More Guests Than Stated

[Krista62]

Hello there,

We are looking for ideas/ advice before we make a move.

Our last guest group booked a reservation for 7 people.  Our house rules state that each guest exceeding 6 people, must pay a per night surcharge to a maximum capacity of 8 people.  Our camera  (outside surveilling property and disclosed) caught 10 people outside.  So

1) the group lied about number of guests, 

2) they exceeded the maximum capacity we are comfortable hosting in the space.

What should our next move be (we wrote to airbnb but haven't heard back from them)?   Do we message the guests and show them the photo?  Do we attempt to request the additional funds for the extra guest surcharge?  Is is likely, in your experience, that the guest may just become angered and deny that the guests were indeed spending the night? How does Airbnb support the host with these claims?  Will they likely write us a poor review with no truth/ validity because the?  We really do not want a poor, bogus review to affect our superhost status.

Please advise us.

Thank you!

[Dale711]

Hi @Krista62 

Is it frustrating, right?

If you do not want the revenge review and do not want to lose the super host statue, you have no choice just to let it go. The Airbnb review system is out of your hand!

Anything you can't control, you may be letting it go and move forward.

You can always request the guest money related to the trip thought  to the resolution center.

What is a resolution center?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/767/what-is-the-resolution-center

It's essential, to following the claim procedures, present the evidence to Airbnb in the resolution center.

Red flag the guest profile and report the guest to Airbnb if you decided to take the further  actions.

[Grace851]

More and more people doing this because lots of owners not put on their reviews. I hope more owners stand up for principles.

[Mary996]

@Krista62 Hi. I would leave a message for Airbnb - by way of notification - saying that after the Review period has closed you intend to claim for the additional Guests who stayed.

[Grace851]

@Mary996 Can we do this?---after the Review period has closed claim for the additional Guests who stayed.

Thank you!

[Claire2428]

I got £ from the site when a young man stuck a girl back then refused to pay when I told him to and then the sent a long email to me telling me how out of order I was! His email admitted his deception so he fell on his own sword. He got a scathing review. All Comms through the site and I've got a Blink doorbell which records all visitors, both are a must for this business to protect yourself from chancers.

[Laura2592]

@Krista62 I would look at this in terms of cost. How much are you losing our $$ on vs how much will it cost if your guests tank your rating because you confronted them?

I absolutely can't stand when people disrespect our rules about guest capacity. Its not that we charge a lot for extras, but I implemented an extra charge over 2 people because so few guests paid attention to  our limits. 10 people have the potential for a lot of clean up.

If it were me, and the place was left in OK condition, I would probably not charge them the extra and just leave a very appropriate review.

"So and so was friendly. We had some issues with following house rules in terms of bringing unregistered guests to our space in excess of our occupancy limit.  The house was left in decent condition (or extra clean up was required, whichever is true.) We would not be comfortable hosting this group again due to our maximum occupancy and lack of communication about the actual number of guests. We wish them the best."

I probably would not send them any photos because it would be very easy for the guests to say "I am uncomfortable! They surveilled me!" in retailation, prompting an ABB "investigation" and temp pulling of your listing.

[Ann783]

.@Laura2592 I like your sample review. I had this happen - unregistered guests. Spoke to the guest and they paid the extra fees. I'm leaning towards not reviewing them. Cottage was left clean but loads of laundry - used up all linens - including baby stuff. My guest is a party. I would not host them again but they weren't the worst guests I've had and no damage. 

[Laura2592]

@Ann783 I would still review. As a host I want to know if someone did this. If anyone brings extra guests to my space they get below 3s in all categories as I am very clear on our capacity in our listing and all messages. And they did not follow rules, there was definitely extra clean up and laundering of towels and bedding than what was expected, plus they did not communicate the actual number of people staying or ask about what that would entail.  I want them knocked out of being able to IB for hosts that have that, and my forward facing review will be some version of the above, though less harsh if they left the place clean enough. This is a service to other hosts to know to verify early and often how many will be staying and  that this guest has the tendency to bring others and not disclose. That is my number one pet peeve and I will happily refuse bookings of those who have that tendency. I see these as poor guests looking to cram a bunch of people into a space with the ever present threat of a bad review for a host who never signed up to offer that in the first place. 

[Fernando1561]

If you make the claim for 1 more guest, Guests  are going to leave you a bad review and the saddest thing in the story is that airbnb sponsors that and many times they do not accept the claim because Guests dont want to pay

Be very careful with the cameras because for airbn that is prohibited, even if they are outside to keep everyone safety, for airbnb it is an invasion of privacy, even if they are outside, they can block your account, it happened to me, THAT IS A TOPIC THAT AIRBNB MUST BE CLEARER and remember that in priority the host is the last place.

[Christine615]

Ask for the additional payment in the resolution center. Immediately tell them the guests over the max should leave or the entire reservation will be cancelled with no refund. When they book a place, they agree to the stated rules. No exceptions.

Cameras are a godsend!

[Ann783]

I'm with @Christine615 on this one. I would ask nicely first - perhaps it was an oversight or a few friends stopped by. I would absolutely request the extra money. Why have the capacity rules and extra fees if you are not going to enforce it?  

[Kelly149 · Accepted solution]

Capacity is a problem that is best handled BEFORE the guests cross your threshold! These are some of the things I've been told about capacity over the years:

~What do you mean I can't invite friends over, that's what an ABB is for?!

~They aren't staying the night, they're just here to visit awhile!

~How about we don't count my five kids as guests?

~We don't mind that there are only beds for 8, we'll bring our own air mattresses for the others.

~I've rented the space, how rude that you'd try to tell me what I can/can't do with it!

~We'll have 4 the first night, 6 the second night and then some will leave and we'll have a different 4 the last night.

~I haven't decided about the guest count yet, we'll see if some of our kids want to come stay with us after we arrive.

Some of these are a problem of thinking your ABB is like a hotel, some of these are a problem of thinking that your ABB is like their house. Unfortunately, once you've gotten to where you are (the extras have come and gone) the best financial move is to say nothing and give them a bad review. What you likely need to do going forward is include some things like:

- getting names for every guest

-specifying that the guest count is real and can't be increased willy-nilly

-blame this occupancy limit on city or insurance or cleaners or some reason

-disallow "visitors" of any type for any duration. They're either included in the reservation or they aren't.

But no matter how well you word it, it will still continue to be something that you will need to monitor and deal with because the % of guests who are shady or clueless is not nothing.

[Claire2428]

I'm new to hosting but not to guesting. My shock is that people treat my house like a hotel or their house, not respectfully like my home. This is a lesson in obscure human behaviour 😁🤔

[Fiza1]

I ask for IDs for all guests prior to check-in - this helps with a lot of things including guests being snuck in.

It's really difficult to ask for extra $$$ and still get a good review, so I would probably wait until after they check out and clearly state that they broke the house rules and snuck someone in. It's the only right thing to do for hosts like me who want to weed out these jerks!