More guests than allowed in the house rules, and the city regulations.

[Jim95]

My house rules state that the house sleeps a maximum of 6 people.  When the main guest arrived (solo) I asked him again, how many people were coming.  I asked again because this was Coachella weekend in the Palm Springs area, and this time is notoroious for young people taking advantage of hosts in the area.

He said that there would be 6.  When we came to check them out, there were 8 people in the process of putting their bags in the 3 cars that were here.

During their stay there was a problem in getting the pool light to work.  We offered to come by to fix it for them but they declined that offer, even after multiple texts about the lights, made it obvious that they would like the lights to work.  But they did not want me coming by.  That is when I got suspicious.  We drove by the second day to get our mail from the mailbox on the street and there were 6 cars at the house.

The house was left in a filfthy condition, and there were mountains of towels used.  WAY more towels and than 6 people could use.  (We are already on laundry load number 7, before even getting to the bed linens.)  And there was a pillow with pillowcase, not ours, that was on the sofa when we walked in.  So I am sure that they had people sleeping on the sofa.

I want to make a claim on their security deposit.  The cleaning and laundry alone will take us days to manage.  AND the city regulations on short term rentals state that no more than 6 people can overnight at the house.  So we could have been fined by the city.

Can anyone tell me what is the best route to take?

Thanks,

Jim

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Jim95

Hi Jim...your first immediate route is to contact the guest via the platform and say you are aware there were additional guests staying, which means an increased cleaning fee and accommodation rate. If you don't get a response back very quickly then open a case on the AirBnB platform. 

To be succesful you will need to prove that additional guests stayed and you will also need to prove damage, or increased costs. This can be difficult if you do the cleaning yourself and also don't need to replace anything. (I assume you had a security deposit in place). Remember proof is what AirBnB will want - so Option 1 above, if it works, is a better route.

Fiinally review the guests towards the end of 14 day period, to give the guest time to agree to payment (fingers crossed). If they don't then keep it brief and professional. Something like: The guest payed for 6 which is our maximum occupancy, but invited additional people to stay. The house was left very message with significant additional cleaniing required.