Charging for surprise extra guests

I just had a guest who ignored all my emails, texts, and phone calls for days prior to his stay. I was trying to find out his arrival time. He just showed up unannounced. I asked him why he didn’t answer me. First he said he didn’t get any messages. Then said he ignored them because he thought they were just confirmations. He had all good reviews from other hosts! You can’t tell me they didn’t have the same issue. Why didn’t they mention it? I mentioned it in my review and now maybe he will correct his behavior. If all hosts were more honest in their reviews things would get better for everyone.

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This was what I was planning on leaving as the review:

[name] booked for two guests but arrived with three in his party and was unwilling to pay the extra guest fee. He left the garage door open when he checked-out.

I have a pending case against this guest AirBnB for my extra guest fee. Would mentioning he hasn’t paid in the review get the review removed? I recall you aren’t supposed to comment on unresolved cases.

Unwilling to pay the fee seems like a fact, you don’t say anything about the case. I don’t understand why you haven’t gotten your money by now. Troubling.

A lot of hosts have self-check in. He could very easily had not needed to reply before for prior stays.

I left my review and did mention he did not pay the extra guest fee. As I guessed he left me a five-star review. He said he’d like to stay with me again, so I don’t think he has any awareness he was a less-than-great guest. I will update you all all if I ever get my extra guest fee or if AirBnB deletes the review.

This is a good reminder that I should probably not drop my weekday rate to pick up a few extra bookings during the slow season. Bargain hunters aren’t always the best guests.

That could be true in some cases but not this time. I know where he stayed previously and they didn’t have self-check-in.

I would be blocking him just to be sure, in case your higher price isn’t deterrent enough.

I gave him a thumbs down, which should mean he can’t instant book with me. Is there an additional way to block a guest?

Go to Message thread then under the picture click Report then something else then you should get a block option. Someone else reported they didn’t have that option so I don’t know. Here’s an old screen shot.

My update on this thread: AirBnB reached out to my guest and he didn’t respond, so they comped me the $15 extra guest fee.

I hosted some road-trippers last night who booked for four and four arrived to pick up the keys. However, I saw fifth leave with them this morning when they went out for coffee. Not sure where this person slept!

I plan to address the fifth guest in the AirBnB app to have a record of it. However, if they don’t reply, I don’t have any evidence other than my own eyes, so maybe it is time to invest in an exterior security camera.

People sneaking in extra guests wasn’t much of an issue when I listed my space as a guest room in a house (back when you had to choose “guest room” or “entire home”). It only happened once that I was aware of in about 80 completed trips. However, now I list now as “an entire guest suite,” so I figured I’d attract more people trying to sneak in extra guests. This is about my 10th group I’ve hosted since I reopened in March, and the second who have tried to sneak in extra guests.

Oddly both parties with surprise extra guests have loved my place. This group messaged me last night how much they appreciated all of the personal touches.

Amazon had the first iteration of Ring doorbell on for $100. It’s got limits as a security camera but it’s cheap, easy and you can also use it to talk to guests if you aren’t on the premises or upstairs in the bathroom or something. I’ve had a Ring now about two years and it’s not always perfect but worth $100 for sure.

In addittion, picturing and disclosing it will not only help you prove claims of extra guests it will help deter them in the first place.

Do you have to have an electrician install it?

My dad would know how to install the cameras, though he gets tired of me always asking him for help with stuff around the house. It looks like we’ll have some solar powered (truly wireless) options in another year or two that won’t need wiring.

The doorbell looks easy to install, but I’d need one in the backyard too since the guest entrance is back there.