I have a guest staying in my studio suite for 5 nights. Tomorrow is his last night and he’s been pretty well behaved up until this morning when we noticed a woman inside our property sitting outside in the patio area (the suite is connected to the main house). We clearly have stated in our rules that no extra guests or visitors will be allowed without pre-approval. We then noticed this woman might have even stayed the night there. Since we’re pretty new on airbnb we decided to just send him a message reminding him that no guests or visitors were allowed unless pre-approved… as mentioned in the rule. Day goes by and no reply from him, figured he got the message. Now we see him outside with the woman and they entered the suite together. Not sure what to do at this point? Should I charge him a fee? Send him a message?
Clearly he’s ignoring you. Does your rules mention anything else about a fine for an extra person?
I suppose you could send a request for the second person. Lets see what others have to say about this. Since he’s only got one more night and he’s been well behaved besides this it wouldn’t do any good to kick him out.
This will be an unpopular opinion I think.
You’ve told him and he ignored you. I wouldn’t bother to push it further or he will leave a crappy review and you’re just starting out. Just leave a review that mentions the extra guest and bad communication.
If you’re worried about extra guests in the future, add a high extra surcharge for additional guests.
Have you spoken to them? What do they say about it?
@Jackie_GranCanaria I think it is a dangerous path to advise that hosts should ignore bad guest behaviour for fear of a bad review. Where do you draw the line…if they check out five hours late rather than two? if they bring four rather than two additional guests without payment? if they break a bed rather than just damaging the linen?
@aimarabnb in your situation, when the guest didn’t reply, as you are on the premises I would have gone and had a friendly chat with him about the extra guest and said that you have noticed he has an extra guest staying and it is against your house rules for him to have extra guests without notifying you or paying the extra guest fee. However, let him know if he does want her to stay she will need to be added to the booking and he will need to pay the additional guest fee.
As he has ignored your message I would call in and ask him to come out for a chat and have the same conversation now. Say that you will send a request through Airbnb Resolution Centre for the extra payment for the guest staying yesterday and ask if he wants the guest to stay tonight too? If he does, he needs to pay for both nights. I would make sure he accepts the request for the additional payment while you are there.
Please make sure you leave an honest review for the guest and mark him down for communication.
Definitely not let it go.
As with any accomodation every guest should be paid for . I close my eyes with my workers. The nature of them renting is that they have people come and go during their stay and it’s impossible to keep track . Sometimes their wives/girlfriends fly in for a weekend together …I let it slide . The only reason why I let it slide is that they pay me tons of money …at times double of what I would make otherwise …and I treat them like VIP.
With regular people there are no special treatment. Rules are rules .
May be he didn’t get your message .
May be he thought that he can bring a date if he paid for a room. The fact that she was not hiding from you and just sat on a porch tells me they are clueless .
I would definitely talk to him, and try to get him to pay for extra person.
It’s not nessesesary to be harsh about it. I had a guy guest recently whos girlfriend surprised him by flying in all the way from Jordan and calling from airport .He brought her to the house in a middle of the night and in a morning I saw her . They were very appologetic and paid me extra for her for next 2 days of his stay. I let them stay though I don’t want 2 people in one room .
No, I do not mention any fine for an extra person. I usually have it set to automatically charge the extra fee when a guest books a 2nd guest.
I’ve only messaged him. He was replying to me when he arrived and I was asking about accommodations. However, when I sent the reminder about the visitor he did not reply.
Charge for the second guest. It’s apparent she’s staying over so charge. It doesn’t have to be angry or personal. It’s simply a very reasonable policy with a very simple solution. If he doesn’t accept the change Airbnb should be willing to help you.
Don’t be afraid of the bad review.
The only thing is I have no proof she really has been sleeping there yet. I’ve seen her go inside a couple times and be there at times like 3am but I would have to go back and check my house’s cameras to make sure she really is sleeping there. If she’s not, what should I do? Still charge for a second guest? Or how can I go about charging for just a visitor?
Charge anyway. She is spending long hours there, she is using the toilet etc. Maybe the fellow will become indignant and angry, maybe not. But if you are going to get in the habit of ignoring your own rules and feeling intimidated on your own property you aren’t going to last long as a host.
My first inclination was to charge the guests, my 2nd thought was …ok I am going to review the original reservation and messages. Was there a clue that there was going to be more than one person staying that I missed and should have been addressed. Recently, I have had 2 guests who thought they put two on the reservation and were shocked to find it was only for one. I do not understand the current train of thought of charging per person and not per bed. My rates are per bed, one or two people it is the same charge. If only one stays then I make a little more money if two then I “break even”. But of course this a personal choice. I would speak with the guest directly and not in a threatening manner. Good luck!
Update: I just saw the woman pull up in his car with a little girl and enter the suite with the keypad code.
At this point I’m just not sure how to move forward and charge him a fee for this.
It’s not letting me alter the number of guests in the reservation on the Airbnb app. But when I go to “request money” is telling me " Please update your reservation with our Alterations Tool" which takes me back to not letting me alter it… Is it “other trip related issues” then? I usually charge $10/night fee for a 2nd guest…
@Jackie_GranCanaria I agree with Jackie; while I think the guest has a lot of nerve to bring in an overnight guest, I think that pushing the issue will get you nothing but a bad review. Forget about it and try to keep your cool…
Air changed the system recently - we can no longer make changes to the reservation ourselves once the reservation is in progress. You’ll need to call in to get the count changed. You can still go through the resolution center to charge the extra guest fee.
Hi @aimarabnb
Have you spoken to the guest about this yet?
The woman is clearly staying there she has the code to the listing and you have seen her there in the early hours. The extra person fee you charge, is what you should be charging the original guest for.
@Allison_H is correct, as well as requesting extra funds through the resolution centre, you will need to call Airbnb to have the extra woman - plus the child if she is staying (do you have room for her) on the booking.
Please make sure you follow up any conversations on Airbnb messaging so there is a record.
The other thing that can be done is that reservations can be canceled when guests break rules. For me if someone booked for one, then had a second with a child (my listing is limit of 3 and not suitable for children) I’d be getting irritated. If I messaged them and they ignored me I’d be more irritated so now it would be a stronger message. “I see you have two guests for whom you didn’t get approval and didn’t pay. I have messaged you previously and didn’t get a reply so this could be settled in a timely manner. I have sent a resolution center request for the payment for two additional guests. If you don’t make the payment I will cancel your reservation.” I’d also text the same thing to him and or go discuss this in person.
You probably now have a local with child who knows how to access your property. You have a guest who feels that he has the upper hand and is emboldened to overstep the boundaries as you aren’t even willing to step out of your house and talk to them. Hopefully the code is changed after every guest.
An extreme measure would be to tell him the code is changed now until they vacate or get the payment.
I had to deal with this over the weekend :-/ Luckily I had previously gotten advice from a property manager in the area (sounds like it’s a common issue in our market) and had put in an extra $100 per person per DAY (not just night) for non-agreed upon guests. We also have a strict no extra guests/no visitor policy which is why I worded it as anyone who visits, regardless of how long they stay. Probably not super helpful for this particular situation, but since you’re new, just know you’ll likely have to learn the hard way on many topics.
At the end of the day, don’t let it get to you too much if you can help it, because it can and likely will cause a lot of stress. I personally hateeee confrontation so I’ve built in lines into my rules to just collect a lot of money after the fact if they choose not to read and/or adhere to my house rules.