Guests Sneaking In Extra People

[Monica4]

I've been hosting for four years and I've "had it" with dishonest guests who sneak in extra people. I am so furious every time I walk in after guests leave and find evidence of extra people other than those that booked. 

I have a "welcome table" set up with maps, restaurant menus, guidebooks, flyers...etc and also a written house manual. At the very top of the manual I have the following statement:

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Please respect our rate schedule so that we can keep the base price low for the first two guests. Additional guests after the first two people, including children, are required to pay $25/night per person anywhere on the property, whether or not that person shares a bed, sleeps on top of a bed, on the couch or on the floor. Minimum booking nights apply.

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This has not stopped people getting snuck in. I want to add the words: Sneaking in Extra People is Theft and will be treated as such. Too harsh? I have also ordered a security camera which will be installed this week. I made note of that in my rules.

[Allison2]

The resolution for the first unauthorized guest was during his stay. At checkout we saw he'd brought yet another person, so that request was sent just after checkout. (That's 6 people in a 400sf suite meant for 4 max!)

I did get paid. (I wouldn't have let them stay the second night if he'd argued about it.) I do have a security deposit, but the fee wasn't paid out of that.

Opening the request definitely affected the rating the guest gave me. I gave the same attention to prepping and hosting that usually earns 5* across the board. His review was retaliatory; he gave me 3 stars, marking me down on value (because I have a high per person charge for going over my occupancy limit) and acted like the fuse he blew was a whole-day outage, not the literally 10 minutes between when he informed me and it was fixed.

[Melody22]

I have had the same problem and I got totally burned by Airbnb. My outdoor security cam (which was documented and guests have to acknowledge before they send a request) showed more guests. I emailed the guests and after some back and forth she paid, but then she reported me to Airbnb as if I did something wrong with having the cameras. Airbnb suspended my account while they "conducted an investigation" which was total bs because I was in compliance. She left a negative review saying I had cameras "throughout the house" which was again, another lie. My account was left suspended for 10 days. It was a real nightmare. If it happens again I don't know what I will do because it didn't seem worth the extra money but it makes me so angry when guests break the rules like that, and then hosts are punished. And btw I think I only got paid because the guest just went ahead and paid; in the past when it has happened if the guest didn't voluntarily pay, then Airbnb doesn't force them to. That has been my crappy experience with this situation. 

[Dimi657]

Same exact thing happened to me.... i am so upset how AIRBNB case manager treated me... she didn't even understand how much she was offensive to me by making me writing the security statement  that was exactly the same. I wish their process to file a complaint against the case manager would be transparent and supportive of honest Hosts like us instead of treating us as criminals for trying to protect our homes. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Allison2 

I just had my first attempted sneak-in. 

Fortunately and largely due to your advice I think I might have sorted it out.

So long as you have an extra person charge and photo evidence they ought to rule on your behalf.

Extra Person Charge: I don't want extra persons, so I set a detterent extra person charge of £100 per extra person per night over 8 people. 

House Rules: I stated No Unauthorised guests.

The group arrived in 3 smaller groups, the last group was almost unseen but we saw that they made a group of 9. We allowed them to stay as we were uncertain whether one or more guest might leave to go elsewhere, but in the morning there were still 9. They walked off from our place so I shot a short video showing the 9 people.

The Airbnb advice in this situation going via 'Help' in the guest booking was to make a booking change instead of a resolution request, so rather than just send a booking request I contacted the guest via AirBnb message system, appologised that I was the bearer of bad news and that because they were a group of 9 they had an unauthorised guest and we did not allow unauthorised guests. I advised that AirBnb's advice in this situation was to send a booking change and "did they want me to book one unauthorised guest for one night or for two to include the forthcoming night? If two, there was additional bedding in the wardrobe." 

We have no extra bed but guessed the guest slept on a sofa.

The guest replied to say they knew about the extra guest and possible charges, the guest surprised them with his arrival, but they didn't know what to do so tried to hide him. They agreed to the extra charges.

It's just a pity that they tried to hide the additional guest.

