How to make an element in XML schema optional?

Set the minOccurs attribute to 0 in the schema like so:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
  <xs:schema version="1.0" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified">
    <xs:element name="request">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="amenity">
                    <xs:complexType>
                        <xs:sequence>
                            <xs:element name="description" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
                        </xs:sequence>
                    </xs:complexType>
                </xs:element>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element> </xs:schema>

Try this

<xs:element name="description" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />

if you want 0 or 1 "description" elements, Or

<xs:element name="description" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />

if you want 0 to infinity number of "description" elements.