No, that is potentially a really bad idea that will eventually result in bad reviews. If you say you have a 4 bedroom home and guests arrive and have access to only 1 or 2 bedrooms, you will get bad reviews, regardless of the number of guests. Do NOT do that. If you want to lock bedrooms based on guest count, then make multiple linked listings for different number of rooms/guests.
Yes, laundry is crazy. And guests have known to utilize all the rooms if they are not locked.
Sounds just like my experience, so I will continue to ride this train for now and see where it leads. I will evaluate and make changes as needed. Hopefully the market opens up more in my area.
Yes, and they have a right to do so when your listing says 4 bedrooms and has photos of those rooms etc. If you lock doors, then you will receive a bad review saying your listing is not as described, and rightfully so.
If youâve got a 4-bedroom home that sleeps 8 but only gets booking for 4 people or less, then you have a completely different problem that an extra-guest fee is not going to solve.
HmmmmmmâŚI thought that might happen so I updated my listing to reflect this so that guest know what to expect. This will also deter guests from lying while making reservations. Is that a bad idea??
We have a 3-bedroom home that sleeps 6. Weâre in a fly-to location (St Lucia), and âlow seasonâ (late summer and fall) doesnât attract too many larger groups. So I usually priced for two and added extra for extra guests.
But Iâve decided itâs too much work and think weâve lost more business than extra revenue generated. The base rate is at least $400 a night, and the extra-person fee was $25-$50. I found that we ended up refunding when someone had to leave early, and it was just a hassle chasing people for the extra money if the wanted to add people. So Iâm trying the âsplit the differenceâ approach - set the price to be what I want for 4-5 and see what happens.
Ideally, Iâd set a low rate in low season and add extra-person fees for then, but then have high season at a flat rate. But the OTAâs donât give me that much flexibility so I have to choose one or the other. 
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In my opinion, yes, itâs a bad idea because eventually youâll get a bad review and if it comes sooner than later, you could be devastated as a host. Just do it correctly and create multiple listings for the same property with linked calendars.
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I would personally feel some type of way if I have to share space with strangers. I will just increase my base rate.
For 4 guest, I open up all the rooms. For 3 guests, 3 rooms, etc. For 1 guest, have 1 bedroom(Masters suite) open.
I think half my guests donât even check the number of guests accurately. I have a home share and an extra guest doesnât really create much extra expense or cleaning for me. I would keep your price adequate to cover your expenses for your average number of guests. You might lose a little on one and make it up in another.
There are lots of hosts who lock extra rooms that werenât paid for. @RiverRock is one who has done it. I believe how they handle it is that they create more than one listing. I saw a listing once that had a 5 bedroom house with about 6 listings. So one listing is for the entire house. Another listing might be 3 bedrooms. Only the 3 bedrooms offered are pictured and you have the price for 3 bedrooms with no per person charge. A third listing would be 2 bedrooms. I probably wouldnât bother with a one bed listing in a house that large unless there was a nearby event with everything sold out (like Coachella or the Super Bowl).
Iâm not sure why Brian is so adamant that you will get a bad review. You should only risk that if something is pictured that isnât offered. After a 2 bed booking is made Iâd follow up with a message confirming that they guest understands theyâve only paid for 2 bedrooms and the other two will be locked.
Also when messaging or writing ad copy, try to make everything sound like itâs for the guestâs benefit, not yours. âTo make this rental affordable for smaller groups of guests, we offer just two bedrooms at a lower price. The other two bedrooms will be locked.â
Thoughts like âtwo bedrooms are locked so you m-fâing goldilockers donât mess up the whole house!â can be aired here.
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Makes a lot of sense. I will adopt this.
Thank you!
Iâm saying youâll get a bad review if you donât create multiple listings (one for each bedroom configuration), which seems to be what youâre recommending as well. However, what Iâm reading is that @epadat will have just one listing with some text in the listing description.
Iâve seen the bad reviews in 2 listings in my area in addition to reading about it on forums. E.g., in one review of a large house, the guest said the listing said X bedrooms and Y bath rooms (with photos of all of them), but after check-in, they found that there were only bedrooms and bathrooms and a few locked doors. The guest rated it one star across the board. The host responded that the listing states the house has 2 configurations: one for up to 14 people and one for up to 22 people and there is an extra charge for the larger configuration. The host also said that the size of the guest group was specified as 14 but there were several more adults and children than stated on the reservation.
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Oh, sorry, I didnât see that you had already advised her to do that. I shouldnât post before Iâve had my coffee.
And what stops guests from using additional bedrooms and therefore a lot more cleaning?
The best solution Iâm aware of is to create multiple listings for the same property. Say you have a house with 3 bedrooms. You can create 3 separate listings with 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms, and when appropriate, lock the doors and donât show photos of unavailable rooms. The listing and photos describe only what guests can access. The calendars for all 3 listings are linked so that they canât be double-booked.
However, I would go further to say that if you have a listing for 3 or 4 bedrooms and youâre mostly getting bookings for only 1 to 3 people, then your hosting model is broken. You are either leaving a ton of money on the table or you have the wrong type of listing for your market.
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I dont get how that would work. Say a couple booked a 1 BR for 2. But itâs a separate listing from 2, 3 and 4 BR, right? So how is that supposed to blocked off when anyone books one of the several listings for âentire placeâ?
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You have to sync the calendars. If someone only books the 1 bedroom option, the entire house option becomes unavailable.
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As @Muddy said, thereâs a calendar syncing feature. Itâsâ almost like it was designed for this purpose 
How well it works in conjunction with channel managers is something Iâve never read about, though.
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Yes. Syncing calenders. I have used to to link my calenders for VRBO and BOOKINGS. Never thought about liking it to other AIBNB listing.
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How do you mean Brian?? You might be rightâŚwhat do you think can be done differently?