My guest booked my place for 4 people for 10 days, but he had a fifth person there he never mentioned and whom I found out about because I arrived as they were leaving and saw they were five. Since I don't spy on my guests, I didn't know there was a fifth, undeclared guest. I asked the doorman who confirmed that guest had been there all the time. So I asked the guest to pay the extra guest fee. My rule is clear: any additional guest pays €10 per day. The guest refused saying the unauthorized guest was there for only 3 days. I pointed out that (1) I have no means to verify how long they were there and anyway the booking was for 10 days and (2) my minimum-stay rule is 5 days, so just paying 3 days is unacceptable.
Well, I was shocked to my marrow when I went through the Resolution Center and Airbnb said they couldn't force the guest to pay for the unauthorized guest, even though the guest had admitted they had an unauthorized guest. Can't you take the money from the security deposit? I asked. No, said Airbnb, that's only for damages, so yes, we can tell that there was an aunauthorized guest, a violation of your rules but if the guest doesn't want to pay, we can't force them.
Airbnb said
In other words, Airbnb encourages guests to cheat because no matter what they won't be forced to pay. So, why would a guest bother to be honest? They can cheat knowing that Airbnb, who claims to be a trustworthy and compliant-oriented platform, will do NOTHING.
I feel disgusted about the whole episode, but there is a silver lining to this cloud: a host is sometimes a guest, so now you know what you can do: bring unauthorized guests and if the host complain just show them the Airbnb policy: full impunity for cheating guests.