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My bigger issue would be the dog. Are they leaving there all day while they go on outings. Is the dog right now chewing your furniture? My own dog would react terriblely to being left in a strange house.
What are your general rules regarding pets. Do they need to mention it when they book?
It’s one thing to have a daytime human visitor, but an undisclosed pet is another thing. Do you have a pet fee?
Ok, this is what I sent him (since I did not find TOS policy I omitted that part). If they give me a bad review, I honestly do not care 
Hi XXX,
I hope you are doing well and enjoying your stay.
I noticed that you have a visitor (I presume your mother in law) who spends multiple hours here. While I fully understand the desire to spend as much time as possible with the with the family, for the liability reasons, we require disclosure and information about every person that enters the property.
If your mother would like to continue the visits, please provide us with her name, age and address.
Regarding her dog, we require advance notice if you are bringing pets, as well as all dogs to be on a leash, never left unattended, and current on vaccinations and flea/tick medicine. Can you please confirm the dog is vaccinated and treated for fleas? We also expect the guest to pick up after the dog - I did it the day before yesterday, but I would ask you to make sure no dog waste is left on the premises.
Kind regards,
I just asked that question in the online host assist. I will share the answer is soon as I get one. Because I couldn’t find it either.
@Siladhiel, et al I got an answer! And it was actually pretty helpful. As it turns out there is nothing in the terms of service restricting Our guests from having visitors. Any damage done by said visitors will be covered, as much as anything is covered, by the Host Guarantee. Here is the link to the terms of service and I had to do a screenshot of their answer because I couldn’t copy it to paste.
My new Visitor Policy In my House Rules
Visitor Policy - You are welcome to have friends and family visit during the day. Please keep in mind this does not authorize anyone to have a party of any kind. Nor should your visitors be bathing/showering or sleeping in an unused bed. As the booking guest, it is your responsibility to make your visitors aware of the House Rules and see that they follow them. All visitors, unless otherwise authorized, must vacate the premises by no later than 11 PM.
Thanks so very much AvaH
Did your guest respond yet? I’m curious what his reaction will be.
Yes he did. He apologized for the dog “present”, gave me the mother in law’s name and confirmed that the dog is current on shots and flea treatment. The guy is very nice, has been since they got here, so I am glad this did not blew up to an uncomfortable situation. Wife not so much, she seems quite surly
I have never had this situation before, so I was surprised (hosting never ceases to surprise me haha). New rule in my listing should prevent this in the future.
A lot of people just don’t know how Airbnb works, especially a homestay situation. They think since they paid money they can do whatever they want and bring whoever they want to the property. Glad you resolved the situation.
So I will add some thoughts as both a host and a guest. I have a 5 bedroom property in Maine and a 4 bedroom home in Orlando that specifically target the larger group/family segment. Lots of amenities (pool / game rooms/ well equipped BBQ areas etc) and I realized early on that families traveling for vacation or to come see family really like to have friends over for a dinner/let the kids play etc. I have now allowed “dinner guests” with the guidelines that guests need to leave by 10pm, and excessive cleanup required will trigger additional cleaning fees (which are in my rules). When renting to families with kids - I have never had a problem with a dinner/evening friend get together. Probably had 20plus requests. On the other hand I traveled to PHX last Christmas with my Family (4 kids) and rented a big 5 bedroom homes that slept 12, with tons of amenities, a mile from my parents and brothers family (3 people) and we requested to do a christmas dinner with family, and host said no. It was fairly off putting, but as a host I understand the rules. Wont rent there again, but the host probably doesn’t care. I guess the takeaway is there are pretty normal reasons why someone who staying in a nice airbnb - especially a big house - would want to have friends and family come over for a dinner or something while they are in town. Not everything fits into the ‘party’ classification. Just depends on what kind of experience you want to enable.
I agree that it’s off putting but as an experienced host it seems you’d know to request in advance rather than ask after booking. The way you handle it in your own rentals is excellent.
So that’s an interesting point. We didn’t really have any specific plans to do a dinner / get together at the place before we got there. It came to mind after we arrived. Think the main point is that not all requests are from guests with bad intentions.
Exactly! Some hosts always assume the worst and spend so much time worrying about things that are statistically unlikely to occur.
My places are smaller (2-2 bedrooms and a studio) but I get guests with similar needs. Most of them are coming either to visit their kid who is at one of the nearby universities or to visit family or friends that live in our neighborhood. I put a blurb in our house manual about understanding that they may want to have guests over but to please let us know because we live here too and want to know who we may run into in the common areas (it’s a multi-family house with 4 apts).
The majority of our guests have someone come visit. We have a large backyard and they tend to have their guests our there anyway, especially since covid. Often a guest will say that they just want show the apartment to their daughter/mom/friend/someone because they think it’s so cute. It’s a great compliment and I don’t mind. But we’ve even had a dad host a dinner for the whole women’s field hockey team in one of the 2-bed apts. We took them some extra chairs and dishes and it worked out totally fine and made the house feel festive.
When I travel I have a tendency to book something first and then invite my cousins or some friends afterward (fortunately they’re all pretty spontaneous and it’s easier than trying to choose a place with a group). So even though it may end up just being my husband and me I will book for more, sometimes the max or at least up to the number that doesn’t garner an extra guest fee. I’ve never had a host mind that we showed up with fewer people than we booked for.
I’m surprised that they didn’t at least offer to let you add your family to the reservation. It would’ve been a decent compromise. I’d been put-off too.
My guests frequently have family gatherings with extra people. I don’t charge extra, guests don’t stay overnight and I’ve never had a problem, (knock on wood). My spaces are large and open, with 15’x15’ dining rooms. There are a lot of smaller houses around, so visiting family stay so everyone will have a place to sleep.
Some people have said they’re going to cook and host the family holiday dinner, but I don’t think that’s ever come to pass. My spaces sleep six, and I have service for eight for plates, cups and such. But when you’re cooking a big holiday dinner, you need big serving bowls, platters and such, and I purposefully don’t have those, because I don’t want to be seen as an event space, and things like that can easily go missing.
