Is there a way to set a maximum number of guests?

[Nicole1913]

I've had to turn down a couple of Instant Bookings because they were for 8 guests, which is too many for my small cabin. I can't see how to limit the number of guests to stop this from happening.

I have an extra fee for guests over 6 people, and have set it very high to discourage this, but I don't want 8 or 10 people at my place so would rather avoid the situation altogether, if there is a way to do that. But when these 8-person bookings came in, the additional charge was not automatically added so I'm confused how it is administered. Any experience with this?

Thanks,

Nicole

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

You can go into your listing & click on the title Property & Guests. This will open up the page & at the bottom is has Guests & you can put the maximum number there. You then can go into booked settings & under the title Pricing you will see a title called Extra Charges, click on that & the page will open & at the bottom you will see Extra Guests: fee per person per night (you can add whatever $ you want) & under that you will see for each guest after( you can add the number after which they will get charged for extra guests). You can do this all on your mobile phone with the Airbnb app 🙂

[Nicole1913]

Thank you - I've done all that and not sure why groups of 8 are booking. I had hoped the system would decline those bookings but it seems to operate on the honour system 😞

[Emilia42]

@Nicole1913 Right now your max is 6. Technically, the Airbnb reservation cannot account for more than six; so no one is seeing your extra guest fee added to their reservation. I'm guessing that guests are seeing all your sleep arrangements (3 bedroom and 6 beds + tent) and they are trying to push your limits. Are they telling you in their message that more than 6 are coming? You will just have to keep declining these groups or tell them that only 6 are allowed on the property to they better cancel if that doesn't work for them. 

[Emilia42]

@Nicole1913 P.S. you may also want to think about portraying your house in a way that discourages larger groups. For instance, I do not mention or show a photo of my TV room with big sectional sofa because I don't want people to get the idea that a 5th person can sleep on it. 

[Nicole1913]

Thanks Emilia. So I guess I've done all that I can! I don't want to sound like a jerk in the listing by saying something about not sleeping on the couches, or that the bunk beds are meant for children. So I'm operating on the hope that people are honest about their numbers. Or maybe I'll change the number of beds so it looks like fewer.

[Kelly149]

@Nicole1913 you can't set a guest fee for guests Over what you've selected for Max guests.

Also guests cannot enter a reservation for over your max guests (except for the whole ABB thinks anyone can add 5 free infants at any time problem)

So, I'm confused, your house says 6 guests and you received real actual IB for a reservation with 8 adults entered properly in the reservation?

[Nicole1913]

Yes, I've received two bookings. She messaged me ( I think I have that set as a requirement) saying it was four couples, so 8 people. When I messaged her back to clarify, she said she would be "under capacity" because technically if you were to use every bed there are 9 sleeping spaces because of the double bunk bed. She ended up cancelling the booking as we were messaging each other. I'm just confused about how this is happening, and also what is the point of having an extra fee if it is not automatically applied.

[Kelly149]

@Nicole1913 I somewhat agree with her that the photos and the description are a bit misleading. You mention that the dining room table seats 8, you show 6 beds, 3 of which could easily sleep 2 people.

The other part of the problem is with ABB, in that they allow you to set a max but they don't allow you to break that number into adults and children which is I guess what you'd prefer.

Also, some of this confusion is just a terminology issue, if you require that guests have to message you to book then you don't have any Instant Bookings but rather you have a Request to Book that you don't need to Cancel but which you will need to Decline.

So, if you'd be willing to host 4 adults and 4 children then you could set your max to 8 and yes, you occasionally will have to tell someone who hasn't read well that you will not take 8 adults.

OR you can set your max to 6 total and then you'll only get requests for people who are purposefully trying to pay for a smaller place and house more people. IF you go that route then I'd borrow a page from @Emilia42 and not showcase all 4 beds in the bunkroom.

The third option is "allow" parties of 8 but make the charge for guests 7 &8 be prohibitively more expensive.

But none of that really helps you with how you'll handle the extra sneakers.

and to your other question, if your max is 6 then the system will not allow any additional charges bc it will not allow guests to be added above 6. And if your max is set to 6 and you get an inquiry from someone who is looking to house 8 then they are purposefully searching for listings that don't fit them

[Nicole1913]

Thanks @Kelly149 . Good point about the dining room table - I deleted that. This is my first month of hosting and thus far most of the bookings have been for adult groups of six. I'm surprised, but perhaps shouldn't be, that grown-ups would want to cram into bunkbeds in the name of a cheap weekend.

I've upped the nightly price as well. My feeling is that a hotel wouldn't permit even five people in a single room (I have three kids and we always have to book two rooms) so people are getting a heck of a deal here.