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Hello,
Thank you all for responses to my first question re bedding configurations. My next question after reading lots about additional unbooked/un-notified guests staying, does anyone lock 2nd bedroom when apartment only booked for two people? As we don’t live there, I’m not sure how else we could monitor or prevent it. We have a lot of sports and music events in town where people could potentially just have others turn up and sleep. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated very much. Taa
What if the two guests are friends and don’t want to share a bed?
I get lots of guys coming for work and I guarantee that they do not want to share a bed!
Hi yes good point - we have a king split that can be two singles but peeps might still like separate rooms. Maybe I should just charge one rate for the apartment and ask at booking what bedding configuration they prefer then charge for singles to be made up?
People book based on beds available.
You could do linked calendars with a king bed and then 2 singles.
Do a higher nightly fee for the 2 singles. Bit hard to charge a bed prep fee.
But 2 working guys sharing a room - what if they snore…
My entire house has 3 queen beds in seperate bedrooms and I get lots of singles. I charge extra for anything over the first 2 to a max of 7.
I have also been asked if I lock bedrooms off.
As far as I am concerned they have rented the house in its entirety and if 2 people want to use 2 bedrooms- not a problem.
We have 2-bedroom apartments but have never even thought about locking one of the bedrooms. We get a lot of couples that actually sleep separately or friends traveling together, so they are specifically booking us for the 2-bedrooms. There are even couples who do sleep together or single travelers who want the extra space of a 2-bedroom and may use the 2nd bedroom for hanging clothes or something but don’t use both beds. We do charge for each guest after the 1st guest though. So, for 2 people, sometimes we get lucky and they pay for 2 people and only use one bed and sometimes they pay for 2 people and use both beds. Honestly, it just seems to work out because of all of the extra bookings we get for having 2 bedrooms. If you price correctly, you should be covered either way (one bed or two beds are used).
I’m not sure if you do your own cleaning or not? If so, this might apply. We do our own cleaning and we do charge a cleaning fee ($29-$34), but the cleaning fee basically covers having all of the laundry done (we take to a wash and fold). So, the cleaning fee covers doing all of the linens for both beds as well as for all of the towels. Yes, it takes a little extra time to change the 2nd bed but the biggest expense is the laundry and that is paid for regardless of how many beds are actually used. Everyone pays the same cleaning fee whether it’s for 1 person or 4, so we don’t worry about it. And for the times that only one bed is used, I consider the ‘extra’ money going to supplies (and maybe a teensy bit of our time ,)
I know that there are hosts who do lock off bedrooms and charge per the room and it must work for them. Like anything else, it may depend on your market and/or your own sensibilities.
I think, if you’re advertising a two bedroom space, then it may be against Airbnb’s ToS to do that.
There was some guy on here before who was pretty dogmatic about that, and my answer to him was that if I booked his place for me and one of my daughters I’d be straight on to CS if he pulled that stunt.
One of our apartments has two singles in the bedroom and a sofa bed in the living room. There’s been a good few occasions where two folks have booked and only one bed gets used, the other pulls out the sofa bed. Bit more work on changeover, but to coin a phrase, it’s heads on beds © @RiverRock
JF
If you listing says that you have 2 bedrooms, you have to have both available for guests. You can set up two listings one with one bedroom and one with two bedrooms and then link the calendars. (can get a bit tricky.). Also, as others stated, often guests don’t want to sleep in the same bed (even if they are couples).
I tried to charge for a bed prep fee when 2 guests books and wanted the second bed and Airbnb said that it was against the rules.
I booked a three bedroom home in the Azores through Airbnb a few years ago for my two daughters and I (to specifically have a bedroom/privacy for each of us). They had someone meet us at the house to show us around (neighbor?), and only showed us two bedrooms; one was the master with bath, and the other a room with two single beds. Nope. I booked and paid for three bedrooms, and I expected them. It took until that evening for the person tasked with our arrival to retrieve a key for the room, and then found the bed wasn’t made up, and needed another key to access the linen closet, but we had three rooms/beds by bedtime! I say if it’s advertised in the listing, it needs to be available.
I stayed in a homeshare. Everything off limits was locked. In my infinite wisdom, it never occurred to me that people snoop. Surprise!
Two friends sharing a bed? This is a college town. Either there’s a very large gay contingent, or people will do anything to save a,buck! After four months they would probably be ready to kill each other.
The OP’s question is more about how to prevent guests arriving with additional undisclosed people rather than the bed situation.
If a couple book and bring another couple with them (I’m assuming two queens / kings. Sorry if I’m wrong) then how much extra does that add to your cost as a host?
There won’t be extra laundry because if two people booked (a non-couple) they’d still use both beds. Extra water for showers? HVAC is the same regardless of the numbers.
So the best way to do this is calculate exactly how much extra people cost you and add that, plus a profit margin, to your nightly costs. Then you won’t have to worry about it.
As far as I know, and someone will correct me if I’m wrong, there’s no 100% perfect way of ensuring that extras don’t sneak in.
When you or your co-host meet-and-greet there could still be someone arriving later or waiting elsewhere. You say that you don’t live there so a lot depends on the local person who is co-hosting for you? Is he/she okay with challenging guests who bring additional people?
Yes. More consumables used. Depending on alignment of body parts x times more chance of sex stains. More laundry, can easily be 2x due to towel use. 2x+ garbage generated, hair shed, etc.
Not here. For some reason 2x people = more AC running. I know because I can hear if the unit is on or off. I don’t know if it’s increased body heat or trying to satisfy more people’s variances.
I’m sure in some rentals the difference seems negligible. But in my rental there are times when the “twice as much” equals more work. Sometimes it takes twice as long to clean, sometimes not.
As always, size or rental, typical length of stay, cleaning fee or not, are all factors.
100 % agree if the market and the hosts target booking rate will support it.
(I will always argue that more people = more work. LOL.)
And as we say so often, every host and every rental is different 
How do you find out what’s off-limits? You check if it’s locked. 
When I go to do the turnover at one of my places I usually find that every drawer had been opened and not closed fully. Sometimes I am tempted to leave something in there…
It would be tempting to screw a small lens into the bottom of a drawer (like what goes in a door peep hole.) Then label it “you found the hidden peep hole/camera.” Then cover it with something like a pile of towels or extra linens. Then label the outside of the drawer “private, please don’t disturb.” Then wait to see how long before you get a complaint about the hidden peephole/camera. Ah, if only I knew it wouldn’t result in an Airbnb suspension.
I have the opposite problem. There is pretty much anything you could need in the apartment and yet people message me asking where stuff is. I tell people when I check them in to please open the drawers and cabinets.