extra guest without informing - what's a fair review?

Sharona-and-Gabi0
Level 3
Rehovot, Israel

extra guest without informing - what's a fair review?

Hello fellow hosts. I’ve been following this forum since we’ve started hosting last February and learned a lot from your experiences. We are now superhosts with impeccable reviews from wonderful guests but today we need extra help.

We currently have a family who booked our place for 2 adults and 2 infants for 14 nights. We accepted the infants free of charge, in accordance with Airbnb guidelines. On arrival there were three adults with two infants and we were told that the grandma came only to help bathe the two babies.

Three days passed, during which we saw all three adults present on the premises -  early mornings and late evenings. We felt very uneasy and after a long debate between ourselves decided this morning to send a message through Airbnb, asking whether the grandmother stays with them, and if so -  that we’d like to talk to them.
After a while they came to us (we live upstairs) and said that the grandmother was indeed staying with them until now (three nights) but she will be leaving tonight and might want to stay another day or two later. We said it’s OK with us but our house rules state clearly that every guest should be mentioned when booking and that there’s an extra fee for each person after the first two guests.
They said there was no problem and that they would like to pay for the extra person towards the end of their stay. We agreed to that.

Now, after this long story was told, and assuming that they’ll pay the extra charge, I’m curious: should we mention this issue on their public review? Something like: “There was an issue with one of our house rules, but the matter was cleared up.”
Or - should we mention this only to Airbnb when asked if we want to say something discretely about the guests.
Or - we should not mention it at all and give them a good review.

 

Which of these three options would be most fair to the guests and to future hosts?

 

They look like nice people and have good reviews but we think it would have been decent to come to us and mention their change in plans rather than let us feel uneasy for 3 days and finally approach them.

16 Replies 16

@Jessica-and-Henry0. You are absolutely right. There is no way to tell ourselves a nicer story. Grandma probably wanted to save a few bucks but didn't take into account that her daughter might pay the price with less than a perfect review. We feel sorry for this breach of trust that puts us in an uneasy situation. 

As I wrote before, I'm glad we have time to know our guests better and make a true and fair decision. 

Thanks again. 

 

Hi @Donald28. This is quite interesting. I wouldn't expect Airbnb to pay out of their pocket for an unauthorized guest and wonder if it happened to other hosts as well. 

Now, my question to you is: did you mention the extra person on the review you gave your guests?

Thank you for sharing your story.