Guest lied about his group and number of guests

[Heather293]

This is only the second time I’ve accepted a booking through Airbnb. I have a small but very nice home in a popular area which was completely renovated a year ago, and I keep it spotless. I don’t want to accept a lot of guests and my home is priced accordingly. I have an extra charge for guests above 4 adults since there are only two bedrooms (there is an air mattress for max 2 more guest). I have instant book turned off because I want to be able to ask about the group before accepting the booking. I don’t know if this is against Airbnb’s discrimination policy, but I do not want to rent to groups of young men looking for a party location.

The current guest requested to book and said he was traveling with his wife and another couple and a fifth person. I reminded him that the fifth person would have to use the air mattress and he said this was fine. I have a security camera on my front porch and I usually glance at the clips when they check in to be sure all goes smoothly with keyless entry. This time, I was worried to see that the guest and his group were 6 young men, not 2 couples as he told me. I then looked at further clips showing them smoking on the front porch (my rules clearly state no smoking anywhere on the property, including the porch and front yard), as well as shouting “Hey motherf—s!” to one another at approximately 2am in a quiet residential neighborhood.

They are still there and due to check out Sunday. I don’t know yet whether there is any damage - I will find out after they have left.

I am wondering what recourse I have since the guest lied to me about the content and number of guests.

It is not as though his plans/guests changed - he told me the day of arrival that he was arriving at a certain time and his friend and his wife would be showing up a bit later. So it was a deliberate lie.

I am more than a little worried about this and after reading through some of the other posts, I’m worried I have zero recourse as it sounds like Airbnb doesn’t do much for hosts in the case of broken rules or additional guests. It seems as though my only option is to charge them for the 6th person and perhaps an additional cleaning fee.

[Edwin57]

Like said befor my Dad welcomes the guest I can hold 5 guest is always good to be the Host in front to see who coming and who is with them looking though camera doesn't mean anything camera means when somebody is breaking the law  to have proof but house rules no my Dad tells guest respect the house and the house will respect you come on now we are using Airbnb for a fee there brand and we as product brand is brand good or bad we as product have to protect our product

[Fred13]

@Heather293  These guests sure did try to be slick, knowing quite well, probably based on their past experience, 6 young guys will always be looked upon critically. Yes, you got time to make the review short and 'not-so-sweet' concerning the 'my wife and I' ruse.

[Heather293]

I rewrote my initial review to incorporate tips from @Karen-and-Brian0. Hopefully this gives an accurate picture to other potential hosts, while not seeming unreasonable or unfair to any potential guests who look at it. 

2 stars out of 5.
Cleanliness - 3 stars - indoors was left clean, with dishes in dishwasher and towels in the washing machine. Cigarette ashes and butts left on the front porch.
Communication - 2 stars. Stated that they were 2 couples and a 5th guest, but they were actually 6 men. They did not inform me of any changes to the reservation and did not pay for the 6th guest.
Observance of House Rules - 2 stars. Smoked on the property (front porch) and did not observe quiet hours - shouting and cursing at 2am in a residential neighborhood.

In the end, I think that Nick and his group would have been better suited to one of the downtown hotels. I wish Nick the best in his travels and hope that in his future homestays he will adhere to the standards that have made AirBnB such a successful platform for hosts and guests.

[Heather293]

Also I learned a lesson about accepting any guest with even the slightest negative review. Another host made a comment about noise complaints and I specifically asked about it before I accepted his booking. He said that the host was violating Austin TX rules about Airbnb and the neighbors were upset he was breaking the city rules. I should not have accepted any booking with prior  complaints of any kind 

[Kelly149]

@Heather293 Your listing could also say that ID may/will be checked at arrival (whether you will or not is irrelevant), that might give any sneaky types second thoughts about lying about their group composition 

[Karen-and-Brian0]

It's a steep learning curve, that's for sure @Heather293 - every one of our House Rules has been added either from personal experience or from reading a horror story from another Host here & thinking "OMG I didn't think of that, that could happen to us! I better add that too ...." I've learned so much from the other Hosts in this forum, it's well worth spending time reading here when you're first getting started. There are some amazing hosts here.

Your review looks great - honest, factual, calm, no emotion. Perfect. You have done a service to other future Hosts, well done. He may delete his profile & start again, but we'll hope he learned from this experience & will  realize some things just don't fly in a home stay format. So glad you felt I helped you out - I've collected & saved a few review statement gems here for just-in-case. If you do a search for "negative reviews" or "writing those difficult reviews" you'll find some more good ones & more very good advice. All the best - Karen

[Anne405]

Are there legal ramifications, or Air B and B ramifications, for people who lie as to why they're there, how many etc?    Are there lawsuits regarding all this and how the booking agency handles it?  

