Required to list all guests in reservation?

HI All- I have my first guests in the new Air BnB I set up right now and am just starting as a host.It’s a detached unit across the road from me. I set up my site so only people with a positive review could book. Current occupants are three (my max). The person who paid entered his profile and has one 5 star review. I think he just made a mistake filling out the form and booked as one person. When I asked about other guests he gave the names of the two others. I have three questions:

  1. How do I set up the booking process so I see profiles or at least have the names of all guests when they book?
  2. Is it a problem to just have the names of other guests in the messages, as opposed to having them entered in the reservation?
  3. What’s the best way to go back to my other upcoming guests and get the other guests entered in the reservation without making anyone mad?

Thanks!

FYI: When I asked one of my upcoming guests to have the others fill out their profiles I was told he didn’t think they had Air BnB profiles and supplied the names. how would you handle this?

Is the problem that your area authorities need the names of all guests? Just explain that to your guests.

No, it isn’t. Do most hosts just let that slide? I thought I read somewhere that airbnb insurance won’t back me up if there are unregistered guests?

Clark Todd

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Clark, I’ve edited out your phone number and email address. I imagine that they were your email signature and that you didn’t mean to have them shown?

If your area doesn’t need guest IDs then there’s really no point in asking for them. Airbnb ‘insurance’ is very unlikely to back you up. I’ve heard that some hosts have been compensated for damages but that is extremely rare. Dealing with claims with Airbnb can be very time consuming with absolutely no guarantee that you’ll have any success.

It is important that you get STR insurance. It’s more expensive than regular household insurance but you’ll be able to sleep at nights knowing that you have it.

I have a suspicion that needing to know the names of the entire party could be detrimental to your occupancy. This depends on your rental of course but I find that from time to time the guest’s companion doesn’t want to give their name. Admittedly, our apartments are both one bedroom and guests are usually couples… :wink:

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Thanks for the edit and the info!

Clark when you reply via email it includes your full name, phone number and website. I’m going to edit it out but we would really appreciate it if you could remedy the situation or log into the forum to reply.

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If they have not provided other names I ask for them when they fill out my brief registration form. When I travel as a guest I often rent a 4-6 person place and am not certain until a few weeks before who will actually be able to get away. I always explain this to the hosts.

While it’s up to you whether to ask for full names if all the guests, they should definitely enter the correct number of guests coming on the booking form, not leave it as 1 guest if there are going to be 3.

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Here are some admittedly random thoughts on the subject:

It’s possible for a guest to link the Airbnb accounts of any other guests to a reservation, but guests rarely do this, and in most cases, not all guests on a reservation have Airbnb accounts. I believe the only advantage to it is that the host review of the guests will be tied to all guest profiles. Ideally, linking a guest to a reservation would allow them to communicate with the host through the messaging system and also be copied on all communication from the host, but that wasn’t the case about a year ago.

Some hosts put in their house rules that all guest names must be provided and they have success with that strategy.
Some hosts put in their house rules that the guest must sign a separate rental contract and that contract requires all guest names (and other personal info like age and home address). This seems to be more common with hosts that list on several platforms.
Some hosts say that their insurance company requires it, but in my research of STR insurance in Nov/Dec 2018, not one insurer I contacted required it, so I question the truthfulness of this. (If anybody here knows, I’d love to know what companies requires it).
Some local governments require names and/or photocopied IDs of all guests. I’ve found this to be commonplace in Europe.

If you require all guests names, but your local government does not, having Instant Book turned on is a bad idea since there’s no way to ensure names are provided before booking and the host would have to cancel the reservation if the guest doesn’t provide the info after booking. On the other hand, if your local government requires the info, then you can simply deny entry until it’s provided. Airbnb must back you up if you are complying with the law.

Getting a list of all guest names is probably another deterrent against bad guests (just like Airbnb verified ID), but if you aren’t also checking the IDs of all guests, then how do you know they aren’t made-up aliases?

If you are thinking about checking IDs of guests, do NOT make copies of IDs unless your local government requires it and you follow the information handling guidelines of that government. The criminal or civil penalties for failure to protect personal information can be severe.

Historically, Airbnb hasn’t been very supportive of hosts with booking requirements that are more strict than Airbnb’s own policies, and if there’s a problem, you need to be prepared for whatever outcome is decided by a random poorly-trained customer service agent.

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Who really needs all names etc before check in?

What difference does it make?

As long as a) you get folks details at check in, b) you get paid for the correct number of guests and c) your place doesn’t get trashed, what is the issue?

All sounds like power trippy hosting to me.

:roll_eyes:

JF

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We currently need the names of all adult guests, as our guests have to pre-register with the government and identify us as where they are staying. The government then sends us the names and dates of people who register, and we have to verify that. I won’t verify random names! All this is due to COVID.

But even pre-COVID, I had it in my house rules that I require the names of all guests prior to arrival, and that we have the right to ask to physically see their identification and that it matches the names they gave me. I have that in there in case I have concerns about their identity for some reason or another. Haven’t used it yet, though. (We have a full-home rental - a villa sleeping six in the Caribbean).

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I meet and greet all my guests.
When they book I send a thank you message and ask for confirmation of the guest numbers.
Two days before arrival I send another message saying I will meet them on arrival and once again mention the guest numbers.
When they arrive I am there with my clipboard and literally do a head count, let them know how close by I live and where my aunt lives.
It is amazing how often the guest numbers change!

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If you knew the mental picture that just conjured up, you’d deffo not want to be my friend :wink: anymore.

JF

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I’m wondering if that is the reason for wanting a complete list of guest names, though. If it’s just a guest count due to extra guest fees or occupancy restrictions, then meet guests at check-in and get a camera. That’s less work than dealing with trying to get a complete list of names AND ensuring that list is accurate.

Since we home-share, we meet and greet all guests, too. And I make a small welcome sign for the front hallway. Because of that, I ask for the first name of each guest when corresponding with the guest. People are always willing to tell me.

If they’re going to be in our house, we want to know at least their first names.

It is also if there is an emergency - like a fire. I want to be able to say there are the correct number of guests so they know how many to look for.

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No doubt, and that is in line with Airbnb’s policy, but number of guests and a complete list of guest names is not the same.

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We ask for full names and addresses for all guests (as required by insurance). No one has ever pushed back on it.

Air is merely the booking engine - they have no right to ask about our policy.

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