Does anyone else block off bedrooms in their large rental if only 1 or 2 people book?

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

We have a 3 bedroom 2 bath Airbnb.  We charge extra for extra guests. 

In the past, we had a reservation for 2 people for the home, and 7 showed up with 4 cars.

To prevent this from happening in the future, we now block off and lock the extra bedroom(s) if only 1-2 people book the home.  We tell people in the listing, as well as when they book, that this is what we do to make it clear.

We haven't had any issues, until last night.  We received a reservation for 2 people for next week.  I clarified with them that the 3rd bedroom would be blocked off, but that 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms would still be available.  She told me she had never heard of this and didn't understand why I was doing it.  I explained our position and she continued to get defensive.  She hasn't canceled her reservation, but she got me wondering.

My question -Does anyone else block off the extra rooms?  Are we being unreasonable?  Should we not block off the extra rooms and just deal with the situation as it comes up if it happens in the future?

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Christine0 - Yes!  This is exactly another situation we are trying to avoid when we lock the extra bedroom doors.  I agree with you though, I like for people to be able to see the whole house.... but I also don't want any surprises when we come in to clean.

[Emilia42]

@Christine615, I've had that happen more times than not when a couple stays. It's like they need to test both beds to make the "right" choice. 

[Jody79]

@Christine615 @Yeah, we’ve had the exact same situation before. Lol

[Kenneth12]

Not sure what anyone else has said here,  but I see you are listing an entire hourse with 4 BR.

If you're listing that,  you must provide that.    You cannot bury an extra charge to access the 4BRs in the text-- you have to provide that.

Guests must accurately tell you how many people they are bringing,  and you may refuse entry if they have more (of course,  you may lose the booking).  You may also let them in,  and try to negotiate for them to pay the appropriate fees you've set up through the UI.

You may use the capacity feature to charge for extra guests,  or have multiple listings with linked calendars-- that does take a little doing to set up,  but that's how the cookies crumble around here.

Again,  if you offer a 4BR in the interface,  you must provide 4BR,  and if you don't,   a complaint to ABB from the guest will result in a refund to them,  about 50%.

[Jayesh5]

@Kenneth12 

You are far and away the most on the ball here. Hope @Dean-And-Stacey0  read this and take heed. Other sites have this policy but with Airbnb the waters are so muddied that you just proceed with caution. Personally we try to follow industry standards across the board and separate listings is the only acceptable solution where you have justifiable ground to stand on. Thanks for the clarification Kenneth, from Lisa

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Jayesh5I had actually missed Kenneth's response, so thank you for bringing that to our attention.  He really makes a good point. 

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Kenneth12  I'm just seeing your response now.  You make a good point.  Thank you!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Dean-And-Stacey0 

Entire House 3 Bedrooms.

I can understand your reason for accepting only 2 guests and maybe provide one room or two rooms if 4 guests - but isn't that whats causing the problem?

If the cost was for - whole house - despite only 2 guests, then thats their lookout. Those 2 guests need to pay the whole house value. All you're doing is compromising yourself over a system you have set up. By noyt booking those 2 guests you might actually get 6 which is what you really want.

In our circumstances we offer whole house at one cost regardless of guest quantity up to our maximum. If they bring more guests then I make sure they pay for those. That problem will always exist. You may book 2 people into your whole house but still have 7 turn up, that senario will always be an issue. We could quite easily make our listing available for 2, by simply shutting the door. In low season this could be a useful option but it is far more beneficial to host the maximum where possible.

Personally, If I was to book for 2 at your place and had the shared space used normally by 6 I would expect that I'd bagged a bargain. As long as you point out the room lock situation, then that should not cause an issue, especially if its pointed out that "in order to provide THIS accomodation for THIS price for 2, then we need to restrict access to bedrooms surplus to requirements."

More importantly, your policy about extra unathorised guests should be firmed up. What it is, what you will do if exceeded, what guests must do, what you will do if this is not adhered to. Then, stick with it.

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0Thank you for your response.  I absolutely agree that our policy about extra guests needs to be tightened up and explained in our listing.  That is definitely one thing that has become clear through this message thread.  I'm still coming up with wording to use, but plan on doing this very soon.

My husband and I keep going back and forth on the locking of the bedrooms based on everyone's responses here.  I do like the wording that you posted above in regards to it.

Thanks for your great input.

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Dean-And-Stacey0 - glad I found this thread because I had the same question. We too rent our entire 4 bedroom place & this year we installed deadbolt locks on all the bedrooms (except the master, which has access to the 2nd bathroom). The reason was - we don't live on our property & people were getting into the unrequested unprepared bedrooms & sleeping on the beds using our throw blankets, on the mattress pads only, using the pillows without benefit of pillow cases etc. Unhygenic & creepy! Obviously these people snuck in more guests than were booked. We've since installed security cameras to monitor guest numbers & this has helped a lot, but we still have had people who have decided to use all the unmade beds, even if there are only 2 guests staying. Stains on the mattress pads & crumbled pillows on all the beds tell the tale. It defies belief. 

I locked a bedroom for the first time for our most recent booking - and you guessed it, they brought more people than were booked & demanded the bedroom be unlocked "because we booked the entire house & paid for it!" It was a disasterous booking anyway - the person who booked wasn't even staying, so none of the information was conveyed to the people who showed up. We don't allow Third Part Bookings, but got one anyway. 😞

We clearly state unrequested bedrooms will be locked & we give our guests the option of asking for any or all of them for their stay.  Now I'm second guessing this decision. Maybe I just need to put pillow cases on every extra pillow in the place & wash the mattress pads as routine. What did you end up doing? 

[Dean-And-Stacey0]

@Karen-and-Brian0 

Oh goodness.  I know the frustration!

We actually haven't had any problems since I posted the thread.  We did stop locking the doors because most people have been great and we didn't want to start out on the defensive with our guests.

Now when people book, we confirm the amount of people for the reservation in their welcome email.  This has been helpful, because we did have to change one reservation from 1 person to 6!  We also have a Ring doorbell which moniters how many people come and go, and we clearly state that on our listing.

I think another thing that has helped is that it's summertime, and our rates our more expensive.  This has brought in more families instead of younger partying types.  I actually hadn't thought of that until right now, but it does seem to have made a difference?

I will say that regardless of the amount of people booking, we do make all of our beds.  We do this because it just looks nicer.  If people bring more than the amount of people who booked, we send them a payment request (although we haven't had to do that since this posting).

If you come up with any brilliant ideas, let us know.  Good luck.  I know how frustrating it can be.

[Donald28]

Its a very smart idea and you should keep doing it. People are sneaky and dishonest. 

[John1599]

We have a two level four bed apartment, we lock off the upper level bedrooms and bathroom for our own use when guests are not staying. We provide one bath towel and one hand towel per booked guest along with two separate hand towels in the bathroom. I also spent a lot of time convincing my wife that we must put mattress protectors on all of our new mattresses when we were starting AirBnb. She worried that guests would resent our lack of trust. She was eventually persuaded and boy are we glad two seasons later, and not one person complained. We charge for the entire place regardless of whether it’s one or four guests, some groups consume everything they find and others hardly leave any sign of their being there, but it averages out pretty well. On one or two occasions they “smuggled” in an extra body or two, but we didn’t make a fuss, or an extra charge, it’s just not worth the hassle.

A recurring problem with 95% of guests is that they don’t read the full information pack on the listing and arrive with little knowledge of what they need to know.