Edit: First hurdle... I can't make a 'booking change' as I am at maximum occupancy and cannot +Add extra guests dispite the listed charges. @Allison2 You were right!! Payment request sent !

[Addison18]

Then you had better hope you have given notice that you are recording them or you are in complete violation of their 4th amendment rights. 

[Kenneth12]

@Will84 :  I called Superhost priority support for such an incident earlier tonight,  got a person in 30 seconds,  and they said if the guest did it again they would cancel with cost to the guest.

[Helen3]

How come you don't find out until your guests leave?

Don't you check your guests in or have a local manager do this?

If you aren't doing this (and I recommend you do) at the very least have CCTV so you can monitor who goes in and out.

You can then call guests on this if they break your house rules on this.

[Monica4]

@Helen3I live diagonally across the road so I can monitor who goes in and out to some extent but I am not home all the time. My listings is business ready so I have to give access 24/7 and I do that with keyless entry. I usually do not meet my guests unless they wish to meet me. I have found that there are people who want privacy rather than the socialization that is necessary at the B&B in town. So it is part of my "market niche".

However, every time someone has booked I notify them that I live across the road. Obviously the extra people come when I am not around or when it is dark outside. This would happen even if I check the guests in personally. In one case, that I caught red-handed, the extra person was living in the next town and came later to stay.

[Monica4]

I would also like to add that Airbnb is not very supportive concerning this problem. I would like to be able to tell my guests that if they are caught sneaking in extra people the reservation will be terminated immediately without a refund. But that is an empty threat because, of course, Airbnb would not let me do that.

[Allison2]

Really? I consider unauthorized guests right up there with someone telling me off - it's in my short list of egregious actions I'll boot someone over. Stated as such in my house rules because I think it's indicative of poor character.

I thought they were supposed to back us on anything we have in our house rules?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Monica4 well, I contacted Airbnb once bc of that metter and been told that sneaking extra guests is violation of my house rules and I can cancel their stay without penalties for me.

security camera is smart thing to do , I also intend to instal one.

Maybe you could rise your base price and lower the extra people price. For example our price for 2 is 50€ and for extra people 10€

We always prepare as much beds as the number of people we expect. On other beds there is just waterproof sheet and decorative cover and we do not leave extra towels. But of course, if someone is sneaking in he can sleep on the protective sheet (not very comfortable), use cover as blanket, use decorative pillows for sleeping , bring his own towels and save 10€ per night. But if we meet him there the whole group will be kicked out and that's the risk they should consider. 

[Jim-and-David0]

If you put a rule about sneaking guest then you have cause to cancel the reservation and still collect some of the monies. Per Airbnb if a guest breaks any house rules you can cancel the reservation 

Let's say it's a reservation for 2 days and the guest breaks one of the house rules. You will get paid for that night and half for the following night.

[Susan241]

If they break the terms you can evict them. At least other companies will. I think if you can prove other guests stayed there AIRBNB should have a policy whereas they pay you (via guest credit card) as much money per guest as you want plus an additional cleaning fee and another security dep. For a $200 investment of a camera u can prove they were there.  Then let the orig guest deal with if it was worth inviting her friends. 

[Veronica416]

Hello, This is a double edge sword. I understand exactly what you are explaining. I live 300 miles away from my property and have a camera monitoring persons in and out. I added to my houserules that all guests seen entering will be charged $10 per night for the duration of the stay even if they don’t spend the night. There are plenty of people who book without reading the rules so I also include it on the welcome message. If they still want to bring the extra people, i have them on camera and simply wait until they leave to submit the request for the extra guests. I dont want them to retaliate and trash my home. Since there is no doubt, camera footage is available, Airbnb Will pay you 100% Of the time. But you most likely Will receive a bad rating. Hence the Double Edge sword. 

[Melody22]

Not the case with me. Airbnb just tells me to send the people a money request and if those people don't pay, Airbnb never enforced it. They even suspenseded my acct when the people complained about my security camera that caught them (even though I document the camera in the listing and they have to acknowledge it when the do a request). SO Frustrating.