Funniest Inquiry Ever from a Perspective Guest!

What’s the funniest guest inquiry you’ve had recently?

Ours… we got a request from a girl a few days ago - who noted that our check-OUT time is 11:00 a.m. And she wrote in and said:

“Would it be okay if we checked out before 11:00 a.m.?”!

Then she went onto explain they really needed to leave earlier because they had an 8:00 a.m. flight and she just wanted to make sure it was okay to leave that early!! That really cracked me up!

I felt like saying, “You can check out the day before for all we care!” But I should have told them our check out time is FIRM and they must stay until 11:00 a.m.!

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I have an inlaw suit and I had a booking for two nights. They asked if I would mind not coming in to clean on the middle day… I had no intention!
But just assured them that I wouldn’t clean until after they had checked out.

margaret

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Yep had this exact question too! (And more than once). Bizarre question to ask in my opinion !!

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That’s pretty funny but why do you even have a check out time?

??? I actually don’t understand the question.

Are you asking why I have a checkout time ?

What do you mean why do we have a check-out time? Because they have to check out by some time so you can get the room ready for the next guest! They can’t just hang out all day.

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Pay no attention to me. I only let on weekends so I rarely have back-to-back.

I recently had an inquiry asking if my pool (in several places mentioned as May-early September) would be available in November. I said no. Then they asked if we had a hot-tub. I answered no. And they still booked. He’s a first time user and has asked all kinds of weird questions, but he’s polite and communicates well, so I’m not too worried…

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I had a guest recently, who asked whether I would come and pick them up from the airport (half an hour away) and also whether I would travel over to Cardiff (I hour away), so they could attend a rugby match.

They also wanted me to make up the couch in my open plan living/eating area for the teenage son …who sleeps in late so I would need to make sure I was quiet in this area when getting up for work/having my breakfast.

Another was from a daughter wanting to book for her mother. The daughter told(not asked) me that she and the (divorced father who was staying at hers) would be coming to my place for breakfast each morning with the mother, as there wasn’t enough room in her place and her flat mates would object

…you can only imagine what I said to these ones.

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That is so funny, @JonYork!!

The funniest - thought it wasn’t really funny - was a woman and her sister and their eleven kids coming to rent my two bedroom, max 5, place. She said “don’t worry about the kids, we’ll just stack them up on the floor”.

Trust me, I wasn’t worried about her kids, at all!!

Yes, 13 people, including many little ones, sharing one tiny bathroom…THAT would have been so fun!

And not a mention of paying any extra, or, like @Helsi said, not asking, just telling.

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I get this with new users all the time lol:joy:

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As well as being an Airbnb host I also work for any OTA (online travel agency) and I get this question quite frequently actually. “I can’t check in at 3:00 PM (or whatever the hotel’s check-in might be) will I lose my reservation if I am not there at check-in time?” The first time someone asked me that I was so confused and really didn’t understand the question, now I am so used to it. One older woman called and said to me “we would like a nice hotel room” and I had to laugh and realizing or at least hoping she had a sense of humor, replied “not many people call asking for a room that is not nice”. She did have a sense of humor and started laughing at her own question. Quite often I have to spell things back to guests phonetically and one guy responded angrily my name is not Oscar Romeo, the phonetics for O and R. I then explained I was spelling back phonetically and he burst out laughing saying “I feel so stupid now”, we continued to laugh through the whole conversation then. The travel industry is full of a lot laughs sometimes. Another one that has happened more than once, is a guest misreads the 12:00 PM check-out time, believing it means midnight and they call and ask me “where am I supposed to go at midnight?”.

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I came home after the school run and a guest I had at the time mid 60’s was sitting in the guest sitting room. He told me my computer would not turn on, I asked him what computer was he referring to, he pointed to the television on the wall. I could hear my children laughing in the background.
I had a guest from Asia, who was flat hunting as he was starting a job in a local hospital. We did not allow access to the kitchen. Every night around midnight, we would hear the sound of the microwave going on, and some very strong aroma’s drifting through the house. He used