I have been hosting since November 2020 in San Marcos, TX and have encountered two situations where the guest that reserved our property was not the guest or guests who stayed in our property. In both cases I was not aware that other people were staying in our apartment until after they checked out. In both cases the apartment was left in a mess and I had to request money for damaged and missing items. After requesting reimbursement I eventually found out the guest either set up the reservation for someone else or allowed someone else to use their reservation.
My question is how to avoid this situation in the future. We have auto check-in with combination locks so we rarely meet the guests. Our apartment is attached to our garage but there is only a breezeway connecting our home to the garage and apartment. The apartment has a lot of privacy so we rarely interact with our guests.
I am wondering if I need to require we meet with the guests upon arrival in order to verify they are the same people reserving the apartment. This could be inconvenient in many cases with late check-ins and such. I have always assumed through Airbnb the profile has been approved but in these circumstances, nobody would know if the guest(s) whose name it is under are the same people staying there.
Anyone else have a problem like this and if so, how to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Thanks!