Airbnb, why are you not letting us recoup the costs for kids two and under now?

[Jerry5]

Airbnb has recently made a change to is ability to charge additional costs for additional people.

They are now, or soon will be NOT letting us charge for kids 2 and under years of age.

This is one age group that causes for me anyway, more cleaning costs. Not being able to recoup these costs for my guests that cause these additional cleaning costs means that I will have to raise my cleaning costs for everyone here on Airbnb which means I will not do as much business with Airbnb as I will with my other rental companies.

Below is an email I received from an Airbnb represenetative.

Alex M., Mar 8, 13:52:

Hi Jerry,

It was good to speak with you today.

I did want to amend what I said previously on the phone. When you asked about infants being considered guests, I informed you that all humans were considered to be guests. After our call, I did discover that we are indeed rolling out a change regarding this and moving forward, babies ages 0-2 will need to be marked when booking but will not be included as guests and will not be subject to extra guest fees.

I sincerely apologize for the misinformation.

If you have any further questions about this, just let me know and I would be happy to help.

Best regards,

Alex M.
www.airbnb.com/help

What do you think of this change of rules? 

Airbnb, why are you changing the rules?

[Clare0]

@Jerry5 Yes, this is a startling development, one that has many hosts quite upset.  I have a no small children policy in my House Rules and I hope this does not affect my right to decline guests with small children whether they pay for them or not.  When a guest makes an inquiry or a reservation request, I ask them to confirm that they have read and agree to my house rules as well as confirm that all guests are adults before I accept the reservation.  We'll see how this plays out.  I know may hosts who want to raise this to senior levels at Airbnb. 

[Jerry5]

I agree this is very frustrating @Clare0.

Count me as on who wants this new rule reversed.

This and other issues will cause people to looke elsewhere for there vacation rental services and make it harder for Airbnb to get to profiability.

[Clare0]

@Jerry5  There's a rumor in the host universe that Airbnb is revisiting this policy.  I hope it's true.  Stay tuned!

[Stephanie6]

I'm fine with not charging extra for infants that don't walk yet.  However, toddlers are a completely other matter!  I have found sticky finger marks on pots and pans in the kitchen drawers and handprints on many windows.  Toddlers do merit an extra cleaning fee if not being counted as a guest.

[Tracy0]

They might not consider them guests but I certainly do!  I think long and hard about accepting children that young specifically because of the extra issues they raise:  more time in my flat (and I work from home), less privacy, more cleaning, more noise (again, treating patients in my home).  And I'd never accept a child that young for a lengthy stay ever.  

I have not had a request with children lately, but I have read that the 'number of guests' is not accurate when a child under 2 is entered ( may be a family of 3, a couple with a 1yo, and the info is passed through as 2 guests?) People are often trying to pretend kids aren't guests already, but this solidifies it and makes it a huge surprise to hosts especially if they simply don't mention kids in the messages.  That hasn't happened to me but we all have read about people rocking up to the doorstep with undeclared children...and now we can't charge for them and even if they are honest and prompted with having to declare ages from the dropdown, we aren't going to even get that information?   It's a trainwreck for kids and hosts, especially if the home is not child friendly or in my case where my working situation really doesn't make tiny children appropriate here.  

[Julie278]

This may be part of the same issue - not sure. We have a property that sleeps up to 9 guests. I don't see anywhere in Airbnb where I can set a base price for up to 4 and charge additionally for persons 5-9 per night. We are fairly new to hosting and this one issue has kept me from listing this property. We are happily listing 3 others. Thanks for any advice!

[Mary167]

On the pricing page you can set a price for "additional guests over 4".  My place is listed for four people but the price only includes 2 people.  My listing says  "$25 each for all guests beyond the first 2."

