How often you have guests who lie about number of guests stay in your Airbnb?

[Ellen395]

How often you have guests who lie about number of guests stay in your Airbnb?

In my case I see roughly 20% of them do so, I have a policy of $20 extra guest in my listing but I see more and more guests claim that just one but come in with total 2-3 people.

is that common for you?

[Rowena29 · Accepted solution]

HI @Ellen395 

Unfortunatley there are quite a lot of dishonest people about  - and also some  guests who think because they've paid money for a place they are entitled to do what they like with it. And then there are some inexperienced guests who just don't realsie they need to enter the number of people staying when they book.

there are probably some strategies you could use to minimise this though

I see from your listing that  guests check in with a doorman.

Why not simply state on your listing that  ONLY the guests  registered in the  booking will be able to gain admittance via the doorman and that they will need to bring ID?

when a guest books, reiterate this rule via messaging - say you will need the full names of each guest so that the doorman is able to admit them otherwise they will be denied access.

It''s not foolproof, but the intentionally dishonest guests have a good "feel" for listings they can be sneaky with. A few obvious statements makes them think it's all too hard and they move on elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Good luck!

[Debra282]

Just curious, can you send a "request money" for the additional guest?

[Rowena29]

Hi @Debra282 ,

I'm pretty certain you CAN, but if the guest has already checked in, it's very easy for them to just ignore it.

Far better to stop it before it happens, if at all possible.

Some hosts suggest not allowing the guests in, until the money request has been paid.

Of course that assumes that the host is there checking them in and that the extra guests show up at initial check in ( a lot of the time they arrive a couple of hours later).

Cheers

[Debra282]

Thank you so much!  I do check people in personally, but we have long-term guests and was wondering how to handle overnighters!! (We see the car in the morning! and often hear the activity!) LOL

[Nina75]

NO.... In my own personal experience once the guests checks-in AirBnb makes it difficult to get the extra cash. they dont typically let you use the damage deposit for extra guests. You have to add them to the reservation and the Guests has to agree. Once the guests are inside the house its hard to get the estra cash. You have to be really really persistant and demanding, and relentless.

[J-Renato0]

To me it is not common to face this problem and I usually have guests from many countries.

I think it is because I have a short note in my welcome message, that one that the guests see before booking. There  it is written in 3 languages:

"Attention please, check to see if you have set the right number of guests.
Atenção, confira se colocou o número certo de hóspedes.
Atención, asegúrese de poner el número correcto de los huéspedes."

In my house rules is stated:

"It may not exceed the number of people stipulated at the time of booking."

[Jennifer1421]

I would say this probably happens about 30% of the time with my guests. I double check number of guests in my "Welcome/Thanks for booking" message. I don't charge extra for a second person (2 people max for my listing) so I never think people are lying.

I figure what happens is that they simply don't use the dropdown to change the # of guests when doing their search.

[Nina75]

If a guests books 1 or 4 people for a 14 bed house, I know that the guests are lying and I typically will decline the reservation, And ask them to Correct the numbe of people before booking... I will also sit outside and watch the security cameras that I have posted near the front door, and count how many guests come in. I've gotten some bad reviews because i've confronted the guests at the front door before when I saw a bunch of extra people come in.

I have 3 methods for confronting guests:

Method 1: Smile BIG and act innocent and sweet remind the guests that the extra guests are more than welcome to stay but its going to be ONLY $15 each per night, the extra money goes to cover the extra bedding and the extra water usage, and the wear and tear. Im sure you just over looked it. And then we add them right there and update the reservation.

Method 2: I hate to be an "hole" but when a guests books 7 and brings 14 or 15 people... there is no being nice about it, or they claim that the extra guests are just visiting, or they are the Uber Driver. Based on if I see Luggage or not, if they look like druggies, if it looks like a party. If I feel that the guest is trying to take advantage of me then I will not give an inch.

Method 3: If they are really relly nice I will ignore it. Take one for the team.  🙂

Last night I had guests check in and I counted 20 people instead of the original 16 that they booked, but I had actually raised the price of the booking by $100 a night to cover the extra people anyway so I really didnt care. Also the people were really Nice, so I didnt charge them anything extra. 

[Nutth0]

@Ellen395  Yes, sometimes guest didn’t click a number of guest before they click booked. When I got a reservation confirmed guest book for only 1 person, I away message to check that for a number of guest and BINGO! If it not correctly, I send an adjustment to them if they denied, I contact Airbnb to cancel.

[Érika8]

I’m absolutely frustrated with a Guest who tried to book for one person but it was 2 just remember that insurance and securities for the host can be affected once you are accepting something out of records. 

If there are HOSTS accepting this I’ll tell that it’s pretty unfair and I hope they start to have some self respect and charge 5$ but charges for additional guests once to keep a house as 5 stars demands time, money as cleaner payments, products, also bills ! 

At the end if you decides to calc it properly you didn’t make much when u didn’t charge properly you have plenty of work to make the place spotless and you are in risk to get bad reviews anyway, that means +stress - money. 

[Sabrina1120]

Put a Kwikset Halo lock (or similar) on each room.  Give them a code for how many guests they'll have.  Leave the towels for each guest inside each room.  If they know this is how its setup in the beginning they'll either pay then or pay when they want access to the rooms.