My guests arrived with two more people than the reservation is for

We have a place that we rent out in its entirety, and we charge well over $100 per night. I charge extra for people over two. The more people we get, the more likely we’ll have damages (and we do not charge a security deposit). We provide housekeeping, and the housekeeper comes more often with more people. We have A/C in every bedroom (not central), and every bedroom that gets used increases our electricity costs a lot.

But I look at it the other way around - we are not charging for more, we are discounting for fewer. Our location is not a high-demand area , so we have to try and attract groups of all sizes. By charging an extra-person fee per person per night, we’re making our home more affordable for smaller groups and increasing the likelihood we’ll get booked.

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My extra person charges (above first 2 guests in the main bedroom) involves an extra bedroom to be cleaned,set of sheets and towels to be washed, breakfast stuff. The extra charge is about half the charge for the first two people so I think it is fair. Usually the kids or grandma!

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That’s what I tell people who ask why my prices go up 25% on holidays and weekends. Oh no, i say, they don’t go up they just don’t get the midweek or out of holiday discount.

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No need to be nervous. Make the change to the reservation as others have said. Hopefully you’ve disclosed your security cameras because Air won’t accept them as evidence if you haven’t. Don’t be afraid of a bad review as you will hopefully write an honest review pitched to other hosts, and you will be able to respond to theirs. You can also ask Air to remove their review if they ding you unfairly. After all, they lied in making their reservation. Air may or may not accede, but it has happened. Be strong! Also, don’t worry about getting less than 5*s. Many very successful hosts are not super hosts for one reason or another and do very well indeed. If you have a preponderance of steller reviews any negative review will quickly sink to the second page of your listing.

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The saga continues. My guest has said that he will pay, no problem, but has not responded to the payment requests or two subsequent reminders I sent him.

They checked out, and informed me that part of the plumbing of my dishwasher became disconnected and water leaked onto the kitchen floor. He cleaned up the water. I thanked him profusely.

Then, my cleaners came. They are new to Airbnb cleaning, as I am a new host. They seemed horrified, that compared to our previous two guests, the house was a mess with every single towel and piece of bedding used, the blankets on the floor, game pieces missing, and lots of debris on the floor. I wasn’t there, so I didn’t see it first hand, but I need to give a review and I’m not sure what to give.

Today, I canceled my payment request, and sent him a new one for $50 less to compensate for the dishwasher leak. If I don’t have payment by the end of today, I will involve AirBnB.

As for his review, hmm…I think I would subtract two stars for lying to me about the number of guests, and maybe minus 1 star for being pretty messy. What do you think?

I should also mention, that I have three beds & two floor mattresses. For only having reserved for FOUR guests, and then having 6, they used the bedding that I intend for 8 guests. I wonder if for future, I update my listing to say that the floor mats and extra bedding are only for over 6 guests? The beds each sleep two. I understand that people may not want to sleep together, but the laundry is a big issue in terms of time. My cleaners (2 of them!) were at my house for 8 hours doing the turnover!! I know they are not fast, but WOW. That is 16 person-hours of cleaning. My cleaning fee is $150, which they get, but I never expected it would take them that long.

Laundry (I have huge, new, high capacity machines) takes over 2 hours per load. I do have extra sheets/towels/duvet covers for each bed, so they can put fresh linens out while washing the others. But when we were expecting four guests, and they used ALL the bedding and required the blankets and everything to be washed, it was a lot.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to rent to families and then expect two to a bed, when there are extra beds available. Laundry can take a long time but the best way to do it is have 2 or 3 sets of bedding per bed. That way your cleaners can just change the sheets and concentrate on cleaning, and you can either do the laundry in your own time or pay a laundry service. You don’t want to be paying cleaners to stand around waiting for the washing machine to be done.

When reviewing definitely drop a star or two for cleanliness - regardless of how many beds they slept in they shouldn’t be leaving rubbish everywhere.
And a couple of stars for communication, not responding to your extra fees request.
And a couple of stars for house rules for lying to you in the first place.
Then definitely make sure you actually say all this in the review so future hosts know what they’re dealing with

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I’d give a thumbs down, one star on cleanliness, one star on rules and two on communication. Here are the issues I see: 1) Coming with extra guests and clearly lying about it since he didn’t give the daughter names. 2)not accepting the charges 3) not communicating about the dishwasher leak. He should tell you when that happens and send you a picture. Why would you believe a liar. Now he’s gotten another $50 off and more time to pay it.

As for the linens used I agree with Gardenhost that you probably should expect all the beds to be used with that size group.

I wouldn’t want to host this family. Wait until the last minute to review unless he reviews you first.

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Hi @PonderosaPines

If you are not local, do you not have a local co-host to help manage your property with you.

Really either you or your co-host should have visited in person to ensure he accepted the extra charge while he was there.

And never agree a discount without having checked the property. Why thank him, he could have caused the leak in the first place.

I do hope you have photo/video evidence of the mess he created.

You should have charged him in full for the extra guests plus additional cleaning.

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Thanks Helsi,

I do have a co-host locally. He is new to Airbnb co-hosting and although he said that the place was left very messy, I think he was just irritated that all the bedding and linens had been used. (and some blankets were on the floor). They just weren’t as tidy as our previous two guests.

And, the guest did provide me a photo of the dishwasher line disconnected. I believe him, and my contractor has already fixed it.

Regarding the extra guests, the guest admitted to and agreed to pay the extra in messages. He just hasn’t followed through yet.

Thanks–

Laurel

Hi @PonderosaPines

Ah my confusion arose because in an earlier post you mentioned your cleaners, rather than a co-host, finding the mess.

Personally I would alway rather ensure the guest accepts any charges while they are at the property, rather than having to argue with them regarding payments once they have left.

Its good you have photo/video evidence of the mess.

Good luck

That’s too bad that they turned out to be less than stellar guests, but you were prepared for it, since you couldn’t tell if he was being deliberately shady. Now you know. They tried to sneak the extra guests for free and are now ignoring the pay request. Lesson learned. Air will make them pay. Definitely mention it in a review, but be careful with tone in early reviews. Your next guests will read them all.

Next time, send it to the guest immediately with wording along the lines of “Please put the correct reservation alteration through in order to keep your reservation…” or something like that, >>>while they are still in the house<<< so they may worry they’ll get the boot (even if you had no intentions on kicking them out).

Forget writing something on the listing about linens. If it’s in the unit, they will use it. Period. (even if it’s your stuff waaaay up high in a cupboard or even has a note on it!)
If you have a locking closet, garage, cupboard, or something you can convert to one, consider storing extra linens and consumables, etc. there and only providing what is needed for that actual stay. We learned this the hard way as we had our entire linen cupboard raided (before we had even thought about cctv) and they must have had so many extra people in the house to use that many sets of sheets and towels and supplies for such a brief stay. Have anything extra and the sets for your cleaners to turn the rooms in the locked space.

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