[Jody7]

Hello Heather and welcome to the AIRBNB world.  I started renting about 7 years ago and my very first rental completely trashed my home, over 10gs in damage and many upset neighbors.   What was supposed to be a few couples turned out to be 50 teenagers for a prom party.  You can only imagine.  In other cases, I had granparents tell me the house was for them covering for their teenage kids knowing they find it hard to rent telling the truth.  I My first two years of renting was quite a learning experience and now, I believe I am an expert at this.   In the last five years, I had no incidents and am doing quite well with my property.

Here are some of my tips:

1.  Create a template for all new inquiries so you quickly choose a template and repond to the inquiry.  In the template, make a nice thank you for the interest note and ask them to confirm:

Number of adults

Number of guests

Age range of the group

Confirm no pets of you dont want any

2.  When they respond and if you like what you see and will accept them, let them know you do a 10 minute walk thru with them when they arrive at the property.  I do it over the phone, but I dont tell them that.  I have them call me when they arrive at the house but they think I will be there to walk thru.  I instead call them and do the walk thru over the phone.  Now that they think you will be there, it greatly reduces the lies.

3.  Request their personal email address and tell them you will send them an info packet.  I make up a 6 page document that goes over the rules of the house but is also very informative.  I list all the attractions, bars, restaurants, massage, wine tasting, golf courses, food stores, etc... things like that with the phones, websites, distance to house.  I am basically trying to become their friend and very helpful to them so they have a great time when they arrive.  

In the info packet I let them know its ok if something breaks because accidents do happen.  I let them know my own family always breaks things.  Just add to let you know about it so it can be replaced before the next guests arrive and promise you dont freak out over these things.  I now get calls over broken drinking glasses so this actually works.

4.  I too have a non smoking house but I am ok with people smoking outside.  It has no effect on the inside of the home and I personally do not think you should let this bother you.  I supply rubber ash trays that are very easy to clean.  I do however in my info packet make it very clear in big bold letters that if they smoke anywhere INSIDE the house, the CLEANING SERVICE, not me, but the CLEANING SERVICE charges $1500 to remove the smell of smoke from the home and will do whatever it takes to fix that issue.  I can tell you this works.  The threat of losing security deposit money goes a long way.

Every now and then, a guest does lie and bring more than they say but its now so rare, I don't let it bother me, its not doing any damage and I work on getting as many reviews as I can.

Hope this help.

[Heather293]

Wow, Jody - thank you for these great suggestions!  It is great to learn from the experiences of other hosts who have been doing this longer than I have (which is pretty much everyone).  

I have taken your advice about writing that the cleaning service will charge $1500 to remove the smell of smoke - that's a good point to add!  Re the smoking on the front porch - it's not a very big porch and if the door is open, the smoke goes right in.   I realize that some people may be put off by how uptight I am about smoking inside or outside, and they may choose to rent another property.  That's just fine with me - I prefer that smokers don't stay in my property at all.  

I also like the tips about saying it's ok that breakages do happen.  I personally am not upset about broken dishes or drinking glasses, but it is nice to know for replacing them.  

I'm updating my listings and my "welcome binder" at the house to include all these great suggestions.  Many thanks again!

[Fred13]

@Jody7  "3. Request their personal email address and tell them you will send them an info packet." How do you get their e-mail address via the Airbnb message system without Airbnb blocking it? 

@Heather293Good approach. If you rather not want smokers, best to insist on non-smoking in your whole property, that will discourage  smokers booking in the first place. Yes, best to be upfront with that.

[Kelly149]

@Fred13 @@Jody 

there is is an email link in every reservation 

but during the time that a reservation is active all phone numbers, email addresses & web info is active and not blocked out. It does magically vanish post stay however. 

[Jody7]

I send the info packet right after booking.  I do tell the guests before booking that just after the booking, I will then send the info packet.

[Fred13]

Ah got cha. The e-mail Airbnb establishes for them. For a second thought it was one outside of the Airbnb one. I get many people constantly sending their non-Airbnb e-mails and urls and they always come blocked, why was wondering. Waste of time since they then Google us anyway.

[Anne405]

Can someone explain level 1 2 4 etc

[Stay-Asheville0]

It has to do with how many posts you make on here.