Additional Guests

[Dmitriy46]

In an effort to discourage parties, I have the following house rules:

No parties and no large gatherings. Any additional guests over 4 must be added to your reservation. No exceptions. Failure to follow this policy will lead to an immediate termination of your stay with no refund.

My current guest made a reservation for 3 guests but has a total of 7 people in the apartment as of now. Her position is that they are not staying the night as such are not considered guests. 

[Gillian166]

@Dmitriy46  This is one of those difficult situations where you have to gently and politely educate your guests.  these "non-guests" are still using the venue, and probably the bathrooms too!  If you search the forums i'm sure you'll find some polite wording. 

How will you know if they do end up staying the night? 

[Anonymous]

@Dmitriy46   Unfortunately, your policy makes no sense.

You set a maximum occupancy of 4, but your rules say "Any additional guests over 4 must be added to your reservation."  That's not even possible, because the booking form blocks guests from entering more than 4 adults in the reservation. 

Here's a better wording:

"The maximum occupancy is 4. Only the registered and paid guests may enter the property. No additional guests of visitors are permitted."

Had you written the rule this way, the current guests would be automatically in violation. As it stands, you have no choice but to clarify your position as @Gillian166  advises. Don't let the guests take the upper hand and tell you what your rules mean - it's your house, and you decide who gets to be in it. The extra guests must leave, and if the booked guests don't accept that, you can terminate their booking and send them out. (Airbnb will deduct the unused nights from your payout if you choose that path)

[Dawn241]

this is an ongoing issue for us. we have very strong wording in our rules for undisclosed guests and visitors and outdoor cameras and still it persists. No undisclosed over night guests and visitors inside the home. i message every time a non reservation visitor enters the home and i get "they aren't staying" then i say no visitors in the home and i get "it's my niece, cousin, aunt, mom or whatever" and i again say no visitors inside the home and the next day i get even more visitors that now perform for the cameras- waving, dancing, dirty looks, etc. this past weekend the guest even clogged up the plumbing, demanded a full refund for an "unsatisfactory stay", and wrote me my first ever non 5 star review. i'm going to add even stronger language to the rules stating- you are the guest, not the host. renting a place on airbnb doesn't give you permission to invite as many overnight guests and visitors as you want. 

[Anonymous]

@Dawn241  Was the review removed? Your profile shows no reviews since March.

These guests sound like absolutely horrible people. But what I don't understand is why they were allowed to stay in the house after they made it abundantly clear that they had no intention of following your rules. Your listing explicitly says that violators will be evicted, but once horrible people get the sense that you can't stomach the dirty work of actually throwing them out, they're only emboldened to abuse you and your home even more.

Your words are well-chosen; they just need to be backed up by actions.

[Dawn241]

I was 6 hours away traveling remotely with no cell phone data. I had to sit in a McDonald’s parking lot for internet. Had I been closer and able to monitor their activity more timely I certainly would have kicked them out.