@Anonymous
Well, please pardon the "classist" Terminology, but we're more or less at the bottom of our pricing from November through February. And I can assure you, we field some of the most unbelievable booking requests in that time. They're only interested in the cheapest price. And they'll deliberately misrepresent their intentions to get it.
We're a somewhat large villa. Sleeps 8 comfortably, can sleep 12, but we're only licenced for 8.
In the winter, we charge on a per person basis, be sure it's rare that we can fill the villa with 8 pax in that season, typically only 2-4. If we priced for 8npax capacity, we miss the main market in that season. And I can say with absolute certainty, that hosting 8 is far more expensive than 2. More rooms to heat, more cleaning and laundry, and couples tend to go to bed at 10 or 11, while groups of 4 or more tend to stay up till the wee hours.
So, we get many inquiries, booking for 2, and after some dialogue, we sense or outwardly discover, they're intending to book for 2, and bring 6 or 7, figuring they can just use the other bedrooms for free.
But we learned our lesson the hard way, and now the bedrooms have locks.
Anyway, we spend a lot of time vetting guests in the off season. Because that's when the price pirates come out (is that a better term?)