Guest booked a double room for one person, then asked if I accept couples, hasn't paid for two people

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Hi everyone; I have a double room that is set up for one person, a small cleaning fee, and an additional charge if a second person stays in the room. Makes it cheaper per person for them and isn’t much more than my single room if it’s just a solo traveller.

Today I had an enquiry, but the guest only booked for one person and then asked if I accepted couples. I’m not sure why; the only remote thing I have to go on is that she’s from Utah so maybe they’re used to more conservative hosts, I honestly have no idea. Anyway, only tried to book for one guest and not two. I’ve clarified that she’ll have to update the enquiry because I’ve been warned she might be trying to book for one to avoid the additional charge.

If anyone’s wondering why the per person charge, this is something I’ve been advised, and my house is available for larger groups now on a per person basis, so it all kinda works together and is consistent. Makes it cheaper for a solo traveller and cheaper again per person if sharing.

Am I being too cautious? I’m not sure I’m handling this right but I don’t want to run anything outside of AirBnB, and haven’t called them for advice on the matter yet. I’d rather miss out on this reservation than be manipulated but maybe I’m jumping to conclusions.

Any advice is appreciated!
Cheers

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Who advised this? So many hosts post here about guests sneaking extra people in, or the difficulty of getting the additional person charge from guests.

How about looking at it from the other point of view? Up your nightly rate in general. Price it as you would for two people. Then if a person on his/her own inquires, give them a ‘single person discount’.

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I suppose it could simplify things but wouldn’t I then run the risk of having fewer bookings with solo travellers?

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It depends what an extra guest costs you and how much your extra guest fee is.

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I would accept the reservation but only provide linens and towels for one guest. If two show up, I would remind the guest that the booking was for one guest. At that point, I would ask them to update the reservation while I get more linens and towels.

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And toilet paper :joy: …

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This is more or less what I do. But it is important to be sure how much an extra guest costs the host. If the host is going to be out of pocket because of extra showers/loo flushes etc. then this needs to be taken into account. Additional laundry ditto.

An extra guest costs me nothing. The water is a fixed charge and not metered. The guests will use the same amount of electricity regardless of the number. There are no extra sheets etc. provided so there are no extra laundry costs.

But if there ARE extra costs, then the guests need to pay.

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Hi

This has happened to me in the past.

I usually just message the guest back confirming if there are 1 or 2 people coming.

If she/he says2 then I say “your reservation shows the booking for 2, please go to my trips and alter the number of people on the reservation l” and the system automatically updates the payout against the reservation for you.

If they forget to alter it or they don’t, I myself send a note saying “hey your reservation is for 2 people so I’ll be altering the reservation accordingly. Please accept the change”

All my guests accept the change and if there are ones that don’t I njust escalate it to Airbnb and they change it in the system for me.

Hope that helps