[Yvonne-And-Richard0]

Hi Julie,

If you open you Airbnb page on you callander where you can set ot adjust your prices you will see a heading on the top right that says "pricing settings". If you click on that a list will appear where you can enter a cleaning fee, price per head, and after how many people that price will kick in after. So set it for the 4 people you want and than 5 to 9 will be charged per head. 🙂

[Mary167]

Recently a prospective guest asked if their 4 month old would count as a guest.  I called Airbnb and was told it's entirely up to me.  I decided not to charge, but now I'm thinking I need to reconsider in the future.  Babies, even small babies, create quite a lot of clean up work. They cause more water to be used (and we have water rationing in California) and there is a lot more trash plus mess generated in the kitchen.  Also, people with babies tend to spend a lot more time in the apartment and do more cooking here rather than going out.   I had pretty much decided I would charge in the future, but after reading the above message I'm wondering if it's a new policy throughout Airbnb (since I was given different information.)   If so I might just decline all children under 12.

[Yvonne-And-Richard0]

Did I miss where I was told this was coming???

Isn't it also a problem if you use more than one site to advertise your place? Example: A family of 4 with one kid under two on Airbnb will only be charged for 3 people now. On Trip Advisor and Booking.com they will be charged for 4?? So Airbnb look cheaper. Good for them but not for us hosts??? Until I changed the extra charge for people after 2 people on Airbnb to only after one person. Now the family will pay the same on both sites but a couple will pay more on Airbnb. The other sites will be cheaper till Airbnb return to the way they were.

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

Can someone tell me how to turn instant booking off.
This is the only way I will be able to control my bookings now.

[Mark-And-Pearl0]

We have 2 units on airbnb.
Our guests have completre privacy as we are around the corner in our own home.
Our units cater to 4 persons only this means in any formation.
This written on our pages and is quite clear.
Example
2 Adults & 2 Children 
3 Adults and 1 child
1 Adult and 3 children
4 adults
These are all fine, however I did a mock booking on our place and all the scenarios were accepted and heres the great bit if they also booked in up to 5 infants it was accepying the booking, with no fees to be charged.
Our place holds 4 people only as they are not big houses they are very quaint holiday units by the beach.
So it appears people can book over our maximum amount of 4 people and our place simply will not accomodate them.

I adult could book the place and have 5 children in for free under 2 years of age and run there own child care centre and make a tidy profit at the same time.
This is total garbage, airbnb have got to big for thre own good and employed the do gooders of the modern age.
Big mistake here.
I will be watching my bookings carefully and asking for proof of age for children that look to be over 2 years old but are being passed off as 2 or under.
This already happens and now the flood gates are well and truly open.
What a stressful and stupid thing to do to your hosts.
I think the airbnb community almost needs a Union to represent the hosts rights.
After all they are our properties.

[Mary167]

I just got the notice from Airbnb concerning the new rules about not being allowed to charge for children ages 0-2.  I'm a fairly new host and have not charged for the 3 infants who have been guests along with their parents so far.  I have definitely found it more costly to accept young children, in terms of high water use (a concern for me because we currently have water rationing on Los Angeles) and chaos in the kitchen.   A lot more trash generated, a lot more laundry done, more towels & washcloths needed and a lot more toilet paper & tissues used.  And definitely more cleanup.  And I find families with babies or toddlers are likely to spend a lot more time here than adults do.

I don't want to refuse to accept young children because I sympathize with families who have babies (I am not currently accepting kids 2-12) but I think it's misguided for Airbnb to tell us we can't charge for them.  

My last guests with a baby, who were a lovely family, seem to have made some deep scratches on my refrigerator, probably from squeezing the baby stroller through the newly remodeled galley kitchen.

All in all I'm thinking I'm better off just not accepting any children at all.  

I also have a problem with the requirement we accept "service" dogs.  I have a no pets policy, but I would try to accommodate a genuine service dog.  My problem is that the majority of so-called service dogs are just pets that the owners want to take along with them on vacation.  I personally know several people who caught on to this gimmick of buying a service vest on eBay for their existing pet so they can take their dog to restaurants and hotels, stores and even movies.   And we are not allowed to even question the claims that our guest's dog is a service dog.  

Wondering how other hosts have handled this issue.