I like to discuss when guests lowball their headcount.

[Alice478]

I have made it a practice, that whenever I have a SINGLE person booked,  I always reach out to them to ask if they are coming alone or if they'll have someone else with them.  Invariably, they have a guest, making it two people staying with me instead of one.   This happens 9 times out of 10.   I think part of the problem is that when the website asks for  "number of guests"  the person making the reservation thinks they are being asked how many guests THEY are having.  THey don't understand to count themselves.   

I wish Airbnb would change the booking parameters to reflect  the phrasing  "Total number of occupants"  rather than "number of guests" because then there is no misunderstanding.    I'm sure I'm not the only one this is happening to, but it happens frequently and then I have to justify the $10 surchange for each extra person.   Have any of the rest of the community experienced this issue?

[Donald28]

this happens to me all the time! I hate that I have to ask every single guest how many people are coming. It would also be nice to have a "pet" drop down menu too. I'd like to know when they are bringing a pet. But no, I have to ask that of EVERY GUEST before accepting the reservation. I had a guest show up with 3 large dogs and he never mentioned that prior to arrival. 

[Thomas1033]

@Alice478  Yes this just happened to us too.  First time user and he instant booked for 1 and mentioned 4 in his introduction.  We include up to 5 but I still made him change it.