My third set of guests arrived tonight, and to my dismay, they booked for two adults and 2 kids, he even mentioned the names of two kids. But I looked at my security camera footage of the front door and there appear to be 4 kids and two adults. I messaged him and mentioned that I saw 6 people, and asked him if they were also going to be staying (they all arrived in one car) for the weekend also, and mentioned that there is a $25 per night charge for guests beyond four. I’m curious to see how he responds. I’m feeling a bit nervous…
Send over a edit to the reservation with the additional 2 people. If he doesn’t approve the change you may need to get in contact with airbnb.
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Yes just use the res center to do the confronting. But yes, very annoying and a bit nerve wracking when you have to confront.
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I just tried to alter the number of guests and the site won’t let me because the reservation has already started.
No I mean, send an invoice for,the additional guests.
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Yes, I did request additional funds, and I attached photos from the camera of the six guests. I hope he doesn’t give me a bad review or damage my house. It is unfortunate that they weren’t honest about the number of guests coming. 
I also put out a certain number of towels depending on the reservation, and I guess there are six towels, but no extras, since I didn’t know there would be six people.
I’m curious to see how it pans out.
Try not to sweat this. Some people can try and get away with some seemingly shady sh*t that can make you fret that they will trash the place or filet you in a review, but then can wind up being (relatively) easy guests otherwise. You really never know.
Getting your first bunches of good reviews under your belt is very important, but keep your power and keep it in perspective. It’s your house. You worked hard to make it nice for guests. One dumb guest is NOT going to change that, so don’t give yourself gray hairs over it. Just keep doing what you’re doing: being a stellar host, but also being a savvy businesswoman. They need to pay an augmented rate of $50 extra per night and that’s that. You have nothing to feel worried about. They’re still going to use more water, utilities, linens, tp, etc. with those two extra people. They’ll make do with the towels. If they wanted more supplies, they should have told you beforehand.
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He is in the wrong he lied to you. In your circumstances I would call the guest. Explain that you have seen on your CCTV that he has a party of six guests and he must have made a mistake when he only booked for four. Then pause and see what he says. He doesn’t have any choice but to admit it.
Say you are sending him a notification for a payment request to cover the cost of his extra guests through the resolution centre and he must accept this, if he wants his party to continue to stay with you. Give him a time period to accept. If he doesn’t ask Airbnb to cancel the booking.
Follow this up through Airbnb messaging.
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Update on this situation. I sent the guest a message letting him know that I observed 6 people entering the house on my security camera and asked if they were overnight guests. He replied to this message that indeed, they are, and that he has four children. He claims to not have realized there was an additional charge for over 4 guests. (which I don’t believe) He also had sent me a message right after booking letting me know he would be traveling with his wife and two boys, and he named them. I find it difficult to believe she just forgot to mention his two daughters.
I also sent him a payment request for the extra $150 and he hasn’t responded. It’s been more than 36 hours. I guess I’ll follow up with Airbnb after the 72 hour period they list. The guest did message me and ask me where he could find some pliars to install a new car battery, to which I responded immediately, he got the pliars, used them and put them back. So I KNOW he is looking at his messages and responding, just not the request for payment.
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Don’t worry, let him ignore. Airbnb will side with you especially if you have photo/video evidence. The best thing that could happen is he sends you a message threatening to leave a bad review unless you drop the additional charges that way any review he leaves you’ll be able to have Air remove.
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I’ve had to request payment often for people bringing pets. I will say in their defense that lots of people have a hard time finding this request. It’s not visible on the message thread. I’ve started telling people the easiest way to find it is to check their email for the link that Airbnb will send them. I also added to my rules that all people and pets must be paid for before check in. So if they don’t pay they are technically in violation of the house rules.
I’d send him another message telling him to check his email and to please pay immediately. If he doesn’t please mention that in the review. Since he has admitted that he has the extra people you will get your payment sooner or later.
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I know that this isn’t for everyone but if a guest is staying for just a few days and as long as I haven’t supplied anything extra, then I don’t stress over additional guests as long as no extra mess/noise is created. (And I’ve found that those who have sneaked in an extra person are particularly careful to not draw attention to themselves by making a mess or creating noise).
Extra guests are unlikely to create extra costs for us - the electricity is the same, the AC - and the water isn’t metered. That’s just our setup of course.
Both our rentals each have one queen bed so any extra guests have to sleep quite uncomfortably on a sofa. Supplies are issues just for two people. So if they want to rough it, that’s fine by me.
This is just my attitude of course - not everyone agrees.
Each to their own of course but it does set a precedent whereby some guests think the limit on numbers or how many you pay for, is not really observed by hosts so they keep doing it.
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Yes, you’re right. I suppose that every host is different.
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I had a guest staying with his girlfriend recently and noticed 3 adults leaving in their car and they had only booked for 2. I immediately messaged him and as it was his first time explained that there is often an charge for extra guests as there is at mine ($25pppn). He paid up straight away. He also gave me a bunch of 4s, including for “accuracy” like its my fault he can’t use Air’s website properly. But I can wear it so glad I pulled him up and was paid.
Also it looked like the other guest might have been his gf’s identical twin sister so I may have seen them both around but thought it was the one person. I wonder if they regularly use that sneaky trick to get all 3 in somewhere for the price of 2.
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As with so many things some of this depends on the type of rental. I have a one room rental at an average of $40 for one person. My second person fee is only $5 and I have no cleaning fee. That second person charge is just intended to cover the extra utilities and by golly, I will get it come hell or high water. But if I had a place that averaged $100+ per night with average stays of several nights I’d have an approach very similar to @jaquo’s: no counting extra people, free bottles of wine and more.
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Identical twins - clever! I bet they can get up to all sorts of nonsense.
Truly, the way that guests give star ratings totally baffles me, even after all these years.
That’s spot on! Guests in our rentals (separate apartments but I’m on the premises) pay more than $100 per night. They get arrival snacks and a bottle of wine. They get coffee. They get items for their first day’s breakfast so they won’t have to dash out to the supermarket on their first morning.
These are for TWO people.
Toiletries, towels etc. are supplied for two people only. Any additional guests have to seriously rough it 
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It could be a Miss Marple mystery. The identical twin sister did it! 
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Last 10 bookings - all of them have brought In extras…
Oh - I thought I rented the whole house
Yes - you did, but there is a per person per night payment.
You booked for 2, but I can see 6 and you used every available bed and all the towels.
But I booked the whole house… and around and around we go and then get dinged on the review because THEY did the wrong thing!
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