Advice on strange situation

Hi, I have had a strange situation occur and I am not quite sure what the best thing to do would be. I just went into one of my cottages that I rent out to refresh the linens and the people staying their apparently went into my garage, found a fold out futon & cot and also went into my personal house (which is also on the property) and took my personal sheets from my laundry room to create an additional bed in their cottage. The cottage has 3 beds and sleeps 5 people, so they have a 6th person staying. I usually charge $50 extra per night for an additional person to stay. Since they went into my house uninvited and didn’t ask to use my extra bed and personal sheets… would it be within reason to me to just remove the $350 from their damage deposit to cover the extra bed? The guests are very nice people but I do feel somewhat invaded that they would let themselves into my house and help themselves to my personal belongings without permission especially when I am fairly certain it is clear on my listing that an extra bed incurs an additional nightly fee. I don’t want to be unreasonable and I certainly hate to spring unrealized fees on people after-the-fact that they may not have been aware of… but whether they didn’t ask because they knew about the fee and were trying to avoid it or naively thought they were welcome to come into my house in my absence whenever they please… I am confused about the most tactful way to begin this conversation. If they were unaware of the extra fee, should I still charge them or just suck it up and make sure all future guests understand so that it doesn’t happen again? What would you do in my shoes?

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They are still there?
Hi Guest, just refreshed the linen in your accommodation and noted the extra set up bed. I would have be happy to set this up for if you had of indicted the need. How would you like to settle for the extra person staying? I am happy to put it through to Airbnb for payment.
regards…
Then tell them in review process about what they did!

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There is no “tactful” way to begin this conversation. First call Air and tell them you want them re-homed or otherwise gone ASAP. Then boldy walk up and say something like “I see that you’ve gone into my garage and my home and taken things out without permission. You’ve violated my house rules by having an additional person stay here, and that is going to cost you $350. Payable now. I’ve contacted AirBnb and I want you out of here within the hour!”

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Where do you start with this? They’ve not just broken your AirBnB rules they’ve committed a civil offence.

As with any issue in life I think first of all you have to decide what you want the outcome to be. You know the people and you know how you would like this be resolved.

You need to decide what that outcome is and then work towards that end. The rules and the law are on your side. Now, decide what you want and go and get it.

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Well, that certainly sounds reasonable - thanks for the help!

I think the tricky bit of information I did not get into is this:

These people rented one of my cottages for over 5 weeks and also rented the other three for 3 different yoga retreats during that time (1 cottage this week, all 4 the next for retreat, just the one, then again all 4 for second retreat, etc) The Second retreat just checked out today.
They have another big group checking into the other 3 cottages on Thursday for 9 nights. So as far as I know the “stow-a-way” has been aboard for at least 1 week (if not longer).
Obviously these people are indeed big business for me- they have paid a lot of money to be here this long while and for the multiple cottages during retreats and it would be great if they came again next year. We still have another retreat to go and so I want to remain on good positive terms.

To answer your question: I would like to be paid for the additional bed since the reason for the charge has more to do with increase in water & energy use. We have had to order more water and propane to keep up with these groups so it would really help us cover bills.

But I also want to be sure to create no ill feelings as we are living in close quarters for several more days and I want them leave happy with positive feelings, reporting a good experience here.

I think I like what Deb had to suggest - I might just say to them “I noticed there is an extra bed and was wondering the correct amount of nights to charge the extra bed fee for, since I am not sure when it was set up… in the future, please allow me - I am more than happy to set that up for you.” That way there is no question that there IS an extra fee I am expecting to be paid but can still maintain a priority of hospitality.

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There, you’ve done it. :slight_smile:

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I’m bothered that they went into your home though. That was way out of bounds and needs to be addressed. Understand that you want to keep good relations for future bookings, and I think you can indeed confront them politely about the 6th person, but I hate that they went in your personal home without permission. Do you think they were trying to sneak or do you think they thought they were entitled to set up an extra bed because they had paid so much? Do you have cameras set up at the exterior of each of the cottages since you have so many? Might be a good idea.

Then you could disclose the cameras as a guest security measure and it should prevent future stowaways and linen mischief.

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Regarding using the damage deposit, you could try asking for this money in the resolution center but normally damage deposit is only for something damaged and if the guests deny the request then Air has to mediate.

Maybe try the statement suggested above and don’t ask them how they would like to pay, just send the request for the 350 through resolution.

