Should i allow 4 or 6 guests and how many beds?

[Michael5758]

I just purchased a high end 2000 sq ft 2 br/2.5 ba contemporary house in the mountains of Virginia.  How many guests should I host here? 4 or 6 or more and how many beds and what kind? I could do a sleeper sofa in living room.

should I allow age 12 and under?

I have had a 2 person suite in my home for last four years and things have gone well. I know the larger guest counts tend to be more trouble. 

I appreciate your advise and experience.

[Colleen253]

@Michael5758 Is your listing remote to you? Higher guest counts/remote host/high end entire place listing has potential for trouble, yes. Max occupancy should be only what the house naturally and comfortably can acommodate. 6 guests is not a lot, but if you need to add a sleeper sofa to accomodate that number, then don't. Make it 4. You need to screen guests carefully to weed out those who may flout the limits and throw parties. It's wise to have security cameras installed in outdoor areas to monitor comings and goings, and either you or someone you designate needs to be able to attend the listing if trouble brews. Pros and cons to being child friendly. Is the space suitable for children, or are there safety issues to consider? Do you anticipate you'll have a lot of interest from guests with children?

[Anonymous]

@Michael5758   As a traveler, I personally tend to be in the "anything goes" demographic - if I'm in good company with a few cases of good wine, I don't mind awkwardly squeezing into some sleeping spaces that aren't quite as comfortable as I'm used to at home. That's a normal thing for the budget holiday market.

But you said right in the first sentence that you consider your listing to be "high end." In my view, "high end" is not a pair of words that you can put in the same sentence as "sleeper sofa" and "families." By definition, it means that customers are paying a premium for more space and comfort than they empirically need. If you throw in some non-luxurious sleeping spaces to get more pigs in your pen, you might be able to make a few extra bucks but you definitely can't call that property "high end" anymore. Those two words only apply when every guest in the stay gets a truly luxurious experience. 

In short: if high class and luxury is your market, 4 guests should be the absolute maximum.

[Josephine70]

@Michael5758 , hosting large number of guests is a headache. If you want to host families, you might like to limit it for direct members of family only-like those under the Union included as members of a family that you can avail of bereavement leave  (father, mother, daughter, son, grandfather and grandmother). Excluded are in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. 

For group of friends, limit to guests that can have comfortable beds only. If there are two rooms with queen-size beds, then 4 guests. If there are two rooms, one has a queen-size bed but the other has a single bed, then host 3 people only. The guests has to be comfortable sleeping. Do not add sleeper sofa. It is problematic. 

The more people, the more water and electric usage; the more trash, the more clean-up especially if the guests do not care about your place-which most of them don’t. The guests tend to don’t care about our homes anymore. The reviews are not authentic because the guests get back at you giving bad reviews no matter how nicer our accommodations are compared to hotels…

[Laura2592]

Don't list your sofas, air mattresses etc as a sleeping space. Limit capacity to the number of people who fit comfortably in your beds. In addition to what everyone else has mentioned (wear and tear, potential for parties, more clean up, etc) many GUESTS get huffy if they have to sleep on a futon or temporary bed of some sort. Make life easy on yourself.