Lay My Hat

I have just had a very awkward situation where a guest booked my property on AirBnB for 4 adults but 6 turned up. What made it worse was the guest messaged me on the day of arrival and asked to have the sofa bed made up for her because she "hurt" her knee and she couldn't make it up the stairs (her knee looked fine to me as she was carrying luggage in and out of the property on numerous occasions with no limp!). I reminded her that i usually charge extra for the sofa bed but as it was Christmas eve I will waive it as goodwill gesture. She took advantage of it when 5 other members of her family turned up and stayed for the 3 nights that she booked . I thought of confronting her but as there were 4 males with her it could potentially lead to a nasty situation on Christmas eve which I wanted to avoid.
When they all checked out I made a call to AirBnB. They are generally beyond useless with situations like this and today was no different. The problem is if I ask for the money in the resolution centre i worry that the guest, out of spite, will leave me a not so good review, and AirBnB say they can't do anything it. This will go against my future superhost review, not so good.
I don't know why with a situation like mine AirBnB dont disable the review process for both parties, otherwise it can just get out of hand.
Really don't know what to do. I'm out of pocket with no backup from AirBnB. An upsetting situation...

I do not understand how you can be out of pocket. Presumably you were paid a rental fee for the 3 nights your guests stayed, there may have been a little more energy use because of the 2 extra guests but apart from that I cannot see you having incurred substantial extra costs.
You were probably wise not to confront them because of the potential for a nasty confrontation. It is best just to accept you were duped on this occasion. (In the words of Donald Rumsfeld 'Stuff happens')
Perhaps consider another rental listing site if you are not satisfied with Airbnb.

Drax wrote:I do not understand how you can be out of pocket. Presumably you were paid a rental fee for the 3 nights your guests stayed, there may have been a little more energy use because of the 2 extra guests but apart from that I cannot see you having incurred substantial extra costs.
You were probably wise not to confront them because of the potential for a nasty confrontation. It is best just to accept you were duped on this occasion. (In the words of Donald Rumsfeld 'Stuff happens')
Perhaps consider another rental listing site if you are not satisfied with Airbnb.

So sorry, I forgot (stupidly) to say that it is an extra £10 per guest for the 5th and 6th guests. So I am £60 down on the whole experience.

sorry to read about this.
but when you say

no backup from AirBnB

I am not surprised. Time to de list?

Ask yourself, has this misdemeanour cost you anything? You've missed out on an opportunity for extra income, but direct costs to your purse? Unless you have an addditional laundry cost, zilch. As Drax says, stuff happens, it's not worth getting upset about for £60 which you weren't expecting anyway.
Relax, and have a Happy New Year.

Mols

My sympathies. I have to say I would have been a bit miffed. It's not the money; it's the deceit.

AndrewH wrote:My sympathies. I have to say I would have been a bit miffed. It's not the money; it's the deceit.

Miffed & more AndrewH. Agreed, the nominal cash is irrelevant but you can't just have guests doing as they please & choosing to ignore or personally amend booking terms as they see fit. It is a recipe for chaos & becoming increasingly prevalent with the relentless market dominance & detachment from responsibility of the big players. They care not a jot whether you have 2 or 10 turn up - their fee is the same so why expect them to get involved? You had the opportunity to voice your concern & chose not to so there is little point fretting over it now. I don't understand the constant fear of a possible negative review, take it on the chin & answer it, decent guests will see through it - they took the p**s & perhaps if future guests know that you don’t tolerate dishonesty they'll think twice about doing the same.
As an 'outsider' now I can't say I'm a fan of the way the current 'sharing' model is affecting local communities in the wider scheme of things nor of the apparent nonchalance of many of it's guests.

If you haven't yet written your review of them why not say something like:

x was a pleasant guest (or what-ever you want to say) but I was a little surprised when the booked party of 4 increased to 6 without letting me know.

They can't see see your review until both are written or the time for them to write one has passed and that way you can warn others that these guests may add extra bodies without letting you know and without paying. If they give you a bad review elsewhere you can refer them back to the ABB review in any reply you add.

I recently got a booking from an employer for a single worker for two nights, at our single occupancy rate of £60 per night. I took the online payment in the morning before arrival,but when two guys showed up, I contacted the employer for extra payment. Came the reply “Why are you asking me for more money? I thought I had booked the whole apartment” . Oh yeah? The apartment sleeps 4, so did he think he could have had 4 staying, working out at £15 per night each? Even our lowest local doss house would charge more than that! The guys who stayed were really good guys, but I don’t like having the p*** taken! Needless to say. I never got any more money, it’s a learning curve😠

I recently got a booking from an employer for a single worker for two nights, at our single occupancy rate of £60 per night. I took the online payment in the morning before arrival,but when two guys showed up, I contacted the employer for extra payment. Came the reply “Why are you asking me for more money? I thought I had booked the whole apartment” . Oh yeah? The apartment sleeps 4, so did he think he could have had 4 staying, working out at £15 per night each? Even our lowest local doss house would charge more than that! The guys who stayed were really good guys, but I don’t like having the p*** taken! Needless to say. I never got any more money, it’s a learning curve😠

I think that people will try to game the system regardless of who they book through. I think I would have politely expressed surprise (with their booking in my hand) and asked them for the additional dough and put it all down to an "oversight". That aside you are unlikely to get these toe rag free loaders again and a review that warns other ABB hosts would be the right thing to do. You could do this politely and indirectly I'm sure

I agree with Rosie and Stewart.

If you've not already posted your review then I'd slip in a subtle mention of the extra guests.

Can't tell you the amount of times I've given a small occupancy discount only for my Housekeeper to call up to let me know the house is completely full. Rule now same price if it's 1 guest or 7 guests end of.

Don't you take a deposit? I had over-occupancy happen once, the wife was (I think genuinely) mortified and said the husband was supposed to have told me. They said they were relatives but it was an extremely busy week and could have been a sublet for all I know! They asked if I could take it out of the security deposit but I felt like I wanted to keep it given the breakdown in trust, and I made them give me cash. It was super awkward but I was glad I insisted.

I must say in this situation I would have asked for the the money on the spot, Christmas is peak time and your terms are quite clear. Just keep pleasant but firm. The four guys were hardly going to beat you up and people were there in violation of your T & Cs! You could always have sent an "altered reservation" message with the extra money demanded, no need to confront them in person. Insurance reasons are also a good one to cite here.

I think you're stuffed at this point but lesson learned, don't let them get away with it scot free. I agree, leave a review saying what happened to warn other owners. I don't think the reviews are published until you've both written one.

This is normal behaviour for French guests. We were becoming like a hotel with extra people coming and going. We live on the property so considered it was very disrespectful.

Now I state in the fees note section that any additional guests, other than the number booked, will be subject to my agreement and will be charged 100€ per night per person. We started it for 2018 and it worked well. People made it clear when booking if additional people would be staying mid holiday and French guests politely asked permission when here if family members could stay rather than the first we would know of them was when a second car arrived.

We didn’t charge the extra fee but they all knew we could if we wanted to do and it changed the dynamics!