I’m feelin’ gray right now…
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Obviously, you can simply add something like this to your listing:
• lead paint may or may not have been used to paint this house
This will keep all those babies and toddlers far, far away. Might keep a few adults away too if they don’t know that you would have to chew on the baseboards in ingest any lead. Always a down side.
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Craiglist surprisingly does an overall great job of explaining FHA. For anyone interested, this is what their guidance is on advertising discriminatory statements:
Are there any exceptions to the advertising laws?
[top]
Under federal Fair Housing law, the prohibition on discriminatory advertisements applies to all situations except the following:
Shared Housing Exemption – If you are advertising a shared housing unit, in which tenants will be sharing a bathroom, kitchen, or other common area, you may express a preference based upon sex only.
Private Club and Religious Exemptions – A religious community or private club whose membership is not restricted based upon race, color, or national origin may restrict tenancy only to its members in a property that it owns, and may advertise to that effect.
Housing for Older Persons Exemption – As discussed below, certain complexes for elderly persons are exempt from prohibitions on familial status discrimination, including the prohibitions on discriminatory advertising.
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Yes!! We had it happen 3 times when this ‘feature’ was in testing, we cancelled two of the IBs. Totally nightmare. Two of the groups were 3-4 adults and 5+ kids and when I said there is an extra person fee they lost their minds. I said listen my house is meant for 7 MAYBE 8 not 9-10, since they are children I will make an exception BUT you have to pay the fee. They immediately cancelled. Then sent me nasty notes about how I was trying to take advantage, or some other BS.
The one bookings we did accept was very apologetic once I raised the issue, and said ‘children count as people in our house’ they offered to pay and extra fees, and went to great lengths to say they were not trying to skirt the system they just didn’t know, and would be happy to pay the fee. They were great guests. This one booking was our home in Barcelona where we charge per person after 2 (very common here) so adding 4 extra kids/people is $$$. I ended up splitting the difference with them and only charging for 2 kids.
I agree it dares people to try and trick the system.
Also, regarding the housing laws, I get the discrimination aspect, but charging for extra people regardless of race/age/size/religion/etc must surely be okay?
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I would think there is nothing wrong with it. I do believe Expedia does not charge for 1 and under. I cannot remember. When I first set up my listing with them - the guy was saying that was the policy. So obviously Air would like to achieve something similar…because there is no excuse why some hosts couldn’t have listing that say children are free, and others could choose to charge.
Eeek! I usually like your common sense replies, but must take exception here. To openly state your house has lead paint known to be harmful to people could open you up to a nightmare scenario!!! There has to be easier ways of turning away children!
There isn’t a house anywhere within 100 miles of my house that doesn’t have lead. The yards are all lead filled as well.
My house does have lead. The 350+ postings in my city all have lead. It is a fact of life here…
Even still… why admit it??? If a guest can get a refund for vermin, you would think they would play that one for all its worth!
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How about indicating whatever is truthful such as the house is not childproofed, furniture has sharp corners, there are X stairs leading up/down to the unit, extra messes like handprints on walls and cheerios ground into the carpet will incur extra cleaning charges? If I were traveling with children, I would only choose a place that would be welcoming and suitable.
Which is one reason I only recently started traveling With with mine! They are 21!
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I just had my own first hand experience with this situation. I’ve been trying to recreate it myself with various fake inquiries, and could never see the option to break down the guests by age categories. For the last few days I’ve breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it hadn’t rolled out in my area.
This morning I get an inquiry from a guest, and at first I think it’s only for three people, as she talks about her and her husband, and their baby. But I look at the side, and it indicates “5 adults, 1 child, 1 infant”. The pricing looks weird too - I have a bunch of listings with various base prices and extra guest fees, so I check the listing to make sure that it’s added up correctly, and lo and behold it’s not calculating extra guest fee for “infant”. On top of this, they asked for a discount.
My very first house rule is “all guests including children, toddlers and infants must be included in guest count”. But now we have a bot over ruling.
I replied to the guest with a special offer to increase the price, by entering in guest count of 7. I then let the guest know that the price had not calculated correctly and that we’d be very happy to welcome their family if they wanted to accept the special offer.
The guest could have instant booked and I’d be screwed, but hopefully they either accept the higher special offer, or go book somewhere else.
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Well, I guess it will be your responsibility, being a responsible host, to make sure this doesn’t happen.
/cynicism
Yeah, that’s the downside of instant booking turned on. I do leave it on, though, since it does drastically increase the amount of bookings received, and means a lot less to-and-fro, so less work for me.
There have been court actions in the US which is why they changed the wording, well they never said that but seems likely.
I am not aware of any legal requirement to discount for children, never mind no charge.
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No one should cancel a booking …there is a place to request a booking alteration which is sent to the host who can then agree or send a special offer.
No owner who lives in the home or resides in a complex of 4 units or fewer is required to rent to anyone who applies. This is part of the fair housing anti-discrimination law. I do not see how Abnb can require us to accept children.
For those, who interested, i’ve made screenshots (not logged in AirBnB, Firefox browser), first one - maximum from allowed adults guests, second, same count of adult guests + 5 infants (same price):
took screens from @Colorado property listing
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I was asking the reps. if for example - guest enters 4 adults, 1 infant. I have an extra person charge after 4 guests. I asked if I could alter the reservation to 5 guests, and two different reps. told me I could not change the number of guests on the reservation before accepting. Guest would have to cancel and enter a new one.
So you are saying…this is not true. I know of the special offer regarding just changing the price…but I can alter a reservation request myself??
Thank you, that’s just the wording my listing needed. So far no one has tried to have friends over to a party, but that makes it clear while emphasizing that I’m not expecting to rent to one adult with twins under two.
I agree. My listing states that my flat is kid-friendly, but not childproof. There are electrical cords, stairs, glass pitchers on the floor (for plant watering), etc. Most responsible parents will use their judgement.
I am curious to know whether Airbnb or a host has even been sued for some injury/accident on a host’s property.
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Ri know I put that I didn’t accept children under a certain age and now Airbnb has changed my house rules to say may not be suitable for children under 2. I am a single woman with no children, my home has never been child proof. I have 20 nieces & nephews I have baby sat over the years and I shut all the doors and they had to stay in the family room with me and could use the bathroom. I don’t understand how they can change MY house rules without notifying have REALLY ASKING ME 1ST. I’m in a summer tourist area so I only host in the summer the past 2 years. If this doesn’t change by next summer I may have to quit hosting which would be too bad. But I can’t afford to take these risks with my property.
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