Cameras and extra guests...

[Josh1349]

Just had guests check in and noticed 7 people getting out of the cars when the reservation (and house maximum) is 6 guests. 

1. It makes me "feel dirty" watching them arrive on the camera.
2. It's annoying that they brought a 7th guest.
3. I try not to judge, but they are young (e.g. college kids) and brought in cases of beer as well. Our listing says "no parties", but I don't want to assume that they will be rowdy.

Not sure how to approach this. As I mentioned I "feel dirty" about watching them arrive, so saying "I saw 7 of you get out of the car" doesn't sit well with me. Note that if they had asked "can we bring a 7th guest" I would have said "sure, you can use the air mattress upstairs, but it'll be a tight fit for you all so I might not recommend it". So I'm not strictly against the number of guests, but it's not cool that they didn't tell me.

Thoughts?

[Gi-Angelo0]

I completely understand how you feel.

First of all, if this may be a party, that's more serious than having the 7th guest. Usually in this situation, we will send the guest a message, reminding them now they have checked in, and we would like to remind them about the no party house rule. If there is any party reported by the neighbor, their reservation will be cancelled immediately with no refund, and they will be asked to leave once reservation is cancelled. 

If it gets worst, we will tell them the neighbor has reached out about a party in the house, if they don't stop the party now, they will be ask to leave and authorities will be sent to the house. 

We also reach out to Airbnb immediately if your gut senses that there is more than 50% they will have a party. When it deals with party related events, Airbnb has a special department, "safety team" to handle party issues. It may take some time, (1 hour to 6 hours) to have someone on the safety team to reach out to you, so the earlier you reach out to them, the faster they can help if there is a party. You don't want them to open your case when the party is over. We also request to keep the message/email chat available until guest checks out. If it turns out they are not having parties, then you can message the customer after guest check out and thank them for monitoring the case.  Hope this will help!

[Josh1349]

Thank you. I've reached out, giving them the opportunity to fess up, and will take it from there. 

[Josh1349]

This came to an easy resolution. We had Guest A who originally booked this trip but then couldn't go and she cancelled and Guest B placed the same reservation right away. Guest A has already cleared the 7th guest with us (long chat history and I had forgot since it was back in November). So Guest B was in the end not being shifty.

Just shows that it's important to step back and think things through before jumping to conclusions.

[Sarah977]

@Josh1349  As a home share host who doesn't require cameras and a person who dislikes how prevalent surveillancce devices have become in general, I still understand why they are necessary for off-site hosts. And why you would feel "dirty". But there's really no point to having cameras if you aren't going to act on what you see going on if it looks iffy.

One way you could keep it from seeming to guests as if you are just sitting there spying on them, is if you need to confront guests about something you see on the camera like extra guests, to say that you always have to check the cameras during  check-in, as it's a condition of your home insurance not to exceed the stated guest count.

[Josh1349]

Yeah that's what I told them, that we always check footage when guests check in. And I was clear to mention that after guests check in we turn of camera notifications (which we do). 

The main reason we have cameras is not to check on the guests, but more to check on the house when nobody is there.

[Patricia1375]

Hi Josh,

I am glad that things worked out in a way that worked well for both sides. 

We say in our listing that we have 4 camera's posted on the outside corners of the house.  We also say that they are wildlife cameras to  observe our elk, moose, bear and currently our pride of 5 mountain lions.  All of this is true.  It's also a great gift to me if a text from my camera spots guests with little ones sledding outside.  I send the guests any video's of our regular wildlife.  That way everyone knows the camera's are active. 

One good thing about having so much wildlife is that we can use the excuse of mountain lion's outside to warn our guests who travel with pets, that they will want to be sure to keep their pups on leashes when outside.  This kind of detail lets them know I will look at the monitors if I get a text that there is movement outside, but also suggests that I will know if they come with 12 people, as opposed to the 8 limit, or if they come with birds and cats (both examples have happened) when they indicated they were coming with no pets. 

I don't consider it spying.  I love our wildlife.  So do our guests.  But occasionally seeing a happy little toddler running through the snow does my heart good as well.  You might not have the wildlife that we do, but I genuinely think transparency is a good thing.  Aside from wildlife,  outdoor cameras are good for mail/UPS delivery notifications.  It's pretty common these days to have porch thief's and guests would understand if your monitors were to go off-- that you keep an eye on it for those kinds of reasons.  It seems acceptable to me that if you are letting them know you are monitoring for a package, that is also how you noticed 12 guests instead of 8 staying at your home.

Just some additional perspective on acceptable reasons to have security or wildlife camera's.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Josh1349 

Our insurance and also our business license specify the number of guests we may have. We are home share hosts, so we are virtually problem free, but this is limitation is legitimate. It is based on fire evacuation and road limitations, parking, noise/neighbors, septic system, and many safety concerns.