more guest staying than booked

[Eileen232]

Hello,

I need help, I have a confirmed reservation for 4 guests. The guest's are currently checked into my space. Check out is tomorrow. It has come to my attention that there 6 0r 7 people staying at the house the entire time. The listing states accommodations for 6. I would never accept reservations for 7. On my listing I do have additional fee per night for any guests over 6. I did this because I do understand that sometimes situations can come up. I wanted to discourage more than 6 guest. 

How do I handle this?

Let it go as long as the Space is left in good order?

write something in their review?

email them now requesting an explantion?

[Anonymous]

@Eileen232  It's a difficult situation for you at this point, unfortunately. You have every right to insist that the extra 2 or 3 people depart because they are unregistered guests. But since they're leaving tomorrow anyway, it doesn't really seem worth the drama. I do recommend that you make arrangements to personally show up for the check-out, so that the guests can expect you to witness the state of the home before they depart. Perhaps it gives them a little extra motivation to leave it in good order.

And yes, it's a good idea to mention in your review that they brought extra unpaid guests without prior permission. That's a huge transgression in the eyes of most hosts.

One thing you might change is the threshold for an extra guest fee. It seems quite contradictory to accept no more than 6 guests but charge extra above that amount. Why not a fee over 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 guests?

[Rowena29]

Hi@Eileen245

I think all the advice @Anonymous is spot on.

I am remote host ( although I'm usually there for checkin) and originally I had a few issues with extra guests. 

For the future, I have found the following strategies, combined, have helped.

1. I now state I will be there to welcome the guests ( on the rare occasions I can't, we have a keypad, but I have deselected this as the primary method of check in)

2. We charge a substantial security deposit - $600

3. We have a disclosed security camera which takes in the whole entrance and the only point of entry to the house

4. We clearly state in the house rules that ONLY the number of guests indicated on the listing, may stay at the house. We also state that if a smaller number of guests are staying,  ( 2 or 3, we can sleep up to 😎 some bedrooms will be locked off for their convenience to help minimise  the possibility of excess cleaning charges

None of this is foolproof. but I suspect that most guests planning to do the wrong thing in advance, see the combination of bond, security camera and the fact that I'll be there at some point and move elsewhere to a softer target.

Hope this is of some help moving forward.

Good luck with the current situation and most definitely mention in your review.

Regards