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I’ve been hosting for about 7 months and have had close to 30 guests within that span. For the most part I have had a good hosting experience. I realize that not all people live the way I live and I let most small things that I disagree with go. Last night my guest really made me upset.
I live in northern NJ and the guest was driving to me from Canada, my check in time is 5pm, at 4pm I message him that the room is ready. He responds back that he is still in Canada and just hitting the road. Considering the fact that he initially told me that he would be arriving at 7pm I knew that he was going to get in really late. So now I’m getting agitated because I’m not a hotel and arriving super late on a Sunday evening for someone who has to work on a Monday I think is borderline rude.
Fast forward to midnight and the guest finally arrives, I should mention that he booked for 2 guests and in my house rules I have a maximum of 2 guests allowed on the property. Well here is this guy at midnight arriving with two other people saying he needs a favor and he needs a place for his buddy to sleep.
At this point I’m boiling inside, my street especially at midnight on a sunday night is very quiet, and even normal talking voices sound like yelling at that hour so as politely as I could told the man there is no space for a 3rd man. I told him you booked a room, not an entire place. He starts with “it’s late and its just for one night”.
How did that become my problem is what I thought in my head.
He agreed to my house rules upon booking which state a maximum of two guests. My extra person charge is $10.00 and I charge it to discourage 2nd guests as I prefer solo travelers.
I think I just feel taken advantage of, He’s booked through Wednesday, Monday evening when I return from work, I will check the room and if I feel that 3 occupants are still there I think I will get Air involved and ask him to leave.
I hope this works out for you but I would have refused him and asked for his reservation to be cancelled and not let any of them in. There are plenty of motels in NJ. I agree that if you are not happy after today I would contact Airbnb to let them know.
I know it would have been difficult to do, but at that point, in the street, I would have called airbnb. Make sure you have the number stored in your phone. You could have said “I’m going to call airbnb now. You are in violation of my house rules, violation of the TOC of airbnb, and this is not acceptable”.
He was a total jerk and you must review him appropriately. Even if you COULD accommodate the extra guest, there was no reason to do so. The being careless of your schedule is rude, but springing this guest on you at last minute is unacceptable.
Good luck with the rest of the days!! Maybe in the light of day he’ll turn into a nice guy. ; )
Another thing I always say when i’m refusing requests for additional guests (I rent a cabin that technically could sleep more people than I allow to stay), is that i’m not permitted or insured for more guests. I don’t know whether that would have helped here, but it at least makes enforcing the rule a little less awkward.
But I agree with @dcmooney and @Maggieroni this is the kind of thing the AirBnB helpline is there for.
Yes, they have the option “If this is about a reservation in process now…”. I’m sure they would have been very interested in this situation and would have backed you up 100%.
You should message the guest through the system “as a favor I allowed the extra guest. this message will confirm that the third person must vacate the property by 11 a.m.” Get it documented, NOW.
I would not let them in. The best part would be that you get to keep the money. They went against your rules.
I turned around people with children. Don’t let them make their " mistakes" your responsibility. And you right, they did take advantage of you
Let us know what happened. I would not have let all these people in. They are so disrespectful to do this to you. First the excessively late arrival, then the additional people. You were within your rights to turn them all away at the door and let them sleep in the damn car. Or find the nearest motel 6. Idiots.
What ended up happening the next day? I would be boiling over about one undisclosed guest, let alone two!!!
I might be wrong, but if you have an extra person fee (no matter how small) and extra people are not disclosed at time of booking, can’t you simply deny them access?
Any guest can come at any time and even in the middle of the night at my property but I understand others not allowing it. I definitely would have said that they were canceled and to go find someplace else to stay when they showed up with an extra guest. That was beyond rude especially when they arrive so late.
Just an update. Even though I’m still pretty upset I have to clarify that the guest was very nice the entire time. If it wasn’t for the extra guest and the late arrival I would go as far as calling him a model guest.
There are without a doubt 3 guys staying in my room that I have listed as a maximum of two guests. Being that he just signed up for Air and had no reviews I’m chalking this up to his inexperience and being guilty of not thoroughly reading my rules and listing.
I have decided to give my first negative review when he checks out tomorrow. Its not that I want to leave it but I feel that I would be doing a disservice to the community by not letting other hosts know of this experience. In my private feedback to him I will again stress that what he did wasn’t cool.
As with everything in life, Ill use this as a learning experience. Next time someone shows up with an extra person they will never see the inside of my house.
Some people are just not ‘hip with the flic’, and if they are good of nature, it certainly makes it easy to cut them a break and take the time to educate them.
This is exactly what happened to me and we’re the same - no space etc for a third person. They were new to Airbnb and they were my second guests ever. I think one of them ended up sleeping on the floor as we had no extras of anything. We asked for £10 a night for the third person. I didn’t leave a review and they didn’t either. I’m kicking myself I didn’t now!
I am afraid to deal with such situation one day. I have a lot of extra space in my B&B. But I want only 2 people to be there.
I am interested, can be that 10$ for an extra person be taken off from my listing page?
