Informed of extra guest at 2 am previous to arrival

1

I have a guest coming today and last night at 2 am he tells he made a mistake and he needs it for two people. My apt. is tiny with just a full bed. It clearly states one guest and when I asked him a little about himself previously he replied only in the singular - no “we.”

I am suggesting he cancel. What do I do if he just shows up?

Can I cancel his booking now based on this info?

I’m not hardcore I could have him cancel and offer him half refund.

do i need to contact Air?

thanks in advance.

2

DO NOT CANCEL THE RESERVATION FOR HIM. Tell him very clearly (through AirBnB’s messaging system) that unfortunately, this is not possible. The apartment cannot accommodate two people. If he turns up with two people, tell him the same thing, and do not let them both into your apartment. He should either a) make other arrangements for his friend, or b) cancel his reservation with you and make other arrangements.

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3

Never cancel a guest’s booking if you can help it, and only in extreme circumstances. Airbnb penalise hosts who cancel on guests, via their metrics and list ranking. In this instance, if the guest doesn’t agree to cancel his booking, call Air to discuss and ask them to cancel as the guest is intent on breaking your house rules. That said, I hope you have it stated in your HRs that you can only accommodate one guest!

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4

yes i did state it very clearly and the front page under guests it has the number 1.
thanks for all the advice.

5

I had a similar situation. At check-in, the guest showed up With an extra person. I sent a message reminding him of the fee for extra guest, and he accepted the request and paid the fee.

6

If he doesn’t mind sharing a full size bed with his guest, then I would let him stay.

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7

I agree with @Ritz3. Occasionally I’ve had guests who’ve sneaked an extra person in. (Both our rentals are small apartments and each has only one queen sized bed). If the stay is short and the third person wants to sleep on the sofa or floor with no extra supplied bedding or pillows then that’s their lookout. I supply bedding, towels, toiletries, snacks, coffee etc. for two people. If three people want to share it it’s no skin off my nose.

If your guest is bringing his other person for just a short stay, then I’d have no problem with it and turn a blind eye.

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8

Do you have a twin air bed? I’m with @Jacquo if they can share abed or if you’ve got an air bed, collect money and move forward. Revenue is revenue…money is why I rent out my units.

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9

It’d be different if they snuck 10 people in and tried to have a party. Might as well make more money if you can.

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10

Your post struck a note with me.

We had a series of wonderful, quiet single guests and noted we enjoyed hosting more when it was just one person. So we changed our listing to say “1 guest” and had the max number of guests set to 1. Well then people started booking for one and said in the booking message (we have IB set on) they’d be bringing someone. So I added as the first rule, 1 Guest Only. People still kept booking for two because I figured out they didn’t see themself as a guest, the person they were bringing was the guest!

I have since given up on 1 guest only because cancelling every other booking that wasn’t a single person was going to be tedious and sour me on hosting. Turning off IB so I screen every guest would be the only way to ensure only one guest and I didn’t want to do that. So now we’re back to accepting 2.

I did have a concern with my listing set at one and allowing the extra guest: I wasn’t sure if they would be covered by the Airbnb Host Guarantee. I know the Guarantee is worthless for small time damages, but it does cover big things like the guest falling and hurting themselves. I don’t want that risk exposure if Airbnb won’t cover them.

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11

To prevent people from “making mistakes”, this is my first message after receiving a reservation:

Hi (name),

Thank you for preferring us. You have reserved the (room name) room with (private/shared) bathroom for (number) nights for (1/2) persons, check in on (weekday + date), check out on (weekday+date).

To serve you better, please allow me to ask the following questions:
(relevant questions about full names, arrival time, dietary restrictions)

It has happened that an “I” all of a sudden changes into a “we”. And of course “Oh, it’s a shared bathroom, we wanted a private” has also passed the scene already twice.

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