Additional unpaid guests

Additional unpaid guests

Hello fellow home-owners,

If a guest registered as 2 people staying, and then you find that 5 or 6 actually stayed there, would you use the resolution center to request additional $$ from them? Or, do you think it is wiser to not confront guests about this and let it get by? So as not to alienate them and hope that they will be paying guests again in the future? 

 

I am torn between on the idea.  On the one hand, I'd like a guest to come back and stay again. But if they lie about this, I don't know if I want them back or not.  And if they lied to us, they're not an honest guest and that should be reflected in our review of them, so other hosting homeowners can see, right?  Yet the guest also may turn vengeful and leave a negative review, hurting our record.  

 

What do you suggest? Especially any of you who have faced this issue before. 

 

thanks, 

Dennis

Big Oak Cabin, Jasper, Arkansas 

11 Replies 11
Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

Hi @Dennis-and-Naomi0 . Cool place!

I can't see anything about a fee for extra guests or any house rules about it?

If that's the case maybe let it go this time and beef up your rules for next time.

Emily487
Level 10
KCMO, MO

@Dennis-and-Naomi0 

Are these your current guests or have they already checked out? You are missing out on taxes collected and AirBnB is missing out on fees but I don't think that you are missing out on any money.

 

If current: Just send them a quick and friendly message that says something like I hope you are enjoying your stay! I noticed that there are a few more in your party than we expected. AirBnB is a real stickler for record keeping - please give AirBnB a quick call to update your reservation with for a group of 5 and not the 2 that was initially booked. Thanks!  I would recommend that you send a "change of reservation" but I don't think you can make changes to a current reservation.

 

If past: Send them a quick message that just says Thanks so much for booking with us and we loved hosting you. We noticed that there were more in your group than was booked. In the future, be sure to update your reservation to accurately reflect the number of guests before your arrival and be open with your hosts about who is in the group.  AirBnB is very strict about record keeping and liability (though we know they aren't...) and future hosts may not prepare their place for so many people (ie, you will run out of toilet paper and not be given enough towels!). 

Thanks, Mike & Helen, and also to Emily, 

Your carefully thought out replies are very much appreciated.  They are guests who checked out today, and after registering as 2 people, our housekeeping said they saw 4 cars in the driveway all week, and that all 4 beds had been used. 

 

Emily, I like the reply you offered for "if past" and will probably write them something like that.  I am thinking it's also possible that they may have simply missed checking the "$10 for each additional guest" option, because Mike & Helen, who also kindly replied, did not see it either.  (it is there on our listing, but maybe not obvious to all).  Speaking for myself, I often find website forms contain a lot of "busy" detail and I miss something.  So I won't assume dishonesty here but perhaps an oversight.  I like the gentle wording you suggested, Emily.

 

This community is a fine group of folks offering each other friendly help!  It's a blessing. 

 

many thanks,

Dennis & Naomi 

 

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Dennis-and-Naomi0 you've received helpful replies on your question already, so I would only add that to prevent this from happening again, you might consider adding to your listing description and rules that extra guest fees apply beyond two guests, and request guests set up their booking accordingly and accurately (right now,  as mentioned by @Mike-And-Helen0 , it's not obvious that extra guest fees apply). Also add this verbiage to your initial communication to guests so that it cannot escape their attention and saves any misunderstanding. Then in the unlikely event this happened again, it would be clear that the guest was purposely not transparent about the # in their party.

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Dennis-and-Naomi0  So is your standard protocol to prepare 4 beds for 2 guests??

Well, our guests rent the whole house. So yes, the whole house is ready made for them. Why would that be a surprise? The option would be to leave some beds unmade, which would look ridiculous and unprofessional. 

 

Guests get to pick which bedroom they prefer, upstairs or downstairs. 

 

I am very new host, this is my first hosting with Airbnb and I am facing same issue. Reservation is for three people and more then ten people are here not sure what to do. I don’t want my first experience should be negative. Please help me.

Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Dennis-and-Naomi0 a common issue that whole-house hosts face is that if all bedrooms are available then all bedrooms will be used. This eats your profits. Can you lock the rooms not rented? Another thing to do going forward is have one price for the whole house which covers your person maximum and add a huge additional guest fee on top in your house rules, mine is £240 per person past the max. This should help focus minds!

 

@Muntazir0 are you on site? Do you have house rules about it? What is your maximum? How much do you want a good early review?

 

eta I see you do say "no unauthorised guests" so I would ask do you want them out, do you want them to pay, or do you want a good first review? 

I think you'll only get one of these!

 

Thank you for your response  @Dennis-and-Naomi0. I am on site , my maximum rent is $98 and additional guest is $40 per person, not sure what I do?

 

thank you again for giving me idea of per room rental and additional guest charge increase.

 

Mike-And-Helen0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Muntazir0 you choose one of the three things!

Jim-and-Marcia0
Level 10
Vancouver, WA

Before a guest arrives, seek out information in the message thread about the group.  Get the guest to book correctly from the start or correct their mistake as soon as possible.

 

After the reservation has been made, but before the guest has arrived, get the correction made, because it's much hard to do so later.  Start by clarifying the number and type of guests in the message thread. Then ask the guest to put in the Change Reservation request.  Or you can initiate it the Change Request.  Enlist Airbnb Support staff if you can't get the online alteration tool to work.

 

If you discover the extra guests only upon check-in, call Airbnb Support on the phone together to correct the number as soon as possible. If you discover the extra guests later, but before they have checked out, still try to correct the number.  Don't wait until the day of their departure!  

 

If you discover there were extra guests only after check-out, changing the number would be tough to do, if not impossible.  I would use the Airbnb thread to ask the guests about it. Be transparent and ask them after the fact about what you saw and ask them how many people stayed at the house.  If they answer you honestly in the message thread, then you will have documentation and an easier time if you want to request extra funds in the Resolution Center.  Since it seems it wasn't entirely clear in your listing about extra guest fees, I'd let this one go but do let your guests know the importance of getting the count correct when reservations are made or at least prior to arrival.

 

Our listing is a three-bedroom house.  We make-ready the beds for all three bedrooms and allow the guests to choose which they want to use.  Rarely do our guests use more beds that they need. So for parties of two, we often find only one bedroom used.  The beds comfortably hold five people (Q, D, S) so we prefer five guests or less. We only charge extra if there are more than five guests, $10 per extra guest per night, and it's built into the reservation settings to do so.  We don't often see people intentionally misrepresent the number of people in their party, but occasionally they do.  More often it's an oversight or parent thinking their 2+ age child counts as an infant. As you know Airbnb doesn't count infants as guests so that can make a difference.  Since we cater to families and we need to prepare appropriately to host them, it's extremely important to us that the reservation accurately reflects the number of adults, children, and infants.  Since changes were made to the "Families Program" last summer and changes were also made to the online alteration tool, we've been struggling with that, especially if we need to make a Change Reservation request.