People showing up that’s not even on the booking!

Dustin25
Level 6
Pittsburgh, PA

People showing up that’s not even on the booking!

I have recently been having this issue over and over again about people booking the place for one guest and 7 do! Or sometimes even more. I get your booking said there is room for 8 but there are only 2 sets of towels “well you booked for one person so didn’t know there was going to be 8 of you!” That is what I feel like saying but I can’t I have to apologize and ask them how many towels do they need and they say 8 or 10 would be nice and I ask “how many people are there?” I had to invest in cameras to make sure they are who they say they are, which has happend I expect someone to be there and they booked it for someone that I could not contact or even verify that they could be there. I also had to invest in cameras to make sure they showed up with the right number. 

 

I understand things happen and you mess up the booking I have done it my self but out of the last 10 bookings 6 have had this issue for me. 

 

I am tired to rewriting my house rules and discriptions to say only geusts that are checked in are authorized and any additional guest will be charged for. I have also in my listing that there are cameras on the entrances to the house. People still lie and say they have fewer guests and I have to send pictures of them coming in the house to Airbnb, so they can have proof and just the number of people. 

 

I send them a message before their check in to confirm how many guests will be showing up. I pay special attention to guests that are brand new to Airbnb, about how many people they will be with them on the reservation.

 

I still get more people showing up in the original booking was for! 

 

Can anyone help me with what I need to do to get this to stop happening?

 

Thank you 

 

 

41 Replies 41
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Dustin25a few things immediately came to mind looking at your listing.

 

First, you are offering a place with a spectacular view for a mere $25  and saying it accomodates ~8~ though there are only 2 rooms and 1 bathroom. So your listings has 'big group on the cheap' written all over it. I trust you charge per guest, I couldn't tell if you do.

 

The upshot is that if 1 person books, you are under zero obligations to accept more than 1, unless you are in essence want to run an 'open house'.

 

Raise your base price (= better guests) and charge per guest and insist on guest telling you who is indeed coming, and if they don't, don't let them in, unless you want to.

 

 

 

Thank you Fred for letting me know that my rate was that low. I was playing around with my settings on my pad seeing what the tips were but I did not know that I changed them so thank you. Normaly the lowest I go is $65 a night for 2 guests agter that it's $20 more per guest. I live 9 minutes from the Football stadume, 7 from the baseball and the hocky rink is 18 min. away so on game days I get bookings for 8 people at a time.

 

I tried to keep my base price at $85 but I jsut was not getting any boookings when other people were so I lowerd them and that is when this started you are right.

 

I will from now on before I give them the code make sure I know who is coming. This guest I have right now did not get to the house untill the next day and told me I did not know how many people were going to be there. But before that she siad yeah its only 2 of use and then I see 5 people coming in the door. I wrote her back and asked her again and she said there were more I guess after she talked to them but that is very frusterating that she just gave out the code to peole that were not otherised by me to be at my home.

 

Thank you for your time and your information I will be impimenting that.

 

Dustin 

I understand further now. The sneaking in of unregistered guests is so frustrating, requiring constant vigilance. As if we hosts didn't have enough on our plate already.  Good luck.

You are right we do and monatering Video cameras at 2 in the morning is not what I want to do. I had to call airbnb 3 times becuse she could not give me the right count becuse she did not even know who the number of people there. now it is day 2 into their stay and the trip is half over and I am not sure if I will get my money because its over the $200 it is for her security deposet.

 

I have to get back to sleep now that they are not calling me becuse they locked themselfs out.

 

thank you agian for your time 

 

Dustin 

I believe you really have to be stern and tell your guests to put down who is staying!

You are only covered for the one's you see so I am strict on that!  I also live in my area of homes and I drive by and check cars and I also let them know that I live a block away!

Shaun12
Level 2
Bangkok, Thailand

Hi Dustin,

 

This happens to me ALL THE TIME. I think it would help to put clearly in the House Rules that "Please make sure to include the correct number of guests in the  reservation. Extra guests will be subject to an additional XXX charge."

 

I've had a booking for 16 people in my property that has a maximum of 20 people... yet the guest showed up with 26(!!!) guests. They obviously did not read my listing clearly where I stated that my property is staffed 24/7... They thought that they would come and get the key themselves and sneak all those people in without me knowing. 

Yeah the same thing happens to me they try to sneek the people in and I feel bad and try to aks them at the end and they refuse to pay so now I am left with kicking them out. They have a bad experince but they broke the rules not me. I can not do anything about it because they refused to pay for the people they let in. I am showing them on the cameras I have at the house and that there are more than they book and they say that was not them.

 

I think we need to make the guest reposable for what they do we as guest do.

 

Dustin 

Helga0
Level 10
Quimper, France

You can insist to get all names of guests in advance and only registered guests are allowed in.

this seems very dangerous to me, to accept guests with people in tow, that they just picked up during the match. Do they resell floor space?

 

I don’t think they resold the space for my guest I just upped their booking number and made them regester with me. It’s hard when people treat my house as if it’s hotel. They think they book so it’s theirs and that’s not the case. 

What is this level 1 level 6 level 10 as u are how is that calculated and decided. I am a level one been doing this over a year go above and beyond and feel like i am being taken advantage of at times.

I think it’s calculated by how much you communicate through this portal. I could be wrong but my level has been going up as I communicate more

Donald28
Level 10
Lithia Springs, GA

I have had that happen a few times. It seems that new airbnb users click 1 guest during the booking process instead of 4 or however many are really coming. They claim it was a newbie mistake. I feel like they are trying to circumvent the extra people fees. What I did in the past was to allow them to stay but called airbnb and was paid the extra people fees from airbnb. They'll probably not always do that but it's worth a shot. 

Tammy91
Level 5
Missouri City, TX

I'm new as a host. I am very cautious with who I host. I have learned to include some booking questions that guest must answer before booking goes thru. If I find that they have not answered my questions....such as how many in party, etc...I ask them to clarify. If they still can't answer the questions, I don't let them book. If they have already booked, I call Airbnb. I have found them to be helpful with this. Also, if I see guests live in my area, my first question to them is why book in same area in which they live. You can find out a LOT with this question. If they mention "me and friend", "me and girlfriend" and I see that they only booked for one, I inform them immediately that they must go in and change the reservation to reflect the amount of guests included in booking. It hasn't been an issue so far although I did cancel someone who ony paid for 1 but it was a party of 2 and he couldn't afford to change the number of guests. I have even gone as far as asking guests for their ID on arrival. I use digital locks, so if a guest showed up with additional guests, I would only let that guest check in. If I was gone and several people came into my house, I would wait until they all went out and change code on my locks and inform Airbnb immediately. 

 

I like your idea of camera on doors. I am getting a home security system installed next Friday and was debatng whether to get door cameras. You have made my decision easy.