Extra Guests at Check-In, What do I do?

[Colber0]

We had a guests arrive yesterday to our house.

Initially all seemed well. They communicated and asked questions about the house, bedding and ironing facilities. Okay they didn't read the web page or house manual, but that aside, all fairly normal. 

They insisted on having an 11am check in following a 5 hour drive. They texted me at 7.30 to say they had left. They arrived 2 hours late at 2.30pm.

They said they had got lost, despite having a sat nav and the route being a straight line along motorways and a main road.

They booked for 4 adults and 2 children. Our home hosts 6 people, so no issue there.

They arrived with an extra guest.

The guest, who apparently was a grandmother immediately said to me that she was staying somewhere else. This made me more suspicious.

What should I do as a host in these circumstances?

I was worried that if I didn't hand over the keys that may cause a conflict, a risk to my security, my partner and young daughter who were with me, or to the house.

On the other hand, given their actions, can they be trusted with our home? Particularly as they are renting the entire house, we are not living close by, the risk.

I thought I would contact them and speak with Airbnb.

I messaged them through the Airbnb app to ask if they could confirm that they only had 6 guests. They did not respond.

I thought Airbnb would be able to help.

Despite queuing on the phone for nearly an hour and being disconnected, I rang back.The call handler could not help me, they assured me that they would flag my concerns as urgent and someone would contact me as a priority.

Twelve hours on. It's now 3.30 in the morning, the guest has not responded and neither have Airbnb!

Its been a sleepless night. I am worried and I am trying to analyse the situation.

It's been over 12 hours since I heard from anyone. So I try the message bot. It's a security issue. The message says get some help. Not helpful!

The Airbnb message system isn't working. I call Airbnb. The call handler is naive and robitic. She asks me to repeat the issue. By this time I am fully awake in the spare room under the duvet, in an attempt not to wake the family.

The call handler insists I go through everything again, despite it being logged on my previous call and bot message.

I asked what my options are. She says she wants photos. Photos of what? The guests arriving. Really!

I tried to explain again and ask what my options are. She says she is going to call the guest. Not a great response at 3.30 in the morning.

I ask again what my options are. She says I can go to the house to speak with them. How far away am I? I explain it's a 3 hour round trip on a Saturday morning and that I explain that don't want a conflict.

She announced that she is going to call them.

I said stop, I have asked for my options. The response is that this is your only option if you do not want Airbnb to call. I stay calm and say well you have not discussed the full range of options with me. She insists she has. I remind her that she has not thought about me texting or calling her. Are there other options? She repeats that she will call them.

I explain that I am not happy in her response and say that I want this escalated as an urgent priority to a more senior member of staff. She tells me she will do that but cannot tell me when I will get a response. I tell her I want to make a formal complaint against Airbnb customer services.

So, I have a problem at check-in. Airbnb are not available. They don't follow up. They don't listen. They are reckless in their responses and behaviour and the escalation process does not work effectively. Airbnb are not helping. They are actually making things worse. It feels like we're on our own. 

I am extremely unhappy with the poor customer support and customer service and I am no closer to resolving my concerns of a potentially untrustworthy guest who has the key to my house, extra guests and a very large van parked on the drive!

I would appreciate the advice of fellow hosts based on your experience.

[Sarah977]

@Colber0  If you got the impression that I or other hosts consider sneaking in more people and not paying for them to be acceptable, I don't, and that isn't what anyone was saying, IMO. 

It's a matter of choosing your battles.

What everyone's saying is that it's probably not worth your time, your attention, or the bad review the guests would undoubtedly leave, to pursue payment for bringing grandma along. Even if they admit it, what do you charge  for 1 extra? Enough to make it worthwhile? 

And as I said, you have no proof that grandma stayed (even though it's more than likely she did). It's different if you catch extra people staying- if you have proof you can charge them. But asking them to admit to something they've already denied seems like a losing proposition.

I don't have cameras, there's no need- I host a private room in my home. But at stand-alone, off-site host rentals, they seem to be crucial. And yes, they definitely must be disclosed in your listing info.

I dislike surveillance cameras myself, and for that reason among many others, would never host a place where I didn't live on site.

[Inna22]

@Colber0 to summarize, your complaint is that they brought a grandma and were two hours late? I think instead of spending all this time trying to get Airbnb support, spend some time here in the community board and read what a true nightmare scenario looks like. I think you should move on and let these people have their vacation.

[Colber0]

I can see that you have a high level of trust in your guests @Inna22. Unfortunately these guests have not justified this.

I am sure that there all types of bad behaviour demonstrated by guests but that does not make their ignoring of basic house rules inconsiderate behaviour acceptable.

Whilst this approach may not impact the way you run your Airbnb there others where a 3 1/2 hour delay and lack of communication does concern and have an impact on family and other commitments.

[Inna22]

@Colber0 of course I don’t trust my guests. I have had more parties and attempts to party  than I can count. At the same time I think petty hosts make a bad name for airbnb. Sotries about hosts making vacation a nightmare for being suspected of keeping grandma overnight turn off those who would rather pay up for a hotel than worry about breaking some house rule. 

