Found at end of stay that guests brought 5 additional people and left a huge mess.

[Ann484]

We had a guest book for 6 people for a 10 day stay.  We learned from the cleaning crew on the day they were leaving that they stayed beyond the check out time, and the cleaning crew counted 11 men in our house.  They reported that the men left many bags of trash and left trash strewn about the house, that it was in complete disarray, taking hours extra for the cleaning crew to clean the house.  We have a strict policy about trash (it is a cabin in a rural area) - that they can deposit 2 large trash bags per week in the community trash shed, and anything else must go with them.  Our cleaning ladies have been clear that they will not handle the trash as they do not have the capacity.  The cleaning ladies wrote it all up and took photos (not of the men but the mess they left behind).  We will address the lack of following the house rules and cleanliness in the review - but before we do anything, we wanted advice about how to handle the extra guests.  Please advise!!

[Syl11]

@Ann484  With your pictures of the trash/mess, against your house rules, you can go to resolution center submit your pictures, possibly request the extra guests fee with CS, but the stay is over. The resolution center will follow your extra guest fee charges and they will contact your guests to confirm number of guests. Sometimes extra friends may have only joined them for drinks and stayed over one evening. You won't know unless you actually communicate with your guest. 

[John1080]

@Ann484, we had a similar situation last week, except the guest had messaged last minute saying her daughter and grandson were joining them, which I reluctantly agreed to.

The long and the short of it was that they left a total mess, including trash everywhere as happened with your experience and cleaning took longer than normal.  I was advised not to pursue it with AirBnb, as they will not allow you to charge for cleaning. However, in your situation, it seems you have proof that they violated house rules by bringing in additional guests without your approval. 

Have  you thought about installing a security camera? We have one and can see when guests arrive, how many and whether they smoke, bring in animals, etc.

[Christine1]

When I was at the LA Open there was a company there that had a device which could guage and the number of digital mobile devices onsite it is a good indicator about guest numbers. Allows you to contact your guest in real time. Cabins in the woods are going to be vulnerable to this sort of thing.Based on what you have wrtten the exact situation is not able to be verified.