We have a repeat guest coming in about a month. Their original stay was for 1 guest, however there were definitely more than 4 people. We impose an extra guest fee beyond 3 guests. Their second stay in a about a month, again they booked for 1 guest. We messaged them kindly asking how many guests will they have. They did state “likely 4”. We responded kindly asking them to change their guest total and reiterated that our listing states we charge an extra guest fee. We haven’t heard from then since (about a month now). As a host, should we message them again or should we just go ahead and change the reservation ourselves?
I don’t know your cancellation policy but i’d send another message, tell them if they don’t want to agree then they can cancel penalty free right now, otherwise you’ll go ahead and make the adjustment. (they still have to approve it)
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Moderate Cancellation Policy. Sounds like a good plan. Thank you!
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Did you charge them for their extra guests the first time they stayed and did they pay it?
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No, they put in one guest.
So they didn’t pay for the extra guests the first time they stayed with you? They put in one but had more than four? I’m surprised they were able to book with you again. I’m confused. If they didn’t pay for their guests last time and are now ghosting you for their next stay, why not cancel them? Was it an IB?
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We do state in our description that there is an extra guest fee 3+ people. It was an IB so I don’t really want to cancel them as it would count against us. I plan on messaging them again asking them to change the guest count or they can cancel or we submit the change ourselves.
And that’s fine, it’s extra, but even without it, a guest must book for the correct number of people. You are covered either way.
You should reach out again to them. If they don’t respond in 24 hours or so then text or email them and ask them to check their Airbnb messages.
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I’m surprised you didn’t ask for the extra guest fee the first time they stayed and that you didn’t block the guest so they couldn’t make future bookings. @rjruiz
Hopefully in your house rules you make it clear that only guests who have booked can stay.
Contact the guest again with an amended booking request to change from 1 to 4 guests. Airbnb will give them I think 24 hours to respond. If they don’t ask Airbnb to cancel their booking.
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That’s what I was thinking. It really seems like you would select the “would not host this guest again” option when leaving a review for this guest.
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Me too.
Because the guests were repeats, the host knows them but seems to have a reluctance to speak to them, which is puzzling. But because the guests got away with it the first time (deliberately or not), it’s not surprising that they have done the same again.
I’d simply have a conversation with them by wanting to know the exact number for the provision of bedding, towels, toiletries, bottled water, loo paper etc.
If the guest says “But we didn’t have to pay extra last time” then I’d say “What? You had more than three people last time. I didn’t know that!”
Then the conversation can either go to ‘never darken my door again’ or to ‘well I know that you’ll pay the extra this time because of the free accommodation you had before’.
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Call air and tell them that the guest has been unresponsive to your request to change the reservation to accurately reflect the guest total. They will likely contact the guest. Then the guest will either change the reservation for accuracy (paying the extra cost) OR not do it, at which time you can then ask air to cancel them (without penalty to you) for intending to circumvent your house rules (which is a condition for cancellation without penalty to you).
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You let them get away with it the first time, why are you surprised they think they can do so again?
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They, like many guests, may not be paying any attention to Airbnb messages. Text them, if possible, and keep a screen shot of your effort to contact them. It could be useful if you end up resolving this through Airbnb.
Just this week I asked Airbnb CS to get in touch with a guest for me and they did and the reservation was cancelled “by guest.” I’d try that route if a direct text doesn’t help. But be sure you send a message to your guest that you want the CS to read, in addition to a text to their personal cell.
In my case, the guest booked two stays with one day not booked between them. I asked him at the time if that was as mistake and he didn’t reply until 10 days later. He said it was a mistake (first time user) so I told him immediately, no problem just cancel the one you don’t want. Well he didn’t take action and I was getting pissed as the reservation was 30 days away.
So I got in touch with Air and directed them to the conversation and they fixed it…cancellation was done within hours of the first contact with CS.
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did you also give them a 5* review?
people who sneak in extras and “get away with it” (we have cameras, and we do the turnover so we know how many stayed, they don’t truly get away with it) also get ‘would not host again’ from me. i’m lenient enough in some situations to let it slide, but no way do i want them to come back and do it again.
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All is good. Airbnb intervened and contacted the guests. Within 24 hours the guest changed to the correct guest count and paid the extra guest fee.
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Don’t charge extra for so-called “extra guests”. If your place takes 4 guests charge for 4 guests. If it takes 6, charge for 6 guests. That, surely, is what you target is? Otherwise get a smaller place to short term rent out. The cost for you is higher for a place that has 3 bedrooms as opposed to 2 bedrooms so why offer a 3 bedroom place at a 2 bedroom price? It really does not make sense. Charge for your place being full because that number is your market. Guests will most often try to get away without paying for those “extra guests” so why tempt them?
There are reasons you might want to use extra guest pricing.
If you are competing with hotels midweek that are cheap, you can have a very low price for 1-2 guests, and use the extra guest fee to get a fair price for 3-16.
You can also lock extra bedrooms if it is just 1-2 guests to avoid extra cleaning. Just explain what space is included depending on the number of guests.
It could mean the difference between being empty and making 100s of extra $$ midweek.
Just depends on location and how you want to run the business.
To original poster: Many guests don’t know how to change or don’t pay attention to the messages. When you 'Change/Modify" a reservation, it still gets sent to the guest to approve YOUR proposed changes.
But calling airbnb and having them deal with non responsive guests is always a good idea. That way you have a record of what is going on and being proactive.
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So just offer midweek for a lower price. Locking the extra bedroom is not a good idea. Not everyone wants to share a bed so if you don’t have twins or split queens you would need to keep the extra bedroom open. Why try to compete with hotels if you can put 6 people or 4 people into a house for a similar price to a hotel room? As any marketer will tell you aim at your target market which is surely 4 people in a 2 bedroom property and 6 people in a 3 bedroom property. The reason many people have an additional fee for extra people is so that they can advertise a lower headline price. It is trying to have your cake and eat it as well, despite the fact that it really annoys customers. In my view, the same goes for cleaning fees - another way to misleadingly lower the headline price but piss off your customers.