Undocumented Guests in Excess of Max

Research
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We have had a few issues with guests exceeding the maximum occupancy. Our latest (last night) was a couple that stayed and claimed their cousin and spouse would be visiting for a little bit. 8 people were still present when the housekeeper arrived after seeing numerous cars in the driveway prior to checkout. It was also evident by the alcohol, vomit and urination from the deck that more than 2 people stayed the night. The fumigation and cleaning will obviously be more extensive and cleaning will take more time/money.

We had recently reduced our max occupancy from 4 to 2 to combat these types of guests. With that reduction, we removed our additional guest fees. We will obviously review this guest fairly, but we’re trying to determine a fair resolution charge; though that might not be possible since nothing is in writing since we hoped this would not happen again. The easiest would be whatever the cleaning cost is above the normal amount, but this guest also lied to get a great deal on a place to stay. So perhaps requesting the same nightly rate + cleaning three more times (2 guests x 4 = 8 people that stayed). Any thoughts?

Ultimately we want to prevent this from happening again. I am not always present during a guests stay which is when these things seem to happen. Preferably, these situations are identified and corrected promptly, but what is the best way to proceed when they are identified late or the next morning. Since there is no additional guest fee option past the max occupancy, can a fee be specified? (For Example, unidentified/unauthorized guests found spending the night will be paid for by the booking guest at a rate of $______). Ideally such a fee would deter this type of untruthfulness and also be reasonable. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Eric

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Was it a short stay? I try to rent out the space for longer stays. Usually longer stays have been couples or families. I avoid the short stays because they have been mostly college kids that want to party. You should request the additional money for all that extra cleaning. It’s disgusting that they urinated and vomited off your deck. Sorry you had such an awful experience.

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You could list these charges in the future in your house rules etc. I see no issue with you asking for the several times the nightly rate. Definitely an abuse by them. So sorry it happened. Make sure you have photos (if still possible) and maybe even a statement from your housekeeping staff. Documentation definitely doesnt hurt.

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The only way you can prevent this happening again is by installing CCTV so you can monitor arrivals and departures.

Also minimise the risk of this happening by having longer stays, strong house rules that talk about no guests who haven’t booked or paid visiting the property, vetting your guests before accepting bookings etc.

Unfortunately by removing the additional guest fee, you have made it difficult to claim for the additional people who stayed.

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Tedious is engineering your hospitality around people who are quite frankly dishonest and disrespectful.

You might also wish to consider increasing your minimum number of nights.

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Thanks for the replies. We’ve made a few changes including a surveillance camera (noted in the house rules), an additional guest fee of $200/person (only as protection if this happens again) and numerous notes about the max occupancy and no visitors; including an automatic ‘question of understanding’ to be answered upon booking.

We get a lot of one night stays because we’re 40 miles from Anchorage and at a ski area. People love to come out for a quick getaway, but we’ll keep the longer stays as an option…

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What is a question of understanding?

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Sorry, it’s just the optional questions you can select when setting up instant booking. We put a custom question in there to hopefully remind folks to pay attention to our house rules.

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Interesting because I have the questions set up for IB but have never had anyone actually answer them! Lol

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Make it a 2 night minimum. And find someone in Girdwood to act as a co-host, preferably someone who lives across the street full time.

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Has anyone had any experience with ABB paying you on a fee like this? I set one in my house rules and have been waiting a couple of months for ABB to rule on it. They are now offering me a token 13% of what my fine is, they say because I have photos, not vidoes.

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I do sometimes get the fees. Usually it is when the guest admits it. Sometimes even videos don’t get it for me because they claim that each person is not visible all at the same time so regardless that they are all gonna one direction and wearing different clothing and have different hair (and sometimes even different skin colors) they claim they won’t make the guest pay it pony it up for them. It is a mixed bag honestly but better to get it sometimes than none, and even better that having it in the rules will likely deter some from doing it altogether.

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