Hello,
(Not their real names)
Samiya arrived yesterday with her daughter and everything seemed fine. The 2 guests (Samiya and her daughter) went out for the evening to meet a guy called Abdul and I went to bed at about 11:30pm. Around 45 minutes later, at about 12:15am, I heard the guests return to the flat and go to bed. I did not hear their voices, so I'm not sure how many guests returned to stay the night.
Today (Saturday), I went to work at 9am and when I returned at 1pm, there was a 3rd guest (Abdul) taking his washing out of my washing machine in the apartment. I'm not sure if Abdul stayed the night on Friday night, but I know he was in the apartment on Saturday for at least 7 hours. I know this because he was taking his clothes out of the washing machine at 1pm, and the washing machine takes 1h30mins to run, so he must have been in the property since at least 11:30am on Saturday morning.
The 3 guests were all in the property sleeping for the afternoon, and went out at 6:36pm on Saturday - the third guest (Abdul) was in the property for at least 7h06mins, mostly sleeping.
The maximum amount of guests for the listing was set as 2. The price per extra guest was £0 - this was because no further guests should be staying, as the maximum is 2 - so it is redundant to have a charge for extra guests as extra guests (above the 2 initial guests) should not be staying in the first place.
I'm wondering if I'm allowed to charge extra for Abdul being in the property and how much I am allowed to charge. The property was not listed as price per guest. It was listed as about £40 per night for the room for a maximum of TWO people.
I am suspicious that Abdul stayed the whole of Friday night because I normally have a security camera above the front door entrance. However, as Samiya booked the room before I installed the security camera, I sent Samiya a message to ask her if it was okay to have the camera recording. Samiya requested that the security camera be turned off and, out of good will and because she booked the room before the camera was installed, I obliged. However, I think I have been taken advantage of. Also, Samiya has been on AirBnB for 3 years and has no reviews - odd.
Since this ordeal, I have added several measures to the listing such as:
Requiring proof of ID be submitted to Airbnb,
Other host recommendations,
Acknowledging the security camera,
Informing me of visitors,
Charging the maximum amount per extra guest per night (£236)
I will reiterate that there should be no need for the last part (that is, having a charge per extra guest (above the 2 initial guests)), as the maximum amount of guests for the room is TWO. However, I have done this to be absolutely clear that there should be no additional guests.
Please let me know your thoughts about charging extra for Abdul staying at the property. I have not spoken to the guests about this as I'm not sure what the policy is and I don't want to be confrontational and get a bad review.
Thank you