had to wall mount all TV’s. If your property is not safe for children do not accept them particularly if you do not know your liability in the event of what could be deemed as a foreseeable accident. Find out where you stand with toddlers as guests and let parents know the reasons why you cannot accept children. Suggest a couple of popular nearby listings. I would suggest it would not be wise to put anything about this in your profile or on the listing itself but would be good to have on hand when conversing with a parent who could get angry about not accepting their children.
I am trying to imagine who you may hoping to deter from booking from these statements. We have one property that would suit guests with limited mobility and have included this as an alternate on our listings. Perhaps hosts could source a nearby property that is wheelchair friendly and caters to those with mobility difficulties and suggest this to guests that enquire. If you had steps perhaps you could suggest that a certain level of fitness is required to carry luggage up to the second floor.
I think that broad sweeping statements that are a bit out in left field and likely not applicable to the majority of guests are best left off the listing and a profile whether they are legal or not. It is best to focus on reinforcing what you DO want rather than what you DON’T want.
@jaquo Strangely enough I had a friend from UK who got deported for overstaying her visa. She had applied for an extension and thought it was ok to keep working.
It is actually quite frightening to have immigration pounding on your door at 2am giving someone 20 minutes to pack up and be taken to jail. If there were children in the home this certainly would not be optimum for them as the event impacts everyone there. This is not a quiet process and they generally mean business.
I would imagine that in the Netherlands where all guests are registered with the police daily (or were some years ago when I worked there) that there could be more potential for this type of event. We did have one guest in the 6 months I was there that was picked up by the police when their passport details were provided.
Who knows if immigration has access to any passport info from airbnb. Whether it is relevant or not in the USA is anyone’s guess. I agree that it is not really the hosts job to find out if guests are legal or not except in countries where the passport and visa must be sighted so for the time being it is probably best to follow the laws of the country you are in.
I don’t see a problem, if you say you are very religious this doesn’t mean that you don’t want to host guests with different faith. Maybe guests that follow a very different religion from yours will not book, but you can’t predict this. Of course you can say you don’t want guests bring guns in your property and guests that do not have the proper documents to stay in your country. When I travel abroad I make always sure I have a valid visa. Also many of my guests in order to obtain visa they need first a confirmation about the accommodation from my side to send to the police otherwise they can’t enter in the country. I guess in many other countries have the same procedure to obtain visa?
I’d be careful mentioning anything that makes you look intolerant. Religion I’m afraid, is one of those areas better left off your profile for obvious reasons. Religion, sex and politics have no reason to be on your profile.
Regarding the OPs original question about illegal immigrants, i don’t understand what you gain from mentioning it. Like others have stated, unless you too want to prove your immigration status it seems to me you’re poking the hornets nest for no reason. Further mentioning things like this makes you look …odd at best.
I’m guessing this is another way to discourage people from booking ?
@Zandra Exceptionally well put. Why poke a hornets nest? In my book, hosts must be doubly careful not to sound like they are on some social cause (suggests rigidity), nor overly critical such as in reviews (suggests judgemental); such takes may spook many potential guests yet they will never know.
No one ever writes: “Love to rent your place, but you sound like a hard ass”.
Steady, everyone. I don’t see @cs2015 posting any racist and bigoted statements. Can we all calm down, please? Maybe she has some concerns. If she wants to, maybe she’ll express them. Or maybe not.
To be honest, my family has owned an import/export company in Seattle since…1965? And yes, the government did review us and my brother had to go in and prove we are loyal Americans, so I guess “showing papers” has been done. Three members of my family have been in the US military and have donated generously to US universities.Look up the Shih Student Loan Fund at the University of Washington. Oh yeah, now post your tax statements! =D
Jeezus KenH, I am only joking! I am a liberal! What else can I be raised in America, when I’m Asian and female? And just look at how many “we hate Chinese guests” proliferate on this forum? I have always been part of the minority. And you call me racist and bigoted? PS a white kid beat me up in elementary school for being a “foreigner.” There! Hope that makes you feel bad. Also, this is my cousin. http://www.danshih.com/ Unfortunately voters didn’t vote for him. He ran against 5 other gay candidates and lost to a Caucasian lesbian who wasn’t even from this area.
Space aliens are real though, I see some of them quite often. They come in different colours and shapes, and they race through the Universe at a blazing speed in a fusion-powered engine. Some of them are so committed to diversity that they voted for an orange coloured kitty lover. Inspiring.
You are not making any sense here and coming across as a bit aggressive to @KenH. You specifically stated that you hope Ken feels bad as you were beaten up by a white kid. This is not the same as Ken or anyone else making a comment (if they even have), right or wrong, that in their experience as a guest they have had problems with guests of Chinese descent. You are conflating two unrelated issues and blaming one person simply by virtue of their sex and ethnicity for some that happened to you, a long time ago, and trying to make them feel guilty about it. I can’t imagine these attitudes are helping you get through life without conflict and dramas, even if you post haha after a comment.
