guests cheat numbers of persons

[Lou-and-TT0]

I am a host and have such situations. Guests booked less than the persons actually come. They come as groups. Normally one car is not arrived by the time of check in. I leave the entire house to them after the check in. However, I can tell that the guests cheated. The car did not show up might have more than persons they booked. Because they use every bed and a lot of towels, more than the numbers of guests. Since I set up the price by numbers of guests. They book less than the actual persons who come. One time, the guest who booked did not read my text. He booked 2 but came as 5 persons while I was at the house for the check in. In fact he did not show up when the group checked in, I suspected that his car might have had more than himself. I was OK at least he later he accepted and paid 6 guests instead of 2. I know many hosts might not at their houses at all for the check in. how do you control such a sitution that guests book less numbers of persons who actually stay at your house? 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Lou-and-TT0

You are never going to beat it all the time, but if it's really happying to so that regularly then here are a couple of things you could consider doing.

1/ Lock any additional bedroom doors that should not be used

2/ Say you need to pop back to drop in some (more towels, toilet tissue, or whatever) and will pop by tomorrow - you could then go in the in evening when people are more likely to be in

3/ Install a security camera at the front door. Doesnt even need to be a working one, But make it clear that there is a security camera at the front and rear of the property but not internally.

4/ Change you policy to say that you need to take reference of id for all guests when they arrive (passport, ID card, driving licence etc

Any more....ideas?

[Jann3]

I love all of these suggestions @Gerry-And-Rashid0!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lou-and-TT0

we prepare exact number of beds as people booked. Other beds we leave with just waterproof sheet and decorate cover. We also leave exact number of towels . We are allways on check in and take photo ID of everyone in a group.

Of course sometimes we notice that some extra beds are used with decorative pillows but until we install security camera there is no way we can prove it. But it doesn't happend often bc we charge just 10€ for extra people and fresh linens and towels are worth it 🙂

[Lou-and-TT0]

Thanks for sharing. Good ideas.

[Maureen91]

Yes I have had this happen as well. One car later becomes two or three.

[David126]

Simple solution is to charge for the property not how many are in it.

If I rent a car they do not ask how many passengers I will have.

I have not rented a whole property for sometime, but it was always per property when I did. 

[Lou-and-TT0]

In that way, a group of less guests will not book. We found out that many houses where set up this way do not have many bookings as we do. 

[David126]

Only you can decide how much this is going to bug you, you can do certain things that have been mentioned, but are you going to be watching the CCTV all evening trying to work out how many are in there?

If you want to give a discount for reduced occupancy then this will happen, you might be able to reduce how often it happens.

[Monica4]

It is important that you state something in the rules, like I do:

......Driveways and entrances are monitored. Only guests who are included in the booking are permitted to stay overnight anywhere on the property. Children that are of walking age must be counted as over 2 years old when booking, not as infants. Minimum stay applies to all guests. Changeover of guests during your stay is not permitted.......

If you do not have a security camera and suspect that there are more people than booked, do not be shy to knock on the door with a bag of paper towels and say that you forgot to supply them. If it is obvious that there are more people at that point ask the extra people to leave immediately, confirm this through Airbnb's message system and notify Airbnb.  Sneaking in extra people is theft. If there is a problem, call the police and notify Airbnb. 

[Tze0]

I have similar incidences. They were caught red handed but they refused to pay. I involved AirB&B but there has been no response. I feel that AirB&B does not really care about this matter. They earn more from guests than from hosts so they side with the guests; in my case. Is there really nothign we hosts can do except to capture these behaviour through CCTV? I hava had that images and the guest lie through it! AirB&B does not do anything!

[Rewal0]

This is a common thing in Miami also and as mentioned by other hosts, Airbnb doesn’t do anything to help. 

They book for two and come 4 and more. 

All the suggestions are good and valid but you will find really professional guests at doing this. You confront them and they tell you that those are friends just leaving in a while. 

You show them prove that they brought people to your property and still they don’t pay or want to pay. 

You contact Airbnb and they tell you they can not advice you on calling the police or not.

you close one room door and they break into and then say the door was like that when they arrive. 

You don’t prepare the other beds and they don’t care, they sleep on to of it and in the floor if necessary. 

You put cameras and they laugh at them because there is nothing you can do about since Airbnb won’t make them pay.