When your guest lies on his booking

[Erica2299]

What do you do when your guest lies about the number of people he’s bringing on a booking 

[Elaine701 · Accepted solution]

@Erica2299 

I let them think they got away with it, but write it in their review.

In this way, you are likely to receive a glowing review from the guest, and avoid the retaliatory review complete with imaginary atrocities you committed against the guest. And the across the board 1* rating which will lower your ratings for years to come.

And the possibility of guest demanding refund and/or Airbnb suspending or delisting your listing for the imaginary atrocities you committed...

The guest, on the other hand, will have difficulty booking future Airbnbs (or will simply close their account and open a new one - to shed the bad review). 

In any case, whatever losses you had from the extra guests, you avoid far worse damage this way. 

[Emily2654]

I have guests staying currently who booked for 2 but 4 adults and 1 minor have shown up. They’ve already asked for extras if everything because we stocked for 2 people with extras for those booked. I haven’t said anything yet but I think I will take your approach and write it in their review so that they don’t try and retaliate with their review. 
  Thanks for this tidbit as we were struggling on what to do! Didn’t want to request that they pay more money because there’s no telling what they may do while still staying. They leave tmrw morning so hopefully they’ll be no issues btwn now and then

[Mary1523]

Sometimes guests are just not aware of the guest number increases the price. I think its worth having a nice conversation about it with them and test out their knowledge, whether they were deliberately flaunting which I don't believe they are because they asked for the extras! In my experience, if they were deliberately breaking the rules, they would not ask and would want to avoid any interaction with you!

If the conversation goes negative, then just leave it, but you just might find they will understand they have put you in a difficult situation, ie more costly if you approach it the right way. Even if you say, its normally x$ but this time, I'll charge y$ because you weren't aware. They may have booked thinking, wow this is great value, and no one likes a price increase, so be careful about what you are charging that it doesn't make it more pricey than comparative other properties. 

[Emily2654]

That makes sense! I had a guest ask about the price difference because they booked for 2 instead of the 3 they actually had so when they went back to update the price increased. I don’t want to automatically assume people are trying to get over, but in this case I believe they were since I’d read their previous reviews albeit, after the fact 🥴 I’ll make sure to update my house rules/manuals to include language about booking the correct # of people and charges that could be associated with not doing so, that way there’s no confusion come booking time

[Elaine701]

@Emily2654 

Another thing we do .. 

We have a 4br villa that sleeps up to 8. In the low season, we price on a per person basis instead of flat rate. And we often receive bookings from couples or two couples. The guests get one bedroom for every 2 pax. 

In those cases, we lock unnecessary bedrooms. It rather amusingly sorts out the legitimate ones from the ones who were expecting to book for two and bring 6. 

I can see how many people there are on the main gate camera. So I know what's up. But it's amusing to eventually receive the request for more bedrooms and the excuses they use to try to hide their failure to get freebies. 

🙂

[Joan2709]

@Erica2299 

Agree with @Elaine701.

The only difference would be if the guests are having a party and causing damage or the neighbors have complained. Then, unfortnately, I would have to contact Airbnb and have Airbnb cancel the stay and the guests must leave. If necessary, call the police. Be prepared for Airbnb to try to not pay you and blame the cancellation on you as Host. Ensure you make it clear (in a written message with them) that you are asking Airbnb to cancel the stay for violations of House Rules, and not you cancelling as Host. Try not to use the word "party" and just explain you want the stay cancelled as there are unregistered guests and you want Airbnb to cancel the stay for the guests breaking House Rules. Be sure you have something in your House Rules about unregistered guests are not permitted. 

In this scenario, the guest will most likely leave a retaliatory review and you will (unfortunately) have difficulty getting them to remove it, even if the guest clearly retaliated because they were caught breaking House Rules. Airbnb should not even allow them to leave a review if the stay was cancelled for guest breaking House Rules, but they do. It's possible to get the review removed, but very difficult with Airbnb's AI-driven process.

I have sent you a direct message with some other suggestions.