Good job. Did they try to argue with you after that?
Yes they did and I said this is my house and they are welcome to stay or leave. I cannot bend fire safety regulations that would void my house insurance for $100 a night
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I never worry about who the additional person is (our rentals only sleep 2). A lot of the time, guests will sign themselves ‘Jack and Jill’ or whatever in their messages on the Airbnb platform. Other times, a guest might say ‘I’m travelling with my boyfriend Jack’ or something similar.
But more frequently they don’t even refer to the other person or just say ‘my friend’, ‘my husband’, or similar.
I feel that my guests are entitled to their privacy. Because our rentals only sleep two people (one queen bed) then I’ve sometimes had guests who don’t introduce their travelling companions at all and a lot of the time I just assume that this is an affair. I always make a point of not mentioning person 2 by name in the review if I have the least suspicion that the couple are having an affair or if it’s a relationship that might not last.
So, to cut a long ramble short, usually I either don’t know the name of guest number 2 and if I do, it’s usually only their first name.So yes, you definitely only need the details of the main guest. He or she is responsible for the behaviour of their co-travellers.
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I don’t worry about names too much either. Sometimes I don’t even know the names of people who are staying in our home for a few days just because it’s so hard to remember them or if they are in another language. I just smile and say good morning/hello when I see them and ask if they need anything.
Sarah, I almost always forget guests’ names! I have to write them on my palm so I can have a sneaky look 
And when I get the Airbnb email that says ‘write a review fore Joe’ I think ‘who on earth is Joe?’ then realise that he just left an hour ago. My memory is hopeless.
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As I am determined to have some type of unregisitered visitor/guest policy, but also concerned about names, I wonder whether, rather than asking people to list the names in the booking, the policy should state something like “No more than 9 visitors/guests in the Property without prior permission”
Any thoughts?
I really hate to say this but no matter what we put on our listings as rules, if a guest is dodgy then it makes no difference. 999 guests out of 1000 aren’t dodgy in the least. (As you have read here in this forum). If their intent is mayhem, any number of rules won’t deter them.
As for the matter of Airbnb supporting the host if a rule is broken, I imagine that the benefit is negligible. (Or at least, that there are other ways to deal with the issue). I’d like to get other hosts’ opinions on that though.
One example: I had guests who were outside on our property at 2 am making a noise, taking flash photography and generally partying. A neighbour ‘informed’ me (i.e. complained). It was much easier to just get rid of the guests than call Airbnb and go though all their marlarkey to enforce our quiet time.
How did you get rid of them?
Knocked on their door and told them that because of their unreasonable behaviour I’d prefer them to leave. I told them what time they could get a flight to their area (I’d looked it up online) and suggested that they could catch the plane if they left in an hour. If offered to call them cab and said that they didn’t have to clean up if they needed that hour for packing.
Believe it or not, an ‘older’ lady doing that is more effective than a big and beefy threatening-looking bloke. I imagine that you’re picturing your mum doing that but be assured that although I’m a bit younger than she is you could say that we are of the same generation. Hosts (or cohosts) really need to understand that guests aren’t some breed of monster to be scared of - a bit of assertiveness goes a long way. I suspect that we mothers are good at it - we’ve dealt with children and teenagers so guests are no problem.
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That’s also why people don’t think they need to respect my boyfriend and I when we enforce our rules. We are both under 30 and sometimes middle aged and older guests see us as a couple of children who they can walk over or disregard.
My mum’s nickname for most of her life was “Iron Lady”. If she felt safe doing it, I’m sure she’d love kicking bad actors out of the house!
Sad, but I can see why that would be true.
She’ll more than likely be a fantastic host then!
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Sometimes they try to threaten us into getting what they want but we don’t give in.
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OMG, I thought Maggie Thatcher had passed away. 
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Our listing states "No visitors other than booked guests allowed on the property (2 max). If they need explanation at the time of breaking this house rule we give them the true one. It’s an Airbnb insurance issue.
If a guest brings extra people onto your property that are not part of the booking and they hurt themselves on your property and then try to sue you for it, Airbnb will not help you as they are not part of the booking!
I just got a booking for a man from Taiwan and his name on Air was written in Chinese letters so I have no idea what his name is. I don’t mind, though.
Cool I hope your experience of hosting him goes well.
I just had an enquiry from someone with Chinese characters and I asked them to list their name in Roman alphabet as well. Otherwise how on earth do you say their name or discuss them with Airbnb?
You could use the reservation number I guess. We had some Chinese people who stayed with me for a night while my boyfriend was out of town and I was nervous the language barrier would be an issue but they left us five stars and a nice comment on how it was their first time staying with ‘the housekeeper’ lol.
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I have a Chinese guest staying over as well. Did you have any issues with providing English check in instructions or house manual? I can read and speak mandarin and communication is not really an issue, but writing in mandarin just doesn’t come very natural to me and it takes me twice as much effort as writing in English. I’m not going to write up an entire Chinese house manual and check in instructions just for one set of guests!