We had reservation for 6 adults, (two children) all family members for graduation of Son. They are to stay 2 nights, starting Friday and leaving Sunday 11:00am… We get paid the most for graduation weekend, because every unit of lodging is booked a year prior. We have 3 bedrooms with 3 Queen size beds, plus a couch. The Parents seem to be responsible and in my checking all are Professional working folks.
We got the Ring Door Bell and stated in our Airbnb Ad we have Video on outside of house.
I have been watching people come and go but there are at least 3 young adults still in my house at 3:30 am. Two of the young men arrived with backpacks at 1:50am this morning.
We also stated with Airbnb No Parties and max of 10 People-and $15.00 per day for each extra person. What I am concerned about is the Graduation is today and they are planning something big for tonight. The Parents and son graduating have brought in enough cases of Beer and Food for a big celebration! They are scheduled to leave tomorrow Sunday by 11:00am. We are out of town and watching this all on our Ring doorbell!
My question is should we contact the Guests regarding extra people plus a reminder there are to be NO Parties? Or contact Airbnb to contact these folks? Our neighbors, especially one, will contact the City and make a Complaint- and has in the past, lying when there wasn’t this much activity.
If you have seen more people arrive then have booked, absolutely you should be contacting the guests straight away. @CosmoCiro418
I wasn’t sure what you meant by a maximum of 10 - is that 10 staying, or up to 10 on the premises including your guests who are staying?
I would express your concern that they have broken your house rules by having more guests arrive to stay then have booked and that if they want these guests to stay, they will need to add them to the listing and pay for them.
Say you are also concerned to see they have brought a large amount of food and drink and want to be reassured by them they will not be having a party on your premises. and your limit of no more than 10 on the premises will need to be adhered to (plus any night time quiet rules )
leave.
Remind them that if they do exceed your maximum guest rules or have a party you will need to ask Airbnb to cancel the booking and they will all need to leave and find somewhere to stay.
I would say it is definitely your role as the host to contact your guests in this situation. Hopefully if you don’t live nearby you have a local co-host who can go and close things down if the guests ignore you and decide to party. Make sure you follow up any conversations in writing. (Don’t just message as some guests don’t receive notifications of messages on the platform).
$15 per extra guest is not going to stop people from sneaking in. Too easy to pay it and move on. $500 per night per unauthorized guest is a deterrent,
too late for that now.
I would put in a change for the extra guests for last night and TELL them that if they bring in any extra people tonight or have a party you will cancel the reservation and remove them.
RR
The guests will likely throw a party in your rental home, if they brought in a lot of food and beer.
You should ask your local police / sheriff officers to drive by your house around 10 p.m. and 12 midnight for a “safety check.”
You don’t want your Airbnb cited for hosting a loud party, with alcohol served to teens. Plus, you don’t want the neighbors to complain to local officials that your Airbnb is a “party house.”
I would head home to deal with this.
RR
Yes, I would head home too.
The police do not appreciate policing a party when you are out of town. Nor do your neighbours.
Where is the co-host while all this is going on? There must be one, I find it hard to believe that anyone would entrust their most valuable possession (or one of their most valuable possessions) to complete strangers without having someone right there on the spot to deal with issues.
It sounds as though the OP has several rentals (“because every unit of lodging is booked a year prior”) so there must be someone looking after them, surely?
This is why I will never be a remote host. Hard enough with a couple Longterm properties I have far away.
I am a fairly New Host, this is our 4th time renting our house. And this was our first Reservation made last October and today I would of done it differently. I made several mistakes out of ignorance and lack of experience. Some of the responses here have been helpful others very arrogant and condescending. No we are Not Remote Hosts and do Not have several properties, only this one, our home. I see this forum isn’t a place to get support for the most part.
We left town in our RV because all the RV Parks are full because of Graduation, and have no where to stay. We have our dogs and are limited. My Friend is feeding my outside Cat and has gone to the property 4 times at different hours but there hasn’t been any loud activity just people sitting in the backyard talking.
We are very upset and I am scared they all won’t leave today as scheduled at 11:00 am. I see how I did not do things right in my Airbnb Ad but can only pray they all leave… My Friend is going to go inside of the House around Noon and we are leaving for home soon.
