Registered guest & Unregistered guests

[Linda4964]

I have several questions regarding the distinction between registered and unregistered guests. Everything seems unclear. Also, I have a guest who just booked me (we are in June 2025 for reference) for January & February 2026. She is the booker; however, she is considering having a guest but has not registered him or her in the reservation. She is apparently new to the platform, as much as I am. This situation prompted me to look into it here in the community and on Google, without having a clear understanding of what is okay or not okay. So I'm asking for advice. 

What is the risk as a host if the booker does not register her friend?

How do you handle registered guests who want to invite local friends or family who are not registered?

What do you do or say when you, as a host, find yourself in that situation?

What are you allowing?

Do you specify whether registered or unregistered guests are allowed or not allowed in your house rule?  

 Thank you

[Elisa]

I @Linda4964 😊, 

Thank you for asking these questions here!

Have you already accepted this reservation?

I’m tagging a few experienced hosts to see what advice they can share with you: @Guy991, @Joan2709, @Shelley159 and @Tara0.

Thank you in advance, everyone!

Warm regards 🌻,

[Helen3]

You shouldn't accept third party booking unless it's through Airbnb at Work @Linda4964 

have a look at the Airbnb Help website for more information.

[Greystone0 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Linda4964 ,

Good questions and here's some insight and how we manage:

- it looks like your property allows 'up to 6 guests'. You have added a house rule about the occupancy for your listing, which is very good

- if you aren't already, when you message the guest initially, add in a comment like: you reserved for "x" people, this is mean to account for all guests (day use, overnight use). If this is incorrect let me know so we can discuss. There is a $50 fee per person/day above your reserved "x" guests. Or some such message.

On our end, we add this type of comment to each of our regular messages we send out - so the guest is getting this info multiple times.

- on our end, we have a maximum allowed by permit of 10 and so if a guest requests above this it is hard "NO" not possible, we aren't a good match for your needs. In your case, you may not have a permit issue but a comfort issue with going above a certain number. And you can say no to additional people above your limit. Just a simple thank you and you aren't a good match for them.

- we sometimes get a reservation that ends up like this: 2 adults for a few days, then their adult children arrive with grandkids for a few days, then leave. So we say something like this: up to 4 adults, 3 children for occupancy.

- sometimes we charge a higher rate as guests add and sometimes we don't. We have a high season rate and when that is in effect I don't really seek more but if it is in a discounted season then we do, but not always. If someone has a long reservation we don't, but if they have a short reservation (for us that is 3 nights) and are just trying to add people without 'paying' then we do. And so on.  

- people might not recognize that extra people goes for anytime of the day - they assume it just means overnight and for some listings that's probably true. In our case, the occupancy covers day or night use and the booker needs to account for all guests (day use/overnight), so we make that distinction.

Hopefully that provides some insight and wishing you much success!

[Linda4964]

Thanks, @Greystone0, for your very helpful insights. I will try to communicate the recap to the principal guest in a personal message. 

Concerning the grandchildren's scenario, do you ask your principal guest to add the children and adult children, or do you add them yourself on the reservation? However, I notice that when a booking is current, there is no way to edit it. So, how do you do? Contact Airbnb support?

I would like to charge a flat fee for the listing (up to 6 allowance), but I'm afraid that guests will think it's too high and not book with me. Do you feel that sometimes? I'm new, so I'm learning day after day, asking questions here and there on STR communities, reading Airbnb's guide, and conducting self-internet searches. 

[Greystone0]

hi @Linda4964 ,

here's some info:

- for AIRBNB you can ask support to 'add' the guests - this would require that you have an exchange in the message board to support this and this should work. 

- on other platforms, the occupancy is easily adjustable by the host

- we just had a guest add 4  day use guests (dinner guests in this case) and we did not add that to the overall total, just noted in the correspondence message board that their occupancy is: 10 adults for day use, with 6 adults overnight (the reservation just had 6 adults). This worked totally fine for us and they did indeed have 4 additional people come and go.

- as a rule, we'd try to encourage the booker to make sure they account for all guests in their initial reservation so that you aren't faced with trying to add, so your messaging is important. If they show up with less, who cares, but more is an issue. 

- And also, I think many listings allow up to their maximum whether  or not the reservation includes the maximum or not, in other words if they reserve for 3 but show up with 6 (which is within your occupancy standards) many would not bother. Conversely if they showed up with 20 that would be a big deal. It's up to you, the host, to determine what is or isn't an issue.

- in our case we don't really raise an alarm if an additional person or two show up, as long as it's at or below our permitted amount of 10 (and really we've let 11 go as we just wanted to let it alone). I just make note on my end, that this guest doesn't know how to count and I might not be interested in renting to them again, for example.

- for the original case mentioned with the grandkids, we opted to update the reservation to include the higher number since they were staying day/night for a good portion of the reservation.  

- and your pricing will be a reflection of your unique market and competition. In general a flat fee is probably most common. In our case we don't really want 10 people for each and every reservation and our average is 6 in our home, so we often make a higher nightly rate for 7 and above, if that makes sense. On airbnb you can charge an additional person fee per night or per reservation. We have a price range that we are comfortable with and work within that range and that has worked well for us. We review our competition, their calendars and marketing and use all that info to help guide our ideas for our nightly rate.