I was extorted by the host Eric, I was transparent with Eric from the beginning about our stay. Immediately after booking, I told him that we would be having a few people over for dinner, which ended up being about 12 (for a 10 person Airbnb) all of whom were over the age of 50. He neglected to respond for 3 weeks and responded to informed me five days before check-in that I had to pay a "nominal" fee of 500$ to have a few people over for dinner. I had to contact Airbnb support to get him to reduce to 400$. I am not sure what kind of lifestyle Eric has been brought up with, but I'm not sure anyone would call 400$ a "nominal" fee. He had 48 hours to let me know this information immediately after booking, but he neglected to do so.
Reading Eric's other reviews this seems to be a behavior of his. He seems to purposely not respond within the cancellation window and charge "nominal" fees of 400$ (in my case) and 1500$ (in another reviewers case) for having people over for a meal for "deep cleaning fees" on top of the 200$ that he already charges for cleaning.
In his posting he says "small gatherings are fine. If you're throwing a party, please reach out ahead of time". What I had been transparent about was indeed a small gathering and was not be a party. The guests were there for a maximum of 3 hours and in my opinion do not warrant an additional 400$ cleaning fee. It seems that he is purposely ambiguous on the listing so he can extort extra fees from the guests.