Hosted a pleasant guest recently. They booked 4 guests. Reply communication became very slow after I accepted the reservation. I got a little suspicious. Reviewed surveillance video and saw several people coming and going. It wasn’t like there was anything nefarious going on, they were there for a wedding. I include 4 guests in the base fee and charge $25 per night for each additional guest up to a maximum of 6. With all the arrivals and departures it was difficult to tell how many spent the 2 nights. I counted 10. After the guests left I messaged the person who made the reservation and confronted him with additional guests and let him know that he owed me an additional $300, no reply. I reported it to Airbnb and put in my $300 claim as they suggested. He finally replied that there were “only” 8 guests, he gave a lame explaination and offered $100. I told him I would take his word that there were only 8 and settle for $200. No further replies. Airbnb allows the guests a period of time to reply, I think 72 hours. The guest did not reply. I have several follow up messages to Airbnb support but no replies. I have video evidence and the guests own admission, you would think this would be a slam dunk. So far, on the resolution page, it just says Airbnb is looking into it. Support used to be so quick, now it’s ridiculously slow. I require a $300 deposit and I’m concerned that Airbnb will return it to the guest after 14 days past their departure date. Anyone else have an experience like this? Mostly I’m just venting.
Since they do t actually take the deposit and require the guest to agree to the deposit being claimed… I would not depend on it
As Deb mentioned they don’t take a real deposit. You’ll just have to be patient and hope that Airbnb gets the payment to you since the guest did admit to having 8 there.
Wow, that’s news to me. I asked Airbnb support how long they kept the guest’s deposit and they replied that they keep it for fourteen days after the date that they leave. Went on to say that they only get their deposit back if there are no claims. Did they lie to me or were they mistaken? Here I thought I always had at least $300 I could count on if there were damages. Yikes 
Having been a guest multiple tines, I have never been actually been charged for the deposit.
They lied or they were clueless… They don’t hold a depòsit.
Wondering why you simply let all those people stay and tried to charge after-the-fact, rather than dealing with the overage at the time it was happening?
Yep I’d be willing to confront 10 people I don’t know by myself and demand $300. 
By the way—he explained it
I don’t know if muddy means march over and angrily demand money in person.
Does “dealing with at the time” have to mean a confrontation?
If I saw on camera that more than the paid for and disclosed number of people were at the home my approach would be to simply ask them about it and request payment via the system. As with someone who shows up with a dog they didn’t tell me about in advance. I send a message saying “I see you brought your dog. Although I prefer to know in advance, it’s not a problem. Here’s the link where you can pay the pet fee.”
I agree that knowing during the stay but waiting until after the stay takes leverage away from the host.
Angrily confronting people and acting like they are doing something wrong is not usually the best approach. Now if after calmly and professionally asking for my money I got no reply or denial, refusal, etc I would consider other strategies. It might or might not include an in person confrontation.
I’ve had good luck getting Airbnb to process my resolution center payments if the guest didn’t respond.
That was my Bad attempt at humor. The OP explained his actions.
I see the emoji now.
I still would advise the OP and others reading the thread not to wait until the stay is over and to try to break out of the “confront” mindset. Treat guests like adults, don’t assume they are up to no good and try the honey before throwing the vinegar in their face.
Absolutely, definitely, positively. Over the years I’ve had guests who have done all sorts of things that I don’t want them to (often something that isn’t allowed by the terms and rules of our HOA) but I have never seen this as a confrontation.
I’m quite prepared to march up there and deal with matter myself, quickly. I have done many times and it’s never been anything other than pleasant. People react because of the way they are treated, mostly.
Definitely not the case. But we have to remember that these people are young and basically untrained. It’s their job to answer simple queries and it’s our job to thoroughly acquaint ourselves with the knowledge of the systems were using and how they work.
You certainly don’t have $300 to play with held by Airbnb. Your own STR insurance will deal with damages. I have a deposit too but if you want to ensure that you have funds enough for small damages below your deductible threshold, add a couple of dollars to your nightly fee. It will soon build up to a $300 contingencies fund.
hope you learn its less hassle to skip the “extra charge for X number og guests”. Just have one price for you maximum ! Done.
You’re right, I didn’t mean that. I meant why did the host wait until the guests had checked out to bring it up, rather than messaging them when they could see more people than booked going in and out and ask what was going on with all those unbooked extra people.
@Paulcalif has a limit of 6 guests. Whether it was 8 or 10 guests, it was over his max capacity. Some municipalities require hosts to pay tax per head, so the count needs to be accurate or you risk losing your license. It can also affect your insurance coverage.
I agree that you don’t have to charge per person, however, once they get over your max capacity it can create big issues and extra expenses.
I have had similar problems with no support from Airbnb and risk losing my Short Term Rental permit and being forced to cancel all future reservation and delete my listing. The simple answer is put the occupancy rules in your house rules. Any violation of house rules is grounds for
immediate evictionwithout refund per Airbnb rules. State Extra Guests must be paid for in advance, any guest staying more than 4 hours is considered an extra guest, & you can also charge for day only guests. Set the maximum number of guests allowed. The minute you have pictures from your entry camera of additional guests you should contact the guests and ask for the additional fees… let them know they will be evicted for violating house house rules if they do not pay up immediately. Waiting until after a guest checks out leaves you no leverage… I would contact Airbnb immediately so you dont get stuck with a bad review. Asking Airbnb for assistance after the fact is rarely successful especially since COVID19. I have “pending” cases from 4 yrs ago still sitting #1 in the cue, marked Urgent" according the the call center staff. Try being proactive, its been much more successful for us.