Would you take extra guests to a holiday let?

Absolutely not!
I thought it was illegal anyway. Many years ago I was involved in this sort of situation when I went on holiday to rented accommodation with three girlfriends. The brother and boyfriend of one of the girls, plus another male friend arrived ostensibly to camp nearby but by the third day had moved in, without my approval but nobody listened to me. The accommodation we had rented was substandard and not what we had booked but when I complained the owners said, justifiably, you haven't honoured the agreement by allowing three extra people to move in and refused to listen to the complaint.

A big no from me too.
She should pay extra for another 3 occupants,they will use more electric etc.
She has a cheek beyond words.

No I wouldn’t do it, for one thing I wouldn’t like to be crushed in sharing amenities, like Kali2 we normally under occupy, if only to get additional bathrooms.
But I think it’s unacceptable anyway, some people just don’t care.

If she wants to sleep 9 she should hire accommodation that sleeps 9 or find extra accommodation elsewhere for the additional 3. Perhaps ask the owner of the cottage if there is anywhere else she can recommend. This is mean and sneaky.
Dd regularly rents a cottage on IOS and always sticks to the rule of 6 which includes the children and gets on very well with the helpful owner.

Less important, but another thought is that there may not be enough crockery, cutlery, glasses etc for the extra people.

Have used holiday cottages over many years, still do sometimes for
just the two of us. To over occupy is unreasonable , no have never done that.

If she reads her holiday let contract she may find there is a clause saying that having more people in the house than the number it is let for breaks the terms of the let and she can be evicted on the spot.

I remember seeing such clauses in the contract for houses we have rented.

Someone I know took their two dogs on holiday where the terms for the holiday home were specifically for one dog only.

It would have served them right if they had been caught out, and made to leave.

I had a holiday home I let out,they would be told to leave by me.

In a non-COVID year I take members of my family on holiday in the UK two or three times a year and I have never taken more than the number of permitted guests. Sometimes there has been a ‘changeover’ where one of my children leaves with their family at the end of one week and another arrives for the next, but if we’re all going to be together for the whole time and can’t all fit into one cottage I book two.

Blossoming

No, CFs. Have you given them your opinion OP?

Yes, I did say that the host might not be OK with that, and mentioned insurance. She was genuinely surprised!

No, CFs. Have you given them your opinion OP?

When I was involved in the tourism industry, the mid week cleaning had a second purpose, and that was for cleaners to flag up any concerns, be it evidence of more people, or dirt and breakage, damage, etc, which would be reported back to Head of Household and tackled there and then.

It is incredible how some people behave- we have a family of 5 parking their mountain bikes, full of mud, on the new hall carpet, and worse- cleaners would take photos with date and report.

We had a holiday house in Cornwall which slept up to 8 people. We used to wonder if at times more than 8 people stayed there but how do you know!. Often there’s no way of knowing but people do try it on and get away with it.

It was let through a local agent and the only other people who went into the house during the holiday period were the cleaners and the laundry people at the end of each stay when the house was empty for a few hours.

No, I wouldn't. It usually says in the lettings agreement that only the people named on the booking form can stay in the property overnight.

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.

No I would not- I might discuss this with the owner and ask if it would be acceptable, and if they want extra rent.

Normally, we under-occupy - 2 bedroom is often advertised and for 6- but we have gone past this stage and like the lounge/living area to be bed free. And we have got quite fussy about each bedroom having own bathroom, unless one shared between parents and grand-children.

Thanks everyone - not just me then!

I live very close to a popular seaside town. Recently there was a case where someone had booked a holiday let for 6 people it appears 30 people arrived! They were given 1 hour to vacate the house. As for your friend she should be ashamed of herself that is a disgraceful, I only hope she gets the same treatment as these people did.

That's seriously wrong, and not as the contract. There will be more water, more showers, more loo paper, more crockery used, more wear and tear. That's what Mumsnet refers to as CFers.

Now you know what kind of person she is perhaps you can start distancing yourself.

Oh no, I definitely wouldn’t do that. It’s wrong. If she wants nine people to go she should have booked a place big enough for nine.

Definitely wrong for all the reasons mentioned above.
All you can do is mention the reasons to her and then she has to take the consequences if it caused problems with the owner.

No, no and no again. We never did Airbnb, which is why I haven’t entered the GN competition, but when we had rebuilt and updated the old cottage on our land, to help raise funds, we camped out in the old barn until we could convert that. We rented out the old cottage firstly through a holiday company and then carried on ourselves. Most guests were fantastic but we had one family that we went against our instincts with. There were two bedrooms, one with double bed and the other with twin beds. The family had three children which we could have coped with had one been able to sleep in a travel cot. They booked and then a few days before arriving disclosed that the children were all in their early teens and would fit in!
We immediately said that their booking would be cancelled but they said that their flights were booked so that they would only bring two of the children and as they had directions by this point they would arrive by taxi to be collected from a nearby restaurant.
You’ve guessed of course that they brought all three and the taxi long long by the the time we could get there, we were confronted by three hot and exhausted young teens, we gave in.

We had to phone around friends to borrow a folding bed and bedding and fortunately the room was plenty big enough. I think they were all well aware of what their father (who had done all correspondence) had done and were embarrassed by it. But we learnt our lesson and were much harder in future.

maybe that's why how they were well off !
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the people referred to in the OP are what are known as Cheeky Pluckers.