Guests has visitors (against house rules)

Curious what you guys do in the event of extra guests/visitors? Our house rules are no visitors (anything over the agreed upon amount). Our guests this weekend had 7 people show up between midnight - 2 am when the booking was for 3 people. I do have it in our house rules that extra not agreed upon guests will be charged $100 per person per night (which is really meant to dissuade parties) but I’m not sure whether or not to enforce it in this case. Our price is the same up to 6 guests and a 7th would be $25 more per night. Any thoughts? And in case you were wondering, I got a lot of pings from my security system ranging from midnight - 4 am which is what made me check the cameras.

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Do you or your co-host not go to the rental when you see that there are extra guests?

I don’t, because I turn a blind eye on the very rare occasions it happens (because extra guests don’t cost me more) but if any guest is doing anything that I consider to be unacceptable behaviour then I tackle it straight away in person.

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It happened in the middle of the night (last night) and I just saw the camera footage a little while ago. So this is an active stay.

That’s making it sound as though you haven’t spoken to them and challenged them about the extra people?

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I haven’t yet, correct. I’m weighing what to do - confront them now (and risk a bad review when they are our third guest at this property) or wait until they check out and just charge them for the extra guests.

I suspect that they won’t pay up. When guests are so sneaky that they don’t pay for the full contingent before they arrive, then they certainly don’t want to pay because they’ve been ‘caught’.

How much have the extra guests added to your costs for that night? Whatever it is, talk to the guests and let them know that they can settle up in cash if they want, thus avoiding the whole Airbnb thing.

If the extra guests haven’t actually cost you any extra and you’re really concerned about the review then be a good guy - tell them that you’ll waive the extra guest fee as long as the extras get out. That’s the friendly way to do it :slight_smile:

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Ha, definitely agree! That’s why I spell in my house rules that any extra guests are $100 person per night. Not sure yet how ABB would mediate that but I really thought that that would dissuade extra guests lol.

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In your shoes, I’d rather rely on myself than Airbnb :slight_smile:

Going to any sort of mediation with Airbnb is going to take you time and is going to cause you stress. Some hosts think it’s worth it, I don’t.

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Did they spend the night or just come in and leave. I agree with just letting it slide unless the extras are there for the whole stay.

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They probably had a little spontaneous afterparty … I would not waive anything just yet, but I would definitely talk to them and see if the extras are still there and how the place looks. If it is clean, you might want to keep it to a more reasonable amount.
And explain you wished you would have known about the get together, as your neighbors or your camera etc. Were all worried etc. …the thing about letting it slide, you foster this unwanted behaviour.

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Thanks Alex. My only concern with addressing it before they’ve had a chance to review us is that they’ll leave a negative one. If this was an older property with tons of reviews I might risk that, but they’re only our third guest on ABB :-/ My husband I think we might just wait until they check out (tomorrow morning) and see how the house looks. If it’s a mess then we’ll address it more sternly, but at a minimum I think we’ll charge what we would typically charge for a 7th guest which is $25 per night.

Presumably they spent the night – a car of 5 people showed up at 2am and 1 person left in that car at 4am. We’re just not a “party house” (spontaneous or otherwise) hence the strict no extra guests/visitors.

Sounds like your guests fancied partying on, a bit cheeky if you have rules that state no extra house guests! Are your rules super clear? Guests sometimes have a tendency to speed read rules (especially if there’s one or two they are not keen on)!

Have they “extra” visitors moved on now? If so hopefully they won’t be making a repeat appearance! You can check on with your booked guests and mention you’ve been made aware they had visitors (and maybe remind then of the house rules too)!

Check out your place an make sure there’s no damage etc. Unfortunately some guests push the boundaries. Fingers crossed you won’t get too many!

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I think they’re pretty clear! But feel free to tell me if I should fix them. This lady definitely did NOT read our house rules and such. We had this week-long back and forth about collecting a deposit to heat the spa (which she never figured out at the end of the day).

“Visitors: All Guests must be agreed upon during the rental process. At no time should the maximum number of Guests exceed 6-7 people, unless otherwise agreed upon. Guests are not allowed to have Visitors. Extra Visitors on the property or that spend the night, that were not agreed upon during booking process, will be charged $100 per person, per day.”

We live in a wine country area (lots of weddings, etc) so the wording is meant to dissuade any large parties. But we do also charge $25/night for a 7th guest if they add that during booking (we think most people will only have 6, so the 7th is to cover additional laundry, wear and tear, utilities used, etc). So if anyone is trying to skirt that, we also wanted to protect ourselves (and discourage the behavior of lying) with the strict rule.

Totally agree, I just feel handcuffed by the potential bad review especially since they’d be the third review, and we’re just starting to get momentum on the house.

That’s such a shame. It’s not a good thing to think that a guest is going to get away with inconsiderate behaviour because of a host fearing a bad review. I do think it’s a sign of a guest with too much time on their hands if they want to give a host a bad review for no good reason.

If they are that sort of guest, then it must be hard to deal with them. Strangely, I’ve found the opposite to be the case. If guests have done something that they know is wrong, they bend over backwards to be helpful and leave the apartment in great shape. They don’t want bad reviews either.

A chat with the guests over a bottle of wine can work wonders :wink:

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At our other property, we had a group of guys/gals in their mid-late 20s. They dented our fridge(!), banged on our neighbors door drunkenly at 11:30pm, trampled through their garden, and left the house a mess (didn’t do any of the check out requirements). I left them a very honest review and they private messaged us later that we “slandered” them, and that “the mess they left wasn’t worth an extra $50 cleanup”. Luckily they had already left us a good review though, haha.

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If people aren’t going to leave honest reviews for guests we might as well do away with them. The more I think about the idea the better I like it.

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If they have had positive feedback in the past, are mature adults, and the flat was left in good nik. I would let it go…
Are they adults socializing or teens terrorizing?
Did the neighbours complain?
Additionally if you haunt this blog you should know by now that many guests don’t read the fine print…it’s in their DNA.

If you don’t want to risk a bad review say nothing and let them think they’ve got away with it then leave them a bad review with all 1s and remember to say “Can not recommend” in the review as Air likes to hide that. 7 people for 3 is unconscionable and you are right to worry that they will try and get you back if you bring it up. Just don’t say anything personal or feel the need to say “they were lovely guests but…” they were terrible guests and deserve to have a bad review and future hosts warned not to let them book.

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