It’s is tricky since they are your big customers. You don’t want to upset them too much but honestly the fact that they went to your personal house and took extr sheets… seriously ? Are they out of their minds ??This is trasspassing and breaking in. Did they think it was just an office and they couldn’t find anyone to ask so they just helped themselves. It’s just hard to believe that a sane grown ups would do such a thing.

If it was me I would talk to whoever is in charge and ask first if they realized it was your personal house where you live? Second definitely tell them
About extra charges. I would send them request for money after I ask them to pay you right there

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I am perplexed as to why your personal home and off limits garage are not locked.
Then no guest could enter.
I lock, gate, and barricade space that is off limits.

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Hi there, I noticed the extra bed and have put through a change request to the reservation of $50 per night as stated in my listing. Please accept this a.s.a.p. Also, my garage and personal home are not to be accessed by guests. Please make sure everyone in your party is aware of this. If you need something, please contact me. Thank you.

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yes- a bit disconcerting

I live in Hawaii at the top of a road out in the country a mile away from the highway… no one is around unless they are residents of my home or my airbnb guests or students coming to classes in my on site dance studio. I have grown up on this very safe island and have never locked anything- we don’t lock our cars either- theft & trespassing are just not big problems here. The garage space is located behind sliding mirrors in the dance studio (the studio is a space that these guests ARE allowed to access for their yoga activities- however I did not expect they would go behind the mirrors, much less remove our storage from behind the mirrors). No one has done that before- in fact most people don’t seem aware that the mirrors move. So this storage can’t be locked but I suppose I could make a note saying that space “behind mirrors is private and not for guest access”. …sigh, its a bit discouraging to realize that my home is going to turn into one of these spaces with little “in case you are an idiot” notes all over everything but there seems no way around it— that is the suggestion I often get for everything “you should make a note”. I was having issues where people would walk around my house and come in my living room sliding glass door instead of knock on my front door or just walk into my house through my front door without knocking- and I couldn’t understand why this was happening- why people aren’t sure how front doors work = knock, wait, & someone answers it… if they don’t, go away because no one is home. easy! But someone tells me- put a note in your yard with an arrow saying “front door” and a note on my slider saying “private space-do not enter” and a note on door saying “please knock and wait for answer”… seriously??? Can’t we just make people take an IQ test before allowing them on Airbnb? Is it not common knowledge that you should not enter a person’s home uninvited?

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BTW talked to her this morning asking how many days to charge for the extra bed and she had no resistance to the charges so perhaps set the bed up expecting to be charged all along. But now I feel a little silly I was so concerned that this might be a point of friction.

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But if you had not have asked her, would she have offered?

Hopefully it is a one off. You were correct and not being rude to ask her.

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“Can’t we just make people take an IQ test before allowing them on Airbnb? Is it not common knowledge that you should not enter a person’s home uninvited?”

Your first question I recognize is in fun, but your second should be an acknowledgement of the type of guests we are dealing with today.

Don’t feel silly - you achieved the end result you wanted. There are many here who didn’t act when they should have and they are kicking themselves.

Maintain your forthrightness in your business model and you won’t likely be a victim.

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This has happened to me a few times. Once on New Year’s Eve in 2016/17. Four registered who sneaked in 4 extra. Four cars in the driveway! When I confronted them that night I was told the extras were only visiting before the evenings night out. Foolishly I believed them. The next morning at 5:00 a.m. the first guest sneaked out then an hour later two more. The guests blatantly lied to me when confronted saying that there were no extra guests. Blankets and pillows were taken out of closets to accommodate the extra young adults. (Since then there are locks on the closets, extra laundry I don’t want) Airbnb told me that I should have contacted them the night before not the morning after. I did not get recompense for the extra guests as it is solely at the discretion of the guest. I should have not let the extra guests in I was told by Airbnb unless the guest has registered them.
Another time a family funeral brought an extra family member in. They asked permission. They didn’t take care of the request right away due to funeral arrangements but did make good on the request.
There was another time as well which also did get resolved, but contacting Airbnb to register the extra guest(s) needs to begin with the guest. The host has no control. If the guest does not register Airbnb says it cannot help. This is because the guest had already been "on their trip"
It is not a pleasant circumstance to wonder whether extra work will be compensated or not. Four times in two “seasons” this has happened. It is a pet peeve.

.wrong thread! Sorry!

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