Hello everyone! I had a same-day booking today, and the guest booked for two but showed up with three people. No worries; they told me there might be three in their party when we discussed the details of the reservation. My place sleeps four so there is room. I alerted the guest to my extra fee of $15 per night for the third guest, all in the AirBnB messenger. However, AirBnB won’t let me alter the reservation to add a guest because the reservation is already in progress. I used to be able to edit the number of people in the party for a reservation in progress. Was this feature removed? Do I now need to request $15 through the send/request money feature for extra guests?
I think so. I haven’t done it but I have heard others doing this that way.
Thanks Kona! It’s so weird the removed the feature to modify a current booking. You’d think they’d want to charge their service fee for the extra guest. (Unless they charge service fees for sending/receiving money now.)
Well the good news is they don’t commission you on it, right? Whereas before they did. Anything paid through resolution does get rolled into your taxable totals for the year so remember to expense it out if it’s damage or re8mbursement.
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Yes have that happen as well. The lovely guests bought me two bottles of champagne to cover the costs. I was happy!
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I’ve had this happen several times. Guest just paid me cash. That’s the easiest thing if they can do it.
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I think the reason why some people don’t prefer that is due to the Airbnb host guarantee or getting Air help with an issue with extra guests. Not that I think Airbnb’s help is worth anything much but just as a reminder to Xena.
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That’s a good point, Cabinhost. AirBnB collects the taxes from guests in my city. That seems like an oversight they won’t allow me to alter the reservation.
The guests have not accepted my request for the fee yet. Does it automatically escalate after a few days, or I have to manually escalate?
The guests left me a review, but I have not reciprocated because I’m waiting to see if they pay for the extra guest (they have not). They were a same-day booking, which I hadn’t had before, and my quality of experience was definitely effected. They left the garage open when they left and manually turned off the house heat (by finding the on-off switch on the actual furnace in the laundry room–I don’t know if this was an accident or they were too hot). Luckily I was hope to close the garage door when they left, or my bicycles and shop equipment could have been stolen.
This is what I get for dropping my weekday price to try and get some bookings (I’ve mostly had weekend bookings since I reopened in March).
Is there any way to escalate to AirBnB to get them to pay for the extra guest? Will this happen automatically if they do not pay?
My extra guest charge is only $15, but I want to collect on principle. And each extra guest adds about another half hour of cleaning time & an extra load of laundry.
In every case where I have used the resolution center to ask for money (request money button) I have gotten the money. In each case the message thread made it clear they had a pet or second person. I don’t know if anyone refused or just got busy or just ignored messages but I did get paid. This has happened 2 or 3x where I got the money after check out. To be honest, finding the link to click accept is difficult. I stood on my porch and tried to help one guy find it on the app and we couldn’t. I now direct people to check their email but I had a woman who had trouble with that as well.
I can’t recall the steps to escalate but it’s not hard to figure out if you just go back to your request and look at it. I think you have to wait 3 days for them to accept then you can escalate.
Thank you! That was what I was wondering, if it would escalate on its own or if I needed to manually do something if the guest does not pay.
I had this happen once a few years ago, and the guests eventually did pay through the resolution center (and left my only three-star review so far, as a retaliation).
If the guest is not going to pay there is little that you can do, do you not still have their number, call them?
I found where I could manually escalate the extra guest charge to involve Airbnb. I did this last week, and haven’t heard anything back. I doubt I will before the review window closes in a week.
I know I can’t mention the disputed charge in my review, but am I able to say, “Guests booked for two but arrived with three in their party” while the charge is pending?
I’m planning to give a thumbs down due to the extra guest they were unwilling to pay for, but I haven’t decided if I should also mention going in the utility room and turning off the furnace and also leaving the garage door open.
Go ahead and leave the review even with a case pending. I mean, do it at the last minute. It won’t impact the adjudication of the case.
I would mention all of it. Why hold back?!
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To me this is a major security breach that absolutely should be mentioned. I have only given 2 or 3 thumbs down in over 400 guests. One of them was for this fellow. This is the most detailed and negative review I’ve ever left. He had 5 good reviews for Nov 2017, zero after I left my review in Nov, so I’m afraid he wasn’t able to stay in any more Airbnbs, or didn’t attempt it after his encounter with the police. He was a Chinese National so that might have shook him up a good bit. I do feel a bit bad about that but some people don’t belong, regardless of what Airbnb would have you think.
I can’t recommend Max as a guest. He didn’t understand my parking instructions and parked down the street in front of someone else’s home. He then went out at night after 10 pm taking photographs on my bland residential street. The police were called by someone on the street due to his odd behavior. After returning to my guest room with the police, he departed again leaving both doors to the guest room wide open and all the lights on, which violates my house rules. I slept through all of this but was awakened by one of my dogs barking to discover the open room and neither Max nor his vehicle anywhere in sight. In checking my Ring doorbell videos I discovered the police had been here but I had to wait up for his return to get an explanation for what had happened. This behavior compromised the security of my home and disrupted my sleep. Max was apologetic and left the room in good condition but the night time issues would disqualify him from staying with me again.
I wasn’t sure if this would count on commenting on a pending case and I didn’t want to risk AirBnB removing what I write. The guests have already reviewed me, and I have a feeling they left a 5 star review. I have until Monday to review them, but I am going out of town this weekend and wanted to take care of it before I leave so I don’t forget.
Wow, what a horrifying experience! You left a very clear and non-emotional review.
Fortunately my guest locked the door to the house, but there were bicycles and tools in the garage that could have been stolen if I weren’t home to immediately close the garage door. I live in a safe neighborhood, but there is a lot of foot traffic passing by my house. As I always tell my guests when they ask if it is safe, I say yes, but don’t offer the temptation by leaving valuables in plain sight.
I asked the guests on the messenger why they left it open, and they said they didn’t know how to check out. The instructions were in the AirBnb listing and the physical house manual.
That’s worth something I suppose. The door from my guest room to my part of the house is locked (by me) so I wasn’t in any danger but still, wide open guest room with his luggage and my stuff in it.
So they have to exit out the garage door?
Yes, I have a daylight basement and guests enter and exit through the garage to access it. Not ideal but I try to explain in the listing in a few places and when giving check-in instructions. I give guests keychain garage door openers, and ask that they return it either by dropping it in my mailbox or tossing the opener back into the garage as the door closes. The mailbox option is less confusing to guests who have never lived somewhere with a garage before.
These guests said they left the garage door open because they didn’t know how to close it.
It’s time for you to get one of those garage door closing apps. I think you can retrofit your existing one but if not a new opener might be in order. It only takes one major theft for it to pay for itself.
That’s a great idea. I’ve been relucatant to get any smart home technologies, but maybe some are necessary with hosting.
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