Child policies

This guide provides an overview of the child policies supported by Booking.com, detailing how to retrieve, display and interpret them via our Demand API.

Overview

Families are a large guest segment on our platform. On average, they stay longer and are more likely to book than other segments like solo travellers and couples, which is why we have child policies, that allow properties to define children rates.

The child rate is a discounted or special price designed for families. It takes into account both the group occupancy and the ages of the children (0-17 years old).

Child policies

Properties can configure their child policies, which define whether children are allowed, the occupancy, which is the maximum number of children and adults per room, the pricing for children (child rates or not) and maximum number of children eligible for child rate.

When there are no child policies configured, children are considered as adults and therefore the adult fee is applied.

Child rates

Child rates can be either free or paid, depending on the child’s age, and apply only to children staying in existing beds. These are some of the variables that properties can select for their rate plan:

Pricing	Description	Examples
	Percentage-based: Set a percentage of the adult price for children within different age groups.	A child pays 50% of the adult rate.
	Per-child: Set different prices per each child within the same age group.	Up to 3 children may be eligible for child rates, with additional children charged at the adult rate.
	Per age bands: Properties can set different rates for children, often based on age bands they define. They can set the age from which there is a child rate or free cost. By default at Booking.com, children are defined as individuals aged 0 to 17 years, and any occupancy settings within this age range are classified as children, properties can specify the minimum age for children allowed to stay.	Children up to 17 years old can stay for free. If the child age range is defined as 0-11 years, guests over the age of 11 will be charged the adult rate.

Beds and cots

Properties can also decide whether:

• Offer both cots and extra beds at an additional cost.
• Offer cots and extra beds free of charge.
• Do not charge any supplement for additional beds or cots.

Key parameters

To retrieve and display children and adults allocation and pricing via our Demand API, you must use the following endpoints:

These are the main parameters that you must take into account for the endpoint requests and responses.

Guests

To return accurate rates, travellers must include guest information in both the accommodations/search and accommodations/availability requests, using these parameters:

• guest.number_of_adults: the total number of adults in the booking.
• guest.children: the ages of the children included in the search.
• guest.number_of_rooms: the number of rooms needed for the guests.

Example of search request:

{  
 "booker": {  
      "country": "es",  
      "platform": "desktop"  
 },  
 "cancellation_type": "free_cancellation",  
 "checkin": "2025-02-13",  
 "checkout": "2025-02-14",  
 "city": -391076,  
 "currency": "EUR",  
 "extras": [  
      "extra_charges",  
      "products"  
 ],  
 "guests": {  
      "number_of_adults": 4,  
      "children": [0,2,5,10],  
      "number_of_rooms": 2  
 },  
 "meal_plan": "breakfast_included"  
}  

Allocation

If travellers need multiple rooms, they can use the allocation field, to set the number of guests (adults and children) assigned per each room.

"guests": {    
    "allocation": [    
       {    
      "number_of_adults": 2,    
      "children": [2,10]    
      },    
      {    
      "number_of_adults": 2,    
      "children": [0,5,]    
      }    
      ],    
      "number_of_adults": 4,    
      "children": [0,2,5,10],    
      "number_of_rooms": 2    
    },

Occupancy

When making a request using the availability endpoint to check prices and availability, the response displays a maximum_occupancy field that indicates the maximum number of allowed guests, including children.

Maximum occupancy
	total: The maximum number of people (adults + children) that can physically fit in the room.	This is based on the number of guests staying in existing beds (beds already present in the product), excluding cots or extra beds. This information is essential to assess whether children can stay above the regular adult occupancy limit, and if so, how many. It also determines how many children will be charged at the child rate rather than the adult rate.
	adults: The maximum number of adults that can physically fit in the room.
	children: The maximum number of children that may have a special price (child rate) for that product.	Possible range of children allowed can be determined by: from_age -- The youngest age of the children allowed in this room. to_age -- The oldest age of the children allowed in this room. (Both ages are inclusive, hence: to_age: 15 means all guests aged 15, are also considered children, but from 16 they are counting as adults)

Children allowed but no child rates

When the availability response retrieves the maximum_occupancy object with the field "children": null, this means that children might be allowed to stay in the room but there is no child rate in place, therefore they are considered as adults, and will be charged as such.

Example:

  },
  "maximum_occupancy": {
      "adults": 2,
      "children": null,
      "total": 2
  },

Recommendation

When calling the accommodations/availability endpoint, the response returns an object that is called: recommendation.

• This is the best product options and price that can accommodate the requested guest allocation.
• If no allocation is present in the request, this field returns the most affordable option for the defined total number of rooms.

Example of recommendation for a group of 2 adults and 2 children (aged 2, 4) in 2 rooms.

 ],
  "recommendation": {
      "price": {
        "base": 1761.64,
        "book": 2140.4,
        "extra_charges": {
          "excluded": 0,
          "included": 378.75
        },
        "total": 2140.4
      },
    "products": [
        {
          "id": "1000426_95127794_3_2_0",
          "children": [
            2,
            4
          ],
          "number_of_adults": 1,
          "price": {
              "base": 1107.06,
              "book": 1345.08,
              "extra_charges": {
                  "excluded": 0,
                  "included": 238.02
            },
            "total": 1345.08
          }
        },
        {
          "id": "1000434_95127794_1_2_0",
          "children": [],
          "number_of_adults": 1,
          "price": {
              "base": 654.58,
              "book": 795.31,
              "extra_charges": {...},
            },
            "total": 795.31
          }

Best practices

To retrieve accurate pricing and rates, travellers must include occupancy information in the search and availability requests, including the number of children and their ages.

Ensure that occupancy-specific pricing and details are correctly displayed on the property page.