Guest Ignoring request payment for unregistered guest

1

On the day of guests arrival she notified me that an additional person would be coming - that would bring the number of the group to 4. I charge $25 per adult per night after 2 adults.

I message her that Airbnb requires all guests be registered.

(Even though she already registered 3 adults and was aware of the additional guest fee I failed to reiterate that.)

I get another message stating she tried to change the number of guests but is getting a message that says “because the reservation already started changes cannot be made.”

So I try to change it on my end and I get the same message. I call Air and explain the situation and the CS rep confirmed that changes can’t be made when the reservation starts.
I tell the CS rep that both they and my insurance require all guests be registered. He said he would send to another dept and expect a call back shortly. No one every called back. In the meantime I let the guest know I contacted Air.

I do search on this forum for unregistered guests and how to handle it. Find out I can send a “request money” alteration.

I tell the guest that the resolution that Air has is that I “register” the guest by requesting the extra person fee of $25 per person per night ($50 total) for brother and I told I would send the “request money” for the $50 fee. I state in the notes it’s for the unregistered guest. (I received an confirmation email) Thanked her in in advance for her understanding and working with me thorough this process.

I get a message back saying “thank for fixing our problem.” I mention again that I sent the request for add’l money but she ignored my message and never paid the fee. They checked out this morning. She sent me several messages stating how much she loved the house and that their stay went great.

Let me say that I just started adding this extra guest fee charge the middle of June because we were getting so many groups of 4-5 adults. (I don’t charge extra for 17 and younger)

This is the 3rd reservation since implementing the fee change that had extra guests and not paid the fee.

In my main description I state the extra person fee and require all guests must be registered.

How do I handle the situation of unregistered guests w/o getting a bad rating?

More specific to this particular situation…
They did leave the place clean and there were no other issues.
1…Do I just forgive and forget and just be grateful and move on?
2…Do I call this woman and ask her why she’s ignored my request for payment?
3…What kind of a star rating do I give her & what do I say?
4…Is calling Air back and letting them know I requested payment and it’s sitting out there unpaid helpful?

She lives in CA and has 2 other reviews that were positive (it doesn’t show me the stars)

Sorry for the long post.
Thanks once again for the amazing feedback.

2

Did she make her reservation prior to the change? If so, you cannot retroactively apply an extra guest charge on existing reservations.

But to answer your questions:

  1. Personally, I don’t think I would bother poking the bear for $25 a night, especially if the guest hasn’t reviewed yet.

  2. Yikes… I would never call a guest for anything, unless it was an emergency. Especially in light of my answer to #1 above. But that’s because I’m a big weenie. I like having the time to compose my thoughts and responses in writing.

  3. “Guest left the apartment in good condition. However, she was unresponsive when I sent a request for payment for the additional unregistered guest she brought with her.” Decline to recommend her to other hosts. Wait until the end of the 14 day period to submit the review.

  4. Air won’t do anything further for you at this point, sorry.

3

I implemented the change on June 24th and she registered herself and 2 others on July 5th.
So she was aware that there was a charge for add’l adult guests after 2 adults.

4

FTFY. (Another installment in the popular STR series, “People Don’t Read”)

1 Like
5

Just increase the nightly fee instead of charging extra for the 3rd or 4th person. People will always sneak in others in order to avoid paying extra fees. I like the previous suggestion of waiting till the 14th day to write the review and mention how she refused to pay the extra fees.

6

You could follow up again to ask her to approve the charge. Perhaps they just looked at the email quickly and thought they were already being charged. Review is up to you, certainly grounds for a negative review. Just stick to the facts and make it short so you don’t come across too authoritarian to future guests.

BTW, it is not Airbnb policy to have all guests registered, so people may be a little confused by it.

1 Like
7

I was thinking that when I read the OP. It could be that the guest was confused, true. But it could also be that the guest knew that it wasn’t needed by Airbnb?

8

You know the request for payment comes as an email… not on the app?

1 Like
9

I will have to find a link again but I read unregistered guests are not covered under the host guarantee should something happen. It is to my understanding that Airbnb requires all guest be registered.

If the notification only comes by email then it’s possible she will take care of it when she gets home?

At this point I’m not going to pursue it any further. She’s already done her review on me and the entry in the journal that I have at the house was extremely kind. I don’t want to jeopardize the relationship at all at this point. Outside of that issue everything else went great and they left the house super clean, so I’m going to leave her a five star review.

I also wondered if I would’ve gone in and changed the check in time to say 7 PM if we could’ve made the change? ( we tried to make the change after the 3 PM check-in time). I will try that first next time to see if I can circumvent the system.

I appreciate all the responses.

10

No, this is incorrect, a guest can book a place for 15 and be the only guest on the booking. Host guarantee covers damages by guest or invitee of guest. Assuming you can get airbnb to pay out.

1 Like
11

I received a message from Airbnb Support this morning from my original contact regarding how to change the guest number after the reservation has started. They reached out to the guest and I received payment.

I also asked the support rep my question about an unregistered guest not being covered under the host guarantee. I have attached a screenshot of our conversation.

image
6901D9E7-9967-40F2-B768-85F271220700.png750×1334 117 KB

12

Airbnb will go to great lengths to avoid paying anything for anything. So it’s good to have policy statements in writing but their IOUs are worthless at the bank.

Also, as @Debthecat said you need to be aware that requests via the resolution center don’t show up anywhere on the booking or message thread. They have to click a link in the email they are sent. Another member here suggested sending the link in the message thread. I think it’s www.airbnb.com/resolutions. When I request second guest fee or pet fee I always send a message that says “I’ve sent the request for the xx fee via the resolution center. The way to find it is to click on the link in an email that Airbnb sends. Once you accept it we are all set.”

Once I started sending that message I’m getting near perfect compliance. Before that people couldn’t find it, I didn’t know where is was and I was usually enlisting Airbnb’s help to get it after check out. So give the guest a break if they show good intent but have a hard time finding it.

2 Likes
13

I did use the resolution center. Thank you so much for the explanation of how it works. I saved your script to use if I have to go through that process again.

1 Like
14

I have a friend who charges by the guest and discloses the Ring camera and common room camera. People are always sneaking more guests in and then not paying and he has to go through CS and it takes ages.

Just charge more for the listing with a max number of people. If 2 people want the place and ask for a room only, it’s still that rate. Parties of 2 will move on to a listing like mine or a guest house.

1 Like
15

@KKC this is great info. I am going to start sending the link as well.

1 Like
16

As so iften, Airbnb is really good to hide information and requests for payment/refunds are well hidden on the app and the pc.

It appears that unless you use the link on the first email that they send about it, you will never find it. Even though they send lots of emails about almost everything, that does not apply to requests.

So including that link to the guest on the Airbnb message thread is a really good idea.

I, in this situation would have just gone over and collected in cash. Keep it simple.

1 Like
17

I’ve now corrected the typo so you should re-save. :wink:

I have to give credit to @Militaryhorsegal for pointing out we could send the link in the message thread. I’d never thought of that.

3 Likes