Would you take extra guests to a holiday let?

The problem of over occupation is not just resolved by asking people to leave.
For a start it puts the owner in a very difficult position if they refuse and can turn nasty very quickly.
Secondly the police will not intervene for you unless it really has gone badly and people will take revenge. Once a bad review is out there it can rarely be got rid of no matter what!

Lots of people who own Holiday Lets have an 'arrangement' with close-by Residential Neighbours. If those neighbours suspect that something 'untoward' is going on, then they'll contact the owners with their concerns. Those concerns would include rowdy parties and overcrowding.

Dear me. What a nasty thing to do. When you consider the shocking time hospitality has had and how people are only just tentatively getting back on their feet, this is such selfish behaviour. Says much about Britain today… the “something for nothing” grabbers.

Kamiso

An ex colleague used to go on several last minute bargain cruises every year and put her 16 and 14 year olds down as under 12s.

She thought we should lie about DD2’s age as she was 12 whilst we were away. Luckily we didn’t as the steward wished DD a very happy Canadian 12th birthday on the flight out.

How did they get away with that? Surely passports are checked for cruises!

I wouldn't. If I thought I might want to invite others I would rent an appropriatly sized property and ask the owners if it were ok to have the odd ad hock guest. Simple good manners to do so.

An ex friend of mine rented our holiday home for 2 weeks, I thought it would be for her, her two daughters their husbands and 4 children. When they arrived I discovered that she'd also invited another family, 2 adults and 2 children and a single friend. Also a stepson was included in one of her daughter's family. So the amount of bodies rose from 4 adults to 8 and children from 4 to 7. There were also people visiting for the day/evening and they camped out in the sitting room overnight.
I was staying in other accommodation in our garden. That's how I knew how many people were there. Also all the posts on Facebook gave the game away!
Lesson learned by me, never do a friend a favour ever again. They arrived late a night so I felt uncomfortable refusing them entry, especially with all the children, I'm sure my ex friend had factored that into her rudeness.
I think that it's incredibly cheeky and very rude to add people to rented accommodation without informing the owner, as pp have said the insurance will be invalidated.

I think it is a very risky strategy. It is not in accordance with the details provided and it may give the owners a reason to terminate the contract and ask them to leave. Also, as has already been said, they will not be insured.

We are going on holiday shortly. It is for 6 people and I was thinking of adding another person but I would have checked with the holiday company first to see if the owner was OK with this. Presumably there would have been an additional charge. As it has turned out, the person we were thinking of inviting cannot make it.

I definitely would not bring extra people.

In the past, I have booked a large cottage with a pool, and I included my brother and his family on the booking form, even though they were only coming to visit during the day.

We have a sleeps 6 gîte and I would be very cross if this happened. Our gîte is set up for 6 (plus a baby) and would be unsuitable for 9 - we have to register at the Mairie (registered for 6) plus then there is the taxe de sejour...

I don’t mind our guests having friends over for a meal- but that’s it. Luckily I live next door so your friends would be evicted tout suite!

Hope they get caught and the owners through them out, hate people like that.

We regularly go to the same caravan park every year with DD, her DH and 4 children-they have a 6 berth. DH and I book a 4 berth. DGC often come and have sleepovers with us but the owners know and often ask smilingly any idea who’s sleeping where yet? We’ve been going to the same site for about 20 years so we know what to do and wouldn’t abuse the system.

I have once taken an extra child to a holiday let but I messaged the owner to ask before hand.

Its like going shopping and paying for six cakes and taking an extra 3 without paying. She has no redress if the owner finds out, cancels the booking with immediate effect, keeps the money and even considers suing her for breach of contract

No I wouldn’t. We always book for 2 more than we need and tell the owner that my DD might be there for a few days, but we wouldn’t overbook.

It's bad manners if nothing else. What if the owners call on them to make sure everything is all right and then see the extra 'guests' - they'll be caught out then, won't they?

Definite no,for the reasons you mention plus it's just plain abuse of the holiday let system and mean.

That’s just taking the Michael, so no, wouldn’t do it. Someone somewhere is losing out on possibly badly needed income. We had big family Xmas in 2019 with 16 of us, but managed to find adjacent properties in a lovely location which accommodated us all. You need enough room for everyone to have personal space, if you don’t then that’s when disagreements occur. We’ve been back twice since then in various configurations, it’s been such a good find.

Absolutely not. Deception and theft! What is she thinking of??

We rented a house to sleep 10 for our daughters wedding. One extra couple had their flights changed so were without accommodation for the last night - we asked the owner, he sent a maid to make up a sofa bed in the study and we voluntarily paid a bit more. The only way to do it imho

I booked a two bed apartment on a holiday island where my daughter was working (same price as paying a single supplement) and asked the owner when I arrived if said daughter could stay with me for a couple of nights. The answer of course was yes and we had a great time.. the owners were very interested in her conservation work.
But I wouldn’t have dreamt of smuggling her in without asking first!

It sounds like a form of theft to me.
We may be old fashioned but my husband and I have always tried to live by the principle that if you gain anything dishonestly you will never get a moment's pleasure from it. It is also about the example you set for your children.

Cheating in any form is simply not in my nature ?

How rude to take more people than the cottage is registered and insured for.

I had friends who had a B&B and discovered a family of four in a double room. They were swiftly evicted!

Would it invalidate the host's insurance so that if the property were damaged there would be no payment?
That seems unreasonable if the host could not know of the cheating.
Also, it's unlikely that cheaters would care about that.

I'd never do it - but some friends (who are very well off) regularly hid their youngest two children, under blankets, in the car on arrival - to 'sneak them in'. They got a kick out of saving money and getting a bargain deal - also crowing about how clever they were!

I bet they didn't know about insurance being invalidated.