number of guests

[Rebecca735]

I have just had a guest who had booked himself - no other guests - to stay for 2 nights to attend a local wedding.  My cleaner is there at the moment and says the house has vey clearly been occupied by more than one guest and from the look of things more than the maximum of 4 that it can accomodate.  I am new to Airbnb hosting and am not sure what to do - is there any standard procedure to follow this up?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[Ricardo85]

@Rebecca735

Contact Airbnb. They will know what to do.

Mention "Terms of Service item 8.3.3"

"8.3.3 You may not bring any additional individuals to an Experience, Event or other Host Service unless such an individual was added by you as an additional guest during the booking process on the Airbnb Platform."

Ricardo

[Rebecca735]

Obrigado Ricardo - that really helps! I have just discovered there are breakages too - I will pursue it further.

Rebecca 

[John1080]

@Rebecca735, going forward, if it is legal in your area, I would consider installing an external security camera to be able to monitor whether guests break the rules with regards to the number of guests or bringing in pets, etc. This can be a great way to not only monitor, but also provide evidence in the case that you need to make a claim to Airbnb or file a criminal or civil complaint. Of course, make sure you disclose to guests any cameras in use on your property. 

[Rebecca735]

Hi John,

thank you for your message. - I really appreciate your input.  Our place is just a cosy little cottage in a tiny village that I hoped wouldn't attract the sort of people that would need monitoring with cameras, etc but you're absolutely right - if that's what it takes then we'll have to consider it.  We're very new to this - this particular guest was just our 4th - so its early days and the other guests we've had so far have been delightful - I'm rather hoping this was a one off.  I hope too that your suggestion wasn't prompted by bad experiences you have had!

Rebecca  

[John1080]

@Rebecca735, I know what you mean. We all hate to have to make a big deal out of security or monitoring our guests, but I view it as a preventive measure more than anything. Since we host remotely, we find the camera helpful, although we've never had any serious issues and often times do not even view any of the footage. 

However, I do like having it just in case we do discover something is missing later, if someone were to try to bring in a pet, etc. In that case, we would have more proof if, in the rare instance that we may have to bring a claim.

It's more peace of mind than anything. 

[Niel3]

The AirBNB booking interface does default to one guest and can sometimes be missed by people thinking they are booking the 'space' regardless of how many guests (not necesarily deliberately trying to deceive).

I always follow up bookings as soon as they come through (asap anyway) with a thank you message which starts off with "Thanks for your booking on xxth Month 2018 for x guests to stay x nights". This has never failed to prompt folk who have accidentally booked one person instead of more to respond and let me know so I can amend the booking before they arrive.

[Emilia42]

@Rebecca, whenever I get an instant booking for 1 guest I always confirm this with them when I send my initial "thanks for booking" message. Most of the time this is an oversight since Airbnb always defaults to "one" when searching. If the guest comes back to indicate there will be more then I will update the reservation and ask them to "accept" the change (which they will get prompted to do so through an Airbnb generated massage.) 

[Alon1]

Rebecca,

Two points.

Firstly, Emilia referred to 'Instant Book', but you don't use it, therefore you should be easily able to address the number of guests before 'accepting' a reservation request.

 Indeed, I have never used Instant Book for a variety of reasons, this being one of them. And I am always sure to check numbers, and if necessary site Airbnb Host Guarantee as dependent on the correct numberes entered.

Secondly, it's not clear to me how  you conduct Check-In? Whoever does it, you, the cleaner, or another designated person, can obviously count the numbers to match with the booking.

In short, you should be able to deal with this issue without any problem.