This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
relatively a new host (2.5 months)
so far, it’s been GREAT. great guests, great profit, no problems what so ever.
back ground
city downtown hotel residence unit where AirBnB is not really allowed (mostly by almost every building management companies)
just had a lady checked in for a week from the other side of the world.
even though her flight landed an hour early, immigration and customs took forever for her to come to my place (by 3+ hours)
while i try my best to meet each and every guests personally, this was eating my schedule up
since she was able to communicate with me through AirBnB message while at the airport, i decided to arrange keycafe access rather than waiting for her even more than i already did.
sent her ALL the details right after her last message to me.
(my keycafe is about 6 min walking distance away)
as I drove out to a different city for dinner, i get 2 messages from her in a row.
one saying I will be there at 5:45pm (it was 5:55pm)
the other saying I am in the lobby
ahhh … asked her if she got my keycafe message, she said no. but she will go to the keycafe now.
her 1st message (which was sent as she was leaving the airport) didn’t go out until 40min later when she arrived at my lobby
5 min later, she sents me another message saying 'i can’t go check in, i can’t get the key, i can’t go to the keycafe’
then I get a call from a hotel staff telling me there’s a lady who’s looking for me.
then I get a call from a hotel manager asking if I am renting my place through AirBnB
then I get another call from the manager telling me that the lady is crying in the lobby and i need to come sort it out. also the lady confirmed that she is renting my place through AirBnB which is against my agreement and he is going to report me to the management
not only i had to drive back (30min~) to let her check in, i had to deal with the hotel staff and management.
it is clearly stated in the reservation message that AirBnB is very frown upon in the city. Please do not mention AirBnB to anybody!
well, she is in my unit for 6 more days now. i am just praying that there’s no more drama and hoping to dodge calls from the management!
You brought this on yourself. The guest isn’t the one causing problems, you are. If you’re not allowed to rent your unit via Airbnb, you shouldn’t. I don’t know what a “keycafe” is and I’m pretty sure that most people don’t. When we have guests arriving, especially guests who have to clear customs, doubly if they are foreigners; we plan on staying in for the evening. This is because nobody ever knows how long it will take to clear customs. I don’t blame your guest for crying in the lobby and trying to get someone to help her. You weren’t there. This is probably why Airbnb is forbidden in your building; other people don’t want to be put in the position of helping your guests.
The delayed messaging through Air is not dependable. But maybe that is the only option when dealing with international guests and costly texting, etc.
I cannot even believe you got so relaxed to go out to dinner instead of just waiting for your guest. Wow…just wow! If I didn’t want to get caught with something, I would go out of my way to not be caught. Did you really think some guest from across the world was going to keep your secret when she is frustrated and can’t get into her accommodation?? You couldn’t have just eaten while you waited?
If I were you, I would start looking for another place just in case you get kicked out.
You should have only used the key cafe if you had been able to speak to her and make sure she understood it 100%.
The only reason I know what a key cafe is because I’ve done Airbnb in a big city. Many will have no clue what it is. If English is not the person’s first language, it just gets more confusing.
If you absolutely had to eat dinner, you should have stayedvery close to your building.
If you are going to be a host, you will sometimes need to make an effort to actually help your guests and react to problems on the fly, not just collect money and assume it will all work out.
It seems to me that this is a ‘host’ who has no idea what the word means. I doubt that there is a host here who would swan off for dinner in another city when a guest is due to arrive. Especially a guest who has just arrived on an international flight. Genuine hosts arrange their shower time - and even their bathroom breaks - around a guest’s arrival time!
This poor lady arrives in a strange place and the host - who admits to ‘great profits’ - was only concerned that waiting for her would mess up his own social life. Unbelievable. And even more so when it’s an illegal rental.
I think it’s because it’s impossible for Airbnb to know all the laws in all cities and municipalities and all the rules in all the Home Owner Associations and planned communities. In Los Angeles the laws can be different on different sides of the same street. I don’t understand why posters here believe that it’s the responsibility of Airbnb to make sure that hosts are obeying the law.
So you knew you had a guest coming ‘from the other side of the world’ - therefore likely to have limited English. You knew she had been delayed by immigration for three hours after a long journey and therefore likely to be stressed and upset and rather than waiting for her chose to go out to dinner in another city.
You’re then surprised to hear she is crying and distressed and are annoyed that she didn’t lie for you to the hotel management when you left her to her own devices in a strange city half way around the world in a country where most likely she had limited knowledge of the language.
So you had a half an hour drive back - big deal.
So you had to deal with the hotel staff and management in the place where you were letting illegally.
Just because other people also let illegally is not an excuse for you to do it too.
It’s your guest I feel sorry for having to cope with an irresponsible host.
ah god, the poor woman, you would feel sorry for her, to break down crying in front of strangers is pretty bad. I would feel awful for being a part of that process that resulted in that poor woman crying in a lobby. Yet somehow it’s all her fault ? your lack of compassion for her tells me all I need to know
I guessed that’s what it would be - rather my point was I share a common language and wasn’t familiar with the concept, so putting myself in this poor woman’s shoes I can only imagine how she would feel after such a distressing journey to be told that the host wasn’t going to meet her and expected her to find her way around a strange city and then trying and find a key.
