What a bloody cheek! At this point I’d be calling Airbnb. She agreed to your check in time when she made her reservation. Maybe offer her the slightly earlier check in first
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Exactly, this is the point…I’ve been burned so many times when guests tell me their plans, and I tell them the best way to accomplish them , and they totally ignore my advice, because they think they have it all figured out via google maps!
In very rural areas such as mine, google maps is often entirely inaccurate.
Hence, the lack on my part to cater to those who ask my advice, then don’t listen.
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Not that I think this would be the answer for the OP, but I did have a late check in myself yesterday so thought I would chime in. We have a 3-bdrm apartment 7 blocks from our home where 2 rooms are rented to uni students and we’ve been AirBnB’ing the third waiting for this school year to start. I recently decided to try self check-in since we have e-locks. Our current guest checked himself in last night at 11:30pm and I didn’t have to do a thing. It was great and now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do this sooner. The new self check in feature in the app makes how-to instructions very clear. Again, this wouldn’t work for everyone, but it’s great for my setup.
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Here’s the thing, I don’t want to cancel her reservation. I really don’t. There’s literally no way that she is going to find a place while she’s hiking out on the lava. Plus, it is bloody stressful to be on a hike thinking you’re going to have to sleep in your car.
So I called the Airbnb Superhost hotline. And basically told the rep the story. Airbnb is going to pay me to stay up. Say what? You heard it right. Airbnb is going to give me compensation to stay up. BUT if the guest doesn’t show by 10pm I can cancel the reservation and still be paid out according to my moderate cancelation policy.
Pretty cool, eh?
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@TuMo I do self check in for my other rental- it isn’t in my personal space so it works out great. People come and go as they please, which is great!
Oh my gosh - four jobs! I can see where guest arrival is crucial to you. By the way, I like your last sentence: “But I will tell people that they probably should book someplace else if they are going to arrive past 9pm.”
I would omit the word “probably” because it leaves room for the guest to interpret it as a maybe.
WOW…that’s great news about Air’s promise!!! Who knew!
Happy ending ~
I’m so glad! This sounds like a win -win.
Infuriating behavior. Jonesing for a refund because she wants to Check in when she wants to check in.
This guest should stay at a hotel.
Enquiring minds need to know how much they are paying you! That is a first!
I secretly hope they don’t arrive by 10’and you can cancel.
They can always go to Walmart for a tent and go camp.
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I like this idea of accepting reservation requests that don’t reply to messages and then leaving it up to the guest to adhere to your rules or cancel. How successful has this been for you? Do most of them show up, or have you been raking in extra money from no-shows?
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That is really cool from AirBnB ! Can I be nosey and ask how much they will be paying you for this? Also wondering if they will make the guest pay or if they will take it out of their own pocket.
I guess I am in the minority here. If guests want complete flexibility on their check-in and check-out time, they should either find a listing that allows flexibility or self-check in, or stay at a hotel. You should not be expected to stay up to cater to their whims. I’m happy to hear AirBnB is doing something to compensate you for your inconvenience.
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If folks are showing up super late, couldn’t you agree to do the tour in the a.m. after a good night’s sleep? Surely it can’t be so complicated that guests can’t survive a night without s full tour?? Maybe if there’s anything imperative they need to know the first night you could text it or have something printed out? It is irritating that they disregard the checkin window. I would accommodate them somehow, and then say they did not follow the rules regarding checkin when I reviewed them. Don’t give them a reason to give you a crappy review!!
11PM is 6 hours after the OP’s requirement. 11PM seems a lot more reasonable than 5.
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The OP has a right to set check in times whenever it is convenient for them. 11 pm is not reasonable if the host has to be up at four o’clock in the morning to go to work. It is rude of the guest to completely ignore the check in time - which she apparently did. The OP makes NO mention that the guest requested a different time, or discussed a different time, so I assume that means the guest just decided to show up whenever they want to - just like at a hotel. But AirBnB’s are not hotels.
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This is very cool!! Personally I would still kiss their a$$es and then turn around and slam them in a review. Regardless of whether I think 2-5 is too narrow of a checkin window, this guest is rude and blatantly disregarding what you’ve made very clear. Very disrespectful. Are they millenials by chance?
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Airbnb is giving me the equivalent of one night’s stay to stay up and not cancel on the guest. 
The rep suggested adding a time, like 9pm is the absolute latest for check in and anything outside of that will be canceled- or I can put a fee for late check in. She suggested that I put check ins from 8pm-10pm will incur a $40 penalty charge.
It would be enforceable because it is in my house rules. Really great insight and it sounds like the superhost reps are hearing this is happening a lot.
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Yes on further thinking I’m agreeing because these guests blatantly disrespected the clearly stated checkin window. Incredibly rude.
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It’s mainly to accommodate late flights to Kona. Believe me, when I had guests do this same thing (lava flows until all hours before checking in) I was pisssssssed. And then they ended up checking in without me because I had to teach the next day, not happy with them!
Waiting up until 2am.?? Never ever again!
The op can set her times whenever she wants… she has a lot of responsibilities to attend to. If the gust wasn’t agreeable she should have booked elsewhere.
What I really hate is having them roll in right at the dinner hour. So there’s me either delaying dinner if they have not arrived, make it and have them come right when it is in the oven, or …SKIP it entirely! Not a,
bad thing if I have put on a few pounds. 
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I’ve done the exact same thing where guests have attempted to strong arm me into a significantly late check in.
I’ve explained that my accommodation won’t be suitable and requested they cancel. I’ve also done the same who won’t tell me their arrival time so… no I don’t play games.
This is about respect and my worry is, if this is how it started what’s next?
In my situation air offered the guest a hotel stay and I was meant to keep the payout. What happened next was that the guest turned up at my door anyway (12.30 am) and I wasn’t about to send them back out on the street.
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Since I don’t mind late check-ins, I don’t have an issue, but what I do seem to have are folks trying to check in early. Guests can check in any time after 3, but I regularly get people asking to check-in early. In fact I have guests arriving next Friday that are here for a wedding just inform me that they’ll need to “push check-in back to 1:30” because they need to drop their stuff off, get ready, and head downtown to the wedding. Ummm…no, that won’t be happening.
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