Our AB&B was rented this weekend and after watching the cameras, I see there were too many guests, they evidently had a party, broke a bed, and stained just about every linen I’ve seen thus far. They broke stepping stones to the lake (driving on them). I’m feeling so defeated.
The girl was very nice and said all the kind things upon booking. She tried her best to clean, doing dishes and towels, but it’s still gross and not to my standard. As I found a half eaten banana under the couch and blueberries in the windowsills.
Do I try to get into some sort of a deal with Airbnbs insurance situation or just leave an honest review?
I understand that you saw the party on camera but I don’t see what you did to stop it.
My guests are always (well, 99.9%) very good at leaving the apartments in good condition but very few leave it in a condition I would call up to my standards.
Leave an honest, unemotional and factual review plus contact your STR insurance company if the damage is worth it.
Personally, I wouldn’t rely on Airbnb for any recompense as this will be time consuming and not at all guaranteed. Bear in mind that they might also ask how you let the extra guests happen, and the party, without stopping the situation.
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I homeshare and don’t have cameras. And not knowing all the details,I don’t want to be judgey, but I also wonder what the purpose of cameras is if hosts don’t view them until after a stay is over, or see the transgressions during the stay, but don’t immediately act on that info.
@Airbnb_mama Sorry you found such a mess and damages. Reporting a party to Airbnb these days seems to result in suspension of the host’s listing, so you can certainly send the guest a request for damage costs or decide if it’s worth pursuing a claim without mentioning “party” to Airbnb. (Just say your camera footage showed more guests entering than booked for or that you allow, and itemize the major damages. Don’t clutter up the report with minor issues like bananas and blueberries)
And certainly leave an appropriate review, but if you’re going to ask for damage reimbursement, wait til the 11th hour to post it, unless the guest reviews first, so you don’t get a retaliatory review.
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Airbnb’s faulty rating system seems to be a minor dent in their operations if what you said is truly the case (I don’t question that there were hosts whose listings got suspended).
I’m questioning the whole AirCover mambo-jambo that Airbnb so proudly advertises and if a host presents evidence of a guest breaking house rules and damaging furniture during their stay it’s sad to hear that all that Airbnb ‘can do’ is suspend the host’s listing - sounds like a scene from the Twilight Zone.
I really hope we will never experience such guests and come into such a situation but the insurance is supposed to be there to protect us (well us and the guest) and not have our listings suspended…
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I would do both, contact Airbnb with pictures for the broken bed, stepping stones and stained linen and I would also give her a bad review. Make sure to click on “Would not recommend to other hosts.”
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I have cameras to refer back to if there were any injuries or damage issues and also to be sure guests get in ok when they first arrive. I’m not watching my guests come and go every time the door cam notifies me. Having this door cam footage allowed me to claim extra guest fees when a guest brought 16 ppl vs the 6 they booked for. Taking photos and having an invoice for the 4 extra hours it took to clean also allowed me to claim and receive extra cleaning fees. I claimed both through Aircover and was reimbursed within 3 days.
I was also told that the more detail the better. My claim included details from the cereal tossed all over the house to potato chips in and under all of the furniture and everything in between. The more detailed the better and the more photos & video the better. I also left a very detailed and factual review so other hosts would know exactly what the issues were. It was bad and was not about to sugar coat that. I wrote it without emotion or insults and only included facts. They never left a review at all.
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Both. I recently had my first unpleasant guest who left my home a disaster and had more than the allowed guests. Having my door cam footage allowed me to claim the extra guest fees (it’s in my listing) when they brought 16 ppl vs the 6 they booked for (house is set up for a max of 8). Taking a lot of photos and having an invoice for the 4 extra hours it took to clean also allowed me to claim and receive extra cleaning fees. I claimed both through Aircover and was reimbursed within 3 days.
I was also told that the more detail the better (not emotion, just details). My claim included a lot of details from the cereal & soda tossed all over the house to potato chips in and under all of the furniture and everything in between. The more detailed the better and the more photos & video the better. I also left a very detailed and factual review so other hosts would know exactly what the issues were. It was bad and I was not going to sugarcoat it. I wrote it without emotion or insults and only included facts. They never left a review so I didn’t have to deal with that at least. I know a lot of hosts have had bad luck with aircover but my experience was very positive and I have heard a lot of those too so I would suggest trying to get compensation for the extra cleaning and if you haven’t already, add extra guest fees to your listing. If your listing already had the extra guest fees when they booked, you can claim those fees too. And of course, review them honestly with facts only.
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I’d never thought about an extra guest fee. But I plan to add one now!
I’m wondering what the norm is to charge?
