Guest paid for 4 people over xmas, but 6 turned up!

[Robbie54]

I have just had a very awkward situation where a guest booked my property on AirBnB for 4 adults but 6 turned up. It is an extra £10 per person for the extra 5th or 6th guest. What made it worse was the guest messaged me on the day of arrival and asked to have the sofa bed made up for her because she "hurt" her knee and she couldn't make it up the stairs (her knee looked fine to me as she was carrying luggage in and out of the property on numerous occasions with no limp!). I reminded her that i usually charge extra for the sofa bed but as it was Christmas eve I will waive it as goodwill gesture. She took advantage of it when 5 other members of her family turned up and stayed for the 3 nights that she booked . I thought of confronting her but as there were 4 males with her it could potentially lead to a nasty situation on Christmas eve which I wanted to avoid. 
When they all checked out I made a call to AirBnB. They are generally beyond useless with situations like this and today was no different. The problem is if I ask for the money owed in the resolution centre i worry that the guest, out of spite, will leave me a not so good review, and AirBnB say they can't do anything about it. This will go against my future superhost review, not so good. 
I don't know why with a situation like mine AirBnB dont disable the review process for both parties, otherwise it can just get out of hand.
Really don't know what to do. I'm out of pocket with no backup from AirBnB. An upsetting situation...

It's crazy to think that AirBnB are allowing a guest who conned them and me (and a proven liar) to still be able to leave a review that could potentially harm my rating that has taken over 2 1/2 years to build. This guest has no rating (I'm guessing I'm her first victim) and can easily use a friend or family member to book in the future or use a different site. Unbelievable!! 

[Helen3]

In your situation I would have asked the guest to pay for the extra guests when they arrived.

hard to claim for extra guests when you don’t say anything on arrival or during their stay but worth a try

good luck 

[Robbie54]

Like i said in the post there were 4 (quite big I might add) men in the party of 6 and just me, it could quite easily have turned nasty on christmas eve, I wasn't prepared to take the risk. She knew what she was doing, very disingenuous. 

[Gordon0]

I think youve missed the boat, @Robbie54, and you'll just need to suck it up. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but waiving the fee for the sofa bed was the error.   

[Robbie54]

I have 2 ways of issuing a charge for the sofa bed. One is if a party of 4 requires it, which is what happened in this case, and because she said she was injured I thought I'd be Santa and let her have it as a gift. After all, I was only expecting 4 people, why would I expect any more?  The other is if extra guests, either 5 or 6 in total, requires it. So i didnt make a mistake, she was just being very very disingenuous. 

[Robbie54]

But yes, I get your point. No more Mr nice guy 😉 

[Rebecca160]

@Robbie54 so sorry this happened to you. I know exactly what uou

mean about the intimidation a solo woman can feel!

You could send a request for the extra money through Airbnb app. Not likely that she would pay it, but she might. 

I would defintely leave her a

scathing review, max of 3 Stars.  

[Robbie54]

Agreed. I think I'll wait for a few days then issue the review, just so she thinks she's got away with it. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Robbie54

If you worry about bad reviews you'll never be able to manage guests out to take advantage of hosts.

With that in mind, I suggest you get outdoor surveillance.

All you need is photos showing no. of guests that entered your home and a request for payment - also make sure your security deposit is enough and include in your house rules that it is the guest's responsibility to book and inform host of accurate guest headcount. Keep messages short and business-like. Request money, give them 24hrs to pay and if they don't accept, contact ABB to charge them from the security deposit. 

This is one area where ABB is known to actually take the host's side as long as you can provide photo-evidence.

Also, if it were me......I'd give that guest 1 stars all around and a simple "My experience hosting GUEST and group was uncomfortable. I would not welcome them back." 

Good luck~

[Robbie54]

Good advice, thank you. However I find it's a double edged sword. I want to keep my superhost status, AirBnB make it struggle to keep it as it is, and I still want justice, so to speak. As it's the first it's happened (been hosting for 2 1/2 years, been lucky)  I may have to swallow it and move on, but I'll be better prepared next time. 

[Tony134]

@Robbie54 The part of this that annoys me is the following 'I would have requested she pay for the extra guests, but was afraid of review retaliation.' You have been around the block enough times to know how this works, the system isn't designed in your favor. Once a guest breaks house rules or any terms of service, they shouldn't be able to leave a review, period. They are already abusing the host or home and then even MORE leverage is given to them essentially. It's silly.

Everyone experiencing these kind of issues should stay active and loud in one place. Please leave feedback on the forum post before if you are experiencing stuff like this.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-to-Start-Fixing-Airbnb-CS-and-Many-Common-Issues/m-p...

[Paul154]

@Robbie54

I'm sorry this happened to you. Think of it as a learning experience.

You must control your property.

You have to know who is coming in and out. You must be prepared to cancel the reservation immediately

when they break your rules.

If you break your own rules (not charging for extra bedding), you are saying to your guest that rules are not important.

If you waive your rules, you waive your rights.

Good luck in the future.