Violation of House Rules - Involves an RV

[Dave1196]

Good afternoon fellow AirBnB hosts!

Have a situation for the 4th of July weekend with our cabin rental. Current guests who booked with us claimed 4 total people, 2 dogs. They arrived yesterday with 6 total people, 3 dogs. This morning a 60 foot long RV has arrived with an additional 2 people.

These guests have zero reviews. When they booked with us and communicated via messages, they never informed us they were bringing this many people or a 60 foot RV.

I am looking for advice on how to deal with this situation as we have never had people actually try this. We have pricing increases for every guest over 4, which I believe they saw when booking and that is why they never told us how many people would be coming.

I also have never had a 60 foot RV parked at the rental. Any advice on this situation would be helpful.

Thank you,

Dave

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Dave1196  I don't see anything in your House Rules that explicitly states a policy on unregistered guests/visitors, or any mention of RV parking. This is surprising because your listing is otherwise thorough about things that seem obscure to me (why on earth would anyone want to hunt coyotes?? What kind of people do that?)

You can send the guests a booking modification request to reflect the actual number of people on site, and insist that they pay the listed fee for the extra guests. But if they refuse, you're in the awkward position of having to terminate the booking, get over there and take out the (trailer) trash.

[Dave1196]

Hey Andrew,

Thank you for the response. We do have it clearly stated that anyone booking must book with the exact total number of people coming, however I think you are right that we should revisit our listing details and try and clearly define the pricing difference for total parties over 4.

[Mark116]

@Dave1196   It looks like 9 is your max, so they are within that parameter.  I didn't check to see if you charge beyond a set number for 'extra' guests, if so, then ask them to change the reservation count, if not, lesson learned.

Are there any local parking regulations that might prohibit a 60 foot long RV that you could cite so it becomes a legal issue and not a host issue?

[Helen3]

Personally I would get in contact with the guests and ask them why additional people are using your listing. 

Confirm to them that the RV trailer is not allowed on your property. That they never mentioned it when inquiring about their stay and it needs to be moved straight away.

In terms of additional guests in the property, you can stay if they want them to stay they should have asked when they booked and that they need to be added to the booking and the extra guest fee paid.

Follow up in writing through Airbnb.

My concern would be they could be planning to bring in extra guests for a 4 July party.

You need to be prepared to get out there in person (bringing a few friends ) to remove them if they refuse to move the RV/pay for the extra guests. 

[Amanda660]

At the very least I’d be amending the booking to reflect jumping from 4 humans/1dog to 6 humans/2 dogs and send them to the alteration request to accept along with the increased charges.  If you’re happy to accept the RV then 8 humans/2 dogs.

How long is the booking for?  600 acres is a huge space - more may rock up.