Make a problem now or later?

I have guests in my house for the weekend. They booked for 6 guests, full house, but my security camera shows at least 9 guests. I have a $100 per person fee, per night after 6 guests. Should I contact airbnb now, or after they check out? I would rather not have them trash the place out of retaliation… I am out of state if that makes a difference.

Contact Airbnb and guests now, if you handle it with care, no reason to suspect they’ll trash it. Find out how many people are actually staying and submit a change request for them to pay immediately. They might just be friends visiting in which case just enforce whatever policies you have for this.

Don’t panic - yet

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I have had this happened to me and I suggest you put it in your rules that they must books the correct # of guests staying and no other guests are allowed that way if they break your rules you can cancel the reservation without penalty , it is what I did and has worked for me since ,

Put in in capital letters
"MUST BOOK CORRECT NUMBER OF GUESTS"

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Hi @skipitt

Hopefully you have in your house rules that only those who have booked and paid can stay at your property.

Contact your guests by phone and follow up via messenger. Explain that they have booked for six guests but nine appear to be staying.

Say you are disappointed to see this, but if they want to stay they need to pay for the extra three people.

You can send a change of booking for nine people and ask them to accept it if they want to stay in the property.

I’d send a message now going something like: “Hey, I’m checking in to say I’m glad it seems your trip is enjoyable so far! Also as a heads up, my listing states extra guests above 6 cost $100 a night. I’m happy to adjust your booking to reflect this, so please keep me posted if the other members of your party will be sticking around overnight. Hope you’re having a great trip–as always, let me know if I can do anything to make it better!” They’re less likely to trash the home of a host who’s been nice to them, and if they’re going to trash the place at all, then there’s not much that can be done at this particular moment.

Also… I’m going to hope you’ve disclosed that you’ve got a CCTV within your listing? Air is probably going to be more strict about that, than siding with you on extra guests since they make it clear hosts have to notify guests about any and all cameras. So if nobody knows of its existence, then you going to Air and saying you’ve got footage is sort of like a police officer bringing in evidence obtained without a warrant. :wink:

Anyway, sorry that you’re in a delicate and tricky position!