How do I handle extra guest issue after check-out?

[Mike1667]

I am very new to hosting and only on my 6th or so hosting for our cottage.  The rental is for the entire house.

I received a last minute booking by someone with zero reviews.  I know.  The booking was for 2 adults and 2 kids which is fine for this smaller house.  The limit on the listing is 5 people and I do have listed in my house rules, no unregistered guests allowed in the property.  As a newbie I did not have a extra person fee and quite frankly don't want more people than 5 in there. 

I used the Airbnb messaging to send the guest a message which was polite and said I wanted to confirm how many people are staying since the booking only indicated 4 people.  No response.  4 hours later still no response.  I am fairly certain she saw the messages and just ignored them since she checked out 2 days ago and she still did not respond.  Also, they were smoking in the doorway of the house and it's on the RING doorbell footage.  House rules are no smoking in or near the property.  Lastly, check-out at 11am and by 11:45 they were still wrapping up.  

So the stay has ended, I am still learning, but want to know if I can or should seek recourse through Airbnb to ask for additional money.  Is it too late?

They did leave the house in good shape.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

@Mike1667  

"The recourse of seeking money would be for the extra consumables they used (paper towels, water, additional electricity, towels, etc.)"

This is a dead end. You could send a resolution request asking them to contribute a certain amount for their consumption, but Airbnb will close the case if they refuse. Generally, the Extra Guest Fee is where you're expected to bundle those incidentals. 

"So how do I enforce rules when the guests do not answer my questions?  I did not feel comfortable calling them as I wanted the discussion documented."

Asking "are you breaking the rules?" is not an effective way to enforce them. All that does is confirm to the guest that you're too intimidated to take charge of the situation, and emboldens them to walk all over you. If you don't consider the violation to be serious enough to be worth taking action, then so be it. But a group that exceeds your group capacity and flagrantly disregards your rules from the outset could easily escalate into a situation that causes serious damage if you're not prepared to be a boss and deal with it. 

Don't meekly ask a question you already know the answer to. Tell the guest what you expect them to do, and make it clear that you will terminate the booking if they don't comply. It's often more effective to communicate this in person or by phone; for the sake of documentation you can always summarize the conversation in a message in the system.

"I could selfishly not leave them a review and save myself a revenge review but it hurts the Airbnb community. "

As others have pointed out, this doesn't make sense because the guests can review you regardless of whether you review them.