Reservation is made for 1 adult. But guests are two adults.

[Daniela1042]

Hello,

Reservation is made for 1 adult. But guests are two adults. I requested an additional fee for the second guest.

Here's his answer:

"When I booked the room it said 2 guests on the page. I also did not take a shower in the morning so We didn’t even use enough water for two people. We are both college students and were put in a situation where we had no choice to stay at your air bnb, and money was already tight then. I apologize if things I misunderstood something I just don’t have the extra money to pay more, the amount I paid has already made it difficult to get food this month. I am at your mercy on this, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could understand and I will give you a stellar rating. Thank you"

I think this is incorrect. I felt cheated. Airbnb intervened and I received the fee for the second guest. As a result, I received a very bad rating from the guest.

How should I act in such situations?

Daniela

[Ava30]

Hi  @Daniela1042 I would think you could get the review removed on the basis of the guest basically attempting extortion in order to give you a "stellar review" in exchange for you not getting paid your due. This is against Airbnb Terms of Service. Hopefully they messaged this via the Airbnb messaging platform. If they did not, you will have to send them a screen shot of the message. That may or may not be good enough, depending on whom you are dealing with. Get ahold of Customer Service and make them aware of the issue. The information regarding their policy on extortion is here  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/548/what-is-airbnb-s-extortion-policy?locale=en

I know many hosts may say to call and that is your choice. Personally, I have had more issues taken care of ty MY satisfaction by going through the online messaging system. You start here  https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us   Good Luck, this is NOT okay!

[Sandra856]

@Daniela1042 @I agree with@Ava30. Call airbnb ASAP. I'm sorry you had to have this experience! 

[Daniela1042]

Thank you.

[Daniela1042]

Thank you very much.

[Robin4]

@Daniela1042 @Rebecca181 @Kath9 @Sandra856 @Ava30

I am so sorry that this has happened to you Daniela and there is no doubt that Dusten's review is a revenge review but, he has worded it in such a way that it will be difficult for Airbnb to remove! Everything he states is his perception of the experience....he has found things to criticize and nothing to praise. He was not happy with small soaps, kitchen use not available (although you do state that in your description), no bedroom tv and so on. He hasn't defamed you or mentioned anything untrue.....just that he wasn't happy with it .....and Airbnb won't remove reviews because one party or the other just were not happy with the experience!

Unfortunately Daniela, the world is full of people who want something for nothing and you have to make a decision at the time.....is this worth making an issue over.

If I had been in your position I would have just sucked it up with the extra guest and ended up with a good review. That would have been far more important to me than an extra couple of dollars at the time!

I did have that situation two weeks ago which I actually started a thread on here! A guest booked for two people in my listing which will accommodate three max and four with a pinch, and she turned up here with five!!

I accommodated them, they were extremely appreciative, left a day early because of work committments but did not want a refund and they gave me a 5 star review. Daniela, we were all winners........ and at times you do need to consider that.....how do you become a winner.

We are hosts and we need to consider that at times we are going to have to bend a bit to achieve our aim....make a bit of money!

Cheers.......Rob

Edit: Daniela, guests perceive things by what they see. Best not to include photos of things that are not available. You show a few kitchen photos and yet you say in your listing description the kitchen is not available for use! Guests are notorious for not reading house rules and if they see kitchen photos you can bet they will expect to be able to use it! If kitchen use is an issue, don't show photos of it!

[Daniela1042]

Maybe you are right. But will a service create a joint and a subsequent reservation? Is not this a bribe?

What review did you place on the site described above?

[Daniela1042]

I love money, but not at all costs.
Correctness, fairness, respect. This is my home.
The money is after that.

[Robin4]

@Daniela1042

The unfortunate thing about the Community Centre is, it will tell you how many posts you have contributed but, it will not give you access to individual past posts like most other forum sites. You can't compile a personal library of past activity and the time involved in wading back through past pages in order to find a post or a thread is prohibitive. 

I have forgoten the thread line now so I can't direct you to it Daniela but simply I had a guest book in Sept 2018 for 2 adults to stay at the end of December. It was just an IB with a short message.."Coming for a wedding, can't wait to stay"! Three months after she booked for 2 adults she sent a message saying.."I hope I booked for the kids, if I didn't we can all sleep in the one bed" ....I should have cancelled at that point but, I let it go and said I would supply the other bed made up for the children! I don't want to compromise the standard of what I do and I am not going to have 5 stay in one bed! At this point Daniela the stay is less than 10 days away in the height of our busy summer season here....what do I do, stand on my 'Correctness, fairness, respect" (as you put it) principal and tell them to find something else? I had every right to, or at least enforce an extra charge (which I do state for extra guests after 2) but I let it go, the extra work was minimal and, it doesn't happen often. In the great scheme of things Daniela, it wasn't a big deal!