Airbnb told me that if my friend or neighbors call reporting loud party to Call the Police… The planned Guests consists of the Parents of the Son Graduating, Married Sister, husband and two young children, and Adult Brother/ Girl Friend. So it isn’t all College Students… but they have given the Door Code to several of other college students that go in and out all hours. Which has Creeped me out. After I contacted these Folks and confronted them- they then had people come around the side fence where I can’t see them until they walk out the Front Door. But then last night at 1am the graduating son came in with a girl and at 3am two young males came in, after the one blew a kiss at the Ring Door Bell!!
Of course you are learning all of this now but renting to students for graduation is a definite recipe for disaster unless you are in the house. I am on the faculty at a University and most students view graduation as the chance to become totally drunk. Sorry you are going through this. However, you need to contact them and let them know that you know what is going on. I’d also take the prior advice and go home now. I doubt that this will stop until you show up and even then it may take some effort.
I’m so sorry to hear that. I was new to this once too and I continue to make mistakes. You didn’t know this would happen so whatever mistakes you think you made I’m sure they were honest mistakes.
It sounds like your guests are avoiding your surveillance. That would bother me too. I have 8 cameras, contact sensors on all doors and windows as well as motion sensors on each level. Its not perfect because they could just unplug the router but it lets guests know that I’m aware of everything thats happening on my property. Thats usually enough to get them to stop.
If you’re going to do this a lot and you’re worried, get an iSmart Alarm system with wireless contact sensors. Its cheap. You can set an alert so it tells you on your smart phone when a door or window is opened. Then setup cameras at every entrance. You’ll probably want a DVR style system that records so you can play back the footage and see how many guests come in at what time etc. The Ring etc is no good because the video quality is low, it doesn’t record to a DVR for you to play back footage from, the night vision isn’t good, its too conspicuous and most of all its too expensive. My 8 camera 1080p system was $300 (Samsung) and guests hardly ever notice it.
Everyone, please lets not turn this into another camera debate thread. OP already has a camera and isn’t getting rid of it so that won’t be helpful now.
Come to think of it this sounds familiar from my graduation… Even my professors were wasted.
As for everyone saying to come home and confront the situation or the call the police, I respectfully disagree. If OP goes there in person and confronts the guests, what is she going to do if they don’t want to leave? If she calls the police, they might decide that the guests still have the right to stay because they have a rental agreement but give them a warning. At best, the police make the guests leave but now OP has a reputation on the block for having police at her house. Thats not good either.
The first thing you should do when you have guests that are breaking the rules is to call Airbnb and have Airbnb contact the guests. If you want the guests to leave, tell Airbnb and they’ll inform you what your penalties may or may not be. When guests are doing stuff like this, there’s usually no penalty for the host.
If Airbnb has told the guests to leave, that time has past and they aren’t gone, I have one more piece of advice. Get an Eaton Energy Management circuit breaker on the main breaker on your panel. They’re about $300 but you can remotely disconnect it and cut power to the house. You’d be within your rights to do that if it got to that point. There’s no confrontation, no police and most likely the guests would leave but not before most likely damaging and stealing some things. The Airbnb host guarantee would cover those things however.
Thanks for the last few responses, very helpful. I called Airbnb yesterday and she wasn’t that helpful-but this morning Airbnb had a whole different attitude. They got a Manager that contacted the Guests and told them they needed to empty the whole house of people and leave by 11:00AM. Airbnb Mgr just called me back and said the house should be empty but have someone go in asap to check condition. Airbnb said that they are keeping my situation open for 24 hours with a Manager to handle issues… I got a Text from Guest it is empty! Hurrah!! My neighbor just called and said a bunch of people let the backyard and walked through side and got into Cars and left. I guess they didn’t want to show up on the Ring Doorbell. Hopefully my house is OK- what an experience…
Yeah people can be pretty horrible can’t they? I’m one of those hosts who check IDs for every guest. Its really difficult when you get a big group like that though because they don’t all arrive at the same time. I’ve considered asking for a guest list and asking for the booking guest to send me pictures of all the ID’s unless they want me to check them in person. Neither one of those options would go over well with guests but an Airbnb host is within their right to ask for ID. Its the most effective way I’ve experienced to get people to be nice however. Technically, the guests aren’t required to give you a copy or send you their ID. They only have to show ID. So you can see how difficult this would be to coordinate.
I have been hosting remotely for 8 years with very little problems, but I nip stuff in the BUD. My rules are sent to each guest upon the reservation being finalized and I emphasis the cameras in my listing. I don’t want to catch them doing something; I want to deter them from even thinking they can get away with it. Folks planning a party often look for newbie hosts, by the way.
All guests not on the rental agreement - overnight and otherwise - are prohibited outright until specially approved by me.