My guest brought a child

Janeen5
Level 2
Minneapolis, MN

My guest brought a child

So we had guests book yesterday for four days beginning today. They've been good to communicate & the reviews I read were good. I didn't check the kind of reviews they leave. They came with a child which is fine, we have a very kid friendly home, however I was only told they're were two people coming & the child makes three. The girl is clearly over two. I'm frustrated because they should be paying an extra $100 for the 4 nights they'll be here. Also we could've had someone else book with more people. We can sleep 6 comfortably. What do I do? How do I avoid this in the future? I'm thinking let it go but be smarter next time & leave them a message... This is one more bed to wash & kids are messier than adults. Advise please!

7 Replies 7
Gregory87
Level 10
Minneapolis, MN

Greetings @Janeen5!  Good to see another Twin Cities host.

 

In order to avoid this situation, I include the following statement in the welcome message to guests:

"Your reservation indicates that there will be [# guests] occupying the rental.  We already have you (profile name) listed as one of the guests.  In preparation for your stay, please provide the first and last names of all overnight guests.  This includes relatives and/or friends (adults and children) who may stay for only a night or two.  We must know specifically who is residing in the premises due to insurance regulations and safety/security practices."

 

Once that information is provided, I require guests to adjust the reservation if necessary.  Hope this helps.

 

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing this. I'll be adding this to my messages. I'm so thankful I found the discussion boards!

Nannette8
Level 2
New York, NY

Do we have to accept children?  My house is not child proof/friendly.

@Nannette8   My place is not child-proof and I do not allow children.

Zappa0
Level 10
Key West, FL

When guests do this, I tell them up front that you put for two but there are three and it is an extra charge. If they make a fuss, maybe come down a little on the price as a courtesy but otherwise make them pay. 

@Janeen5 What Zappa said.

 

I think in situations like this, guests convince themselves that it's not that big a deal bringing an extra guest in order to justify saving some money or maybe they just think a 2 year old doesn't really count as a guest. The bottom line is that you opened up your home to strangers and they were not transparent with you. It might do you well to remind the guests that Airbnb insurance will not protect any guests who are not apart of the reservation should anything happen. This way it's less personal and more of a liability concern. Although I can't speak on how true Airbnb commits to this, you will be at least backed up by Airbnb by a rep if needed. A similar situation happend with one of my guests. As soon as I was aware of the extra guests, I collected proof, informed my guest that she was breaking my house rule, and also would be breaking the law if her guest stay overnight according to my city's tenant limited lodging laws. I told her I would need her to update her reservation with her guest's name, sent her a resolution charge and if she did not agree that she would need to cancel the rest of her reservation. She promptly apoligized, would not answer my question about the guest's name after multiple requests and I simply had an Airbnb rep collect it for me. I didn't really think that was necessary and didn't mind that she had an extra overnight guest but god forbid anything happened, I would have shot myself in the foot for not being firm with her.

Ho avuto la stessa esperienza lo scorso agosto: il mio ospite ha prenotato (e pagato) per 2 ma hanno con loro la figlia di 9 anni; Avevo pensato che fosse un errore involontario, quindi, dato che la settimana che avevano prenotato era piuttosto espansiva, accettai la cosa. But, as  at the end I had  the doubt they could do this usually, I wrote in the public feedback what was happened, saying "surely for a mistake they booked for 2 instead for three".