30 hours before she, her husband and two children were due to arrive she sent another message saying "My elder nephew had nowhere to stay, would it be alright if he just sleeps on the floor, could you just provide another pillow, we will pay extra"?

Ok, now we do have a problem because there is no way 5 are going to be a comfortable fit in my studio for 2! Come review time she won't remember she booked for 2 and turned up with 5 and I did my best to accommodate them! She will just remember it was squeezy and did not suit their needs....I knew I had a problem. But once again I set up a good quality camp bed, we changed the configuration of the space around a bit....... and they arrived.

They turned out to be nice people who just got caught out by circumstance, and were so appreciative that we had made the effort to help them. They paid for 4 days, but work committments saw them leave after 3, but would not hear of a partial refund for the 4th night, they were so happy that it went off seemlessly. 

Daniela, I got the amount of money I would have required for that stay had the number of guests been declared at the time of booking, financially, for me it was a good hosting. The cottage was respected and left in great condition and I got a good 5 star review. The guest left happy, I looked good and just as importantly Airbnb looked good....it was a win/win all round.

You came here because you felt cheated Daniela....and I am not arguing with you....you were!

But that's not the point! By crossing T's and dotting I's  you have ended up with a bad review which will have an impact on you for a considerable time into the future. Was it worth it?

You asked...."How should I act in such situations?" ........and I just told you how I would have!

Cheers......Rob

[Robin4]

@Daniela1042

Yes maybe it is a bribe, but almost all my reservations come because of my reviews. Guests all say "we like the look of your listing and your lovely reviews". For bricks and mortar appeal my listing would fall in the bottom 20% of self contained spaces....I don't have a plunge pool or an endless swimmer outside the door like many listings in Indonesia that are half the nightly rate of my listing. I don't have a dishwasher in the kitchenette bench! I don't have an 18 hole golf course bordering the property....I list a rustic cottage in a country town and there is very little here to attract overseas tourists, but I am consistently in the top 5% for booking occupancy in my general area and more than 50% of those are overseas tourists. Each month ends up fully booked and it is the reviews that do that Daniela.

If you don't believe me let a guest find an unattached hair in the bed which they go on to mention in the review and see what happens to your future bookings....they will collapse.

Good reviews are very important and hosts must learn to be adaptable to get those good reviews!

Cheers......Rob

[Daniela1042]

Rob, thank you very much for the advice and recommendations.

[Rebecca181]

@Daniela1042 - @Robin4 makes a good point and I neglected to add that sometimes we hosts need to weigh the pros and cons and suck it up and let things go - Depending on our own limits and what the guest's grievance or offence is.

For example, I had a family book the Eclipse weekend here in Oregon (most of our region was sold out); the next day another family shows up supposedly to 'visit' but they had actually planned to stay overnight and not pay, counting on my being a 'nice' person who would never kick them out when they said they were 'too tired to drive all the way back home (the children let it slip that it had been their plan to stay all along). 

So I agreed that the extra five people, plus infant and dog (I do not accept dogs) could stay; however, only on the condition that they pay me for the privilege. I helped the guy get registered with Airbnb (boy was he sweating and squirming), and then charged him less than half of what I could have gotten, given this was an 'event' weekend the entire world was watching - only because I liked the children and wanted to put an end to this most uncomfortable matter (the children witnessing their own parents' deceit). 

So that is a prime example of the on-the-spot decisions we must make as hosts. The longer you host, the clearer these decisions will become. 

[Daniela1042]

Can I ask what rating you gave them?

[Rebecca181]

@Daniela1042 Definitely call Airbnb support and tell them this review is retaliatory in nature and needs to be removed. Don't accept "no" for an answer. Or, "we don't have the ability to do that in support". Support DOES have this ability (I myself had such a review removed). If the person you reached can't or won't help you, hang up and call again. Call at 1 am if you need to, you might get just the right person to help you then. Or contact @airbnbhelp over at Twitter (send them a message); they have helped many hosts when phone support seemingly was not able to. Best of luck!

[Daniela1042]

Thank you very much!