Guest booked for 1 and 4 turns up

[Andrew-and-Yvonne0]

Hi

I had a guest whom booked for a month for one person. He turned up with 4 people. Our policy is 2 people included in the booking and each additional person charged a fee up to a maximum of four people.

I informed airbnb and they took  a long time to come back to me and in the end they said use the resolution centre, However they have suspended the account ( guest)so i can not message the recipient 'This message has been hidden because the person no longer has access to Airbnb.' Now it transpires that the guest is not the person who booked but someone else.

This guest is refusing to pay. Airbnb meanwhile sent me a message asking me to collect the additional fees directly off the guest. Which I cannot do as 1, I am not in the country 2, The guests says he has no money. He would owe around £400 for the additional guests after a month.

This was airbnb's last message.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.

Upholding the policies and standards that protect our community is very important to us. We’ve given your case and its details careful consideration, and we determined that additional payment for the reservation must be directly requested to the guest.

We understand that this might not be what you’d hoped for, but we came to this outcome because additional payments can't be processed without the consent of the user involved.

Our review is complete now, and we won’t be able to offer additional support on this case at this time.

We suggest that you directly get in touch with the guest to request for additional payment, you can directly contact them by using this link:

Any advise on what I should do?

Andrew

[Kelly149]

Get someone over to the house asap and get the guest gone. You won’t get paid, but you won’t have strangers in your house either. This is not going to turn out well I’m afraid. 

[David8879]

Why did you let 4 people to check in?

[Gillian166]

@David8879  unhelpful mate. 
OP clearly states "not in the country". if you look at his listing it's in Kenya, he's in London. and they have self check-in. 

[David8879]

@Gillian166 

I missed "not in the country" part (thank you for pointing that out) and it just has not occured to me that host who allowes self checkin would ever notice and, even less so, to complain that there are more people than in reservation and these are not the people in reservation. That is the purpose of "self checkin" - to screw the host - why do you think airbnb pushes so hard to do that? (Along with IB)?

I, for one, am "not in the country" as well - that is why I pay to do meet and greet when all IDs are checked. Not on reservation - you are sleeping on the street. 

[Gillian166]

@David8879  well, i don't think the entire purpose of self check-in is to screw the host. As a traveller I love self check-in. It gives a guest lots of flexibility on when to arrive.

We do it on our farm because no one can sneak in extras (well actually, they do!  they pretend they thought that as there are 3 bedrooms they can bring more people), and because no one can ever arrive on time, Ever.   

[Gillian166]

your listing says "self check in through doorman", are you able to somehow get a message to your building reception who can pass it on to the guests?  I've no idea about the legalities of this but if they do damage you will be screwed too. this isn't your fault, and it's sad to hear ABB being so unhelpful. Can't offer advice as I know know how Kenya works, but if you can have them removed somehow, that would be best. 

[Louise0]

The issue is that it's no longer an Airbnb problem because there is no Airbnb guest in the property.  From Airbnb's perspective, the guest did a 'no show'.   

In a nutshell, you now have four people squatting in your house.  How you do/can deal with it depends on local laws relating to trespass and occupancy rights.

[Andrew-and-Yvonne0]

Whilst this is true the calendar is still blocked until the 14 August. So surely airbnb still have a responsibility otherwise they would have surely cleared the calendar.

Andrew

[Louise0]

From Airbnb's perspective that is the correct procedure.  A guest has booked and paid for the period till August 14 and hasn't cancelled the booking, so you've received that accommodation fee and your calendar will remain blocked until Aug 14.  The fact that the guest never actually stayed there is irrelevant to Airbnb.

You need to think of your four 'squatters' and the Airbnb booking as being two entirely separate issues.  Yes, one 'caused' the other but other than that they share no common feature.

[Andrew-and-Yvonne0]

Hi

Thanks for your responses, I just don't understand why airbnb did not cancel the reservation especially since the original person booking no longer has access to airbnb. The guest brought additional people in after the check in was complete.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Andrew-and-Yvonne0 

It seems that this is a 3rd party reservation, which did not appear to be, until the 4 moved in. What a mess. In our area it is most likely a law enforcement issue, and getting a judge to order eviction if law enforcement cannot succeed in eviction. @Louise0  is right on, in my opinion. Your local police there would seem the place to start. Best of luck, this is most unfortunate. 

[Jenny]

Hi @Andrew-and-Yvonne0 

I am so sorry to hear about what's happened.

I just wanted to let you know that I've raised it with Airbnb.

Jenny

[Andrew-and-Yvonne0]

Thank you I really think they should have done more in this instance.

With the additional fees, I have worked out they really should leave the apartment on the 5th August instead of the 14th, However as the dates are blocked I would not be able to rent them specific dates.

They are foreigners ( from NigerIa ) in Nairobi. I am not sure how they would expect to stay longer than the 5th. Which I have told them that they would need to vacate the property taking into account a total of 4 people.

Andrew

[Richard531]

Entitlement alert!  Here's what I'm seeing:

1. Guest made a booking for 1 person
2. Host didn't double-check with them to confirm their actual guest count
3. Host then found out later (by source unknown) that 4 showed up
4. Host then blamed Airbnb for subsequent issues/refusal of guest to pay

Sorry, but this is 100% on the host. 

We have multiple listings that range in occupancy from 4 people to 10 people.  WITHOUT EXCEPTION, when a booking is made, we confirm the guest count.  EVERY TIME.  Then, and only then, if the guest breaks House Rules by showing up with more than they put in the reservation (and confirmed via Airbnb message) do we have a leg to stand on in seeking additional payment and/or possible guest removal.  As a general rule, probably 10% of our bookings are initially made for 1 person.  99% of those bookings end up conceding that they meant to make the booking for more than 1 person. 

You also seem to angle yourself being "out of the country" like that's something to be proud of.  I'd keep that information to yourself (especially with CS).  Rightfully so, literally phoning in your property management across international borders isn't a good look when trying to portray yourself as a good host that has been somehow wronged.

Advice?  Take the loss, learn from the mistake you made, and live to fight another day.