By the way, appreciate your reply, I also am not watching the camera all day to see every detail of what people are doing.
In a situation like this I would hope you would report this guest and insist that they be removed from the Airbnb platform!
No excuse for this kind of behavior…
I charge $55. Per-person per-night.
But it’s also for the duration of the booking.
If the booking is for four nights, they will need to pay $220. For each additional guest.
I do this to discourage larger groups and to off set the cost of laundry and the additional cleaning…
Washing windows, etc…
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When I first started hosting, I saw a post in one of these group forums about the extra guest fee and it was something I had never thought of either. After reading everyone’s suggestions, I decided to charge $25 per person per night for guests over the 8 max. I’ve seen some higher fees and it may be smart to raise that a bit. I’ve only had the one issue in 2 years of hosting so I consider myself lucky. 
Edited to also suggest you submit claims for all of your damages. There are a couple of really good Airbnbhost Reddit subs that I have found extremely helpful and you can search the sub for existing posts about almost any issue hosts come across. How to successfully claim damages is one of them. Good luck!!
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@coolsheal I agree! I did report them during the claim process but don’t know the end result. That same guest was also a 3rd party booking so I’m hoping she no longer has her account. I was just grateful for no damages. I also wrote a very factual 1 star review. I think I’ll raise my per-person fee now though.
I wouldn’t call it an “extra guest fee” if it is going to be applied to those who are over stated capacity. A “fee” indicates something like a service fee, pet fee, etc. Not a charge for breaking one’s rules, which would be a fine or penalty.
If you get caught breaking rules or laws in any other walk of life, and there is a monetary penalty, it isn’t called a fee, it’s called a fine.
I could see guests who intend to ignore max guest counts thinking, “No problem, I’ll just pay the extra guest fee”.
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I had a similar argument with the Booking dot com representative when she told me that I had to set a financial penalty (she recommended $300 US) for smoking and could not evict the guests. I said “You do realize that really just changes my property into a smoking property at a little higher rate, right? Our property starts at $500US a night, and if we have six people smoking and they stay a week (our usual), it just costs them $7US per night per person to smoke all they want.”
I don’t list on BDC for reasons like this.
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Sorry to be off-topic here but how does one set-up a “financial penalty” on BDC? I’m only aware of setting up a security deposit in case of damage.
And another question: What did you mean with
We had guests breaking our no pet-rule and BDC told us that we have the right to kick out the guests. Does this not apply to smoking in particular?
I’m staying in a small cabin later this year that has three beds in a upstairs area that has a half wall, it’s not an entire private second bedroom and they charge $25 per person for an added guest. But a large home with added bathrooms and entire bedrooms I booked in 2019 was $50 per added guest. And if added guests had amenites like a pool, beach access, firepit, etc I’d consider even higher charges.
Even in my tiny suite the second person adds a surprising amount of extra work.
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I’m very curious now. Would you mind elaborating on the size and type of suite? Is it remote (in the woods) or in an urban area? Does the bedroom only have a single bed for one person and the second has to sleep on a convertible couch or something of that kind?
In our area (urban) all the studios and apartments have a minimum of 2 people as the base price. I’m wondering if this is a “thing” that studios should price their accommodation for one person and charge extra for the second guest.
I have no answers for either of these. I just know that when BDC person was working with me (about eight years ago) to set up our listing, she told me I could not evict someone for smoking. I didn’t ask about any other scenario.
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Some of our neighbors (multi-bedroom homes) charge $100US an extra guest per night. I don’t consider it about the cost of extra people - it’s about capturing part of what a larger group would pay for multiple hotel rooms. A larger extra-person fee and a lower base price for two makes a larger home affordable for couples, especially if you are in a location that gets mostly couples (like ours - we are a big honeymoon destination)
Extra-person fees are hotly debated on most owner forums. I went back-and-forth on them (three bedroom home) and eventually decided against them. I always ended up with some people being there for only a few nights, and some missing their flights and getting there late, and others adding people at the last minute, so I spent too much time messing with billing and refunding the fees to make it worth the hassle.
But extra-person fees are a way to make your price point more attractive when people search without the full number of guests or are just looking at the nightly rate.
We’re not in that exclusive situation of having more than 2/3 people per accommodation anyways. Surely, this is a relevant topic for larger places with more than 3/4+ people who can stay there.
I was just wondering if there is a trend that I’m missing where simple, small studios price their accommodation lower for just 1 person and then add a fee for a second guest? Or maybe this is already common practice?
If I understand correctly, instead of charging $50 per night for 2 people for our little studio, we could do $40 for 1 person and add $30 for a second guest?
That’s what I do in my smallest listings, as I often get single guests or 2 business travellers.
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