Of course it’s bad to be so late. Install a key pad lock so you don’t worry about it. You have arbitrarily picked your number of guests and now there is one more. Next time there will be one fewer

[Emilia42]

@Colber0 

I agree with Sarah and Inna's take on the situation and I have to wonder, in your perfect world, exactly what would you expect Airbnb to do? Show up at your house and confirm that Grandma has left? If Grandma is still there, do you expect Airbnb to get rid of her? This is your home and your business. You need to take control and not be afraid to personally handle these situations on your own. 

[Colber0]

As a new host @Emiel1 I was looking for guidance on options and experience of dealing with these types of issues.

There is a contract in place and from my initial discussions with Airbnb, it would appear that it may be possible to terminate and not receive payment for future nights or leave the guests in place and pursue for extra payment.

I am not clear on what you would do from your response, but it would appear that doing nothing may be the preferred option of several hosts.

[Emiel1]

"she was staying somewhere else"

Grandma-locked-up-in-a-cell-to-check-off-bucket-list

[Sarah977]

@Emiel1 That's hilarious. She's so cute, too.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Colber0 

It's up to you to enforce your rules and house rules, and make sure the guest understands and agrees to your rules during inquiry or before booking. Or at the very least, immediately after the booking. Like others have said, Airbnb is simply a platform that connects potential guests and hosts, and handles the money transaction. If you want to make sure grandma isn't there, it's your responsibility to find a way to do so without violating the guests' privacy. If you want to charge them for an extra person it's your responsibility to notify the guest and request payment. 

The contract is between you and the guest.... how you want to handle the guest violating the terms of your contract and acting *untrustworthy * is up to you. Airbnb can't and won't help you do this. 

[Colber0]

Thank you @Jessica-and-Henry0, I appreciate your thoughts. It's been difficult to get a dialogue with some guests, but it something that needs some further consideration.

[Clara116]

@Colber0  Having read all the responses just wanted to add a couple more thoughts , I agree with Jessica and Henry, Sarah and Inna - we have to pick our battles as hosts. Losing sleep over "grandma" showing up and saying she is staying somewhere else. Personally I'd be thinking grandma is gonna watch those kiddos in the day time - you say there's a danger in the pond and looks like if not gated/closed could prove something to lose sleep over - children are drawn to water. In the US pools must have a fence around them so kids don't drown. I'd be concerned with that not 1 extra guest.  Since you are remote the best way seems a front/back door cameras to verify guest count. This must be listed and many remote hosts use this. A truck load of teens showing up to party down is way different than "grandma" that's staying somewhere else. Guests very often do Not have notification on their phones for the Airbnb app - so I have a couple times sent a text message to their phone saying " I messaged you on the Airbnb App - hope you got the message" - every time, within minutes I get a response. So as to keep everything on the Airbnb App. finally, Airbnb is a booking platform and its important to realize you need to find ways to handle the everyday working of being a host, like this one. When something is way over your head, severe damage, fire, serious event with guests, that's when you contact them for direction after local emergency if needed.  

What I want to say - if you lose a nights sleep over this you will burn out very quickly. And we  all want to be terrific hosts and  have a long happy hosting lifetime. 

Hope you understand we are on your side, and we have walked down lots of these same situations and many roads, so enjoy hosting - most guests are awesome and I'd say trust them. Until behavior says you can't.  Most often you will be glad you did. Happy Hosting

[Colber0]

Thank you @Clara116, I appreciate your thoughts. We already had one guest who had a large party within our first week which was not a nice experience. We are around 8 guests in now and most have been a pleasure to host. It is unfortunate that some try to take advantage.

[John5097]

@Colber0 

As it is now, you have already addressed the situation with them during check in.

You could have simply informed them of their options, as you like to be informed of yours. "I see you have an extra guest, a total of 7. I'm sorry if you missed that, but my maximum limit for guest is clearly stated at 6. For this time I'll send a request through the resolution center for $25 for one guest over my stated limit of 6, that way we would both be in compliance with permitting regulations." 

They would probably just say, ok, and be done with it. And either way you are done with that phase so no need to call CS or keep messaging the guest. The point is that host never have complete control but this way would be more straight forward. 

At this point I wouldn't message the guest. These guest wiggled out of paying extra fee for grandma. Just consider it a learning lesson moving forward and update the working of your listing, installing cameras and smart locks. 

[Colber0]

Thanks @John5097, that is a really helpful approach. I was looking for options and I think we are down to do nothing, charging them extra at time of arrival, or refusing access at they are exceeding the 6 bed limit.

This time was do nothing, I will be prepared for a charging extra at arrival option as well next time.

[John5097]

@Colber0 You were on top of it. Those would be your options for this guest. You could always review them. I think if several guest have tried to sneak in extra guest already you will need to take better precaution. I read over your listing. Its well done but could trim out any redundant descriptions. There is a lot of information about each floor and bedroom, so you could simply include somewhere at the top. ("Six guest is the maxim occupancy limit for our insurance policy. If there are more than six, the reservation will be canceled and all guest will have to vacate the property immediately.") I see this a lot and no one seems to mind. It lets guest know not to break the rules and you aren't going to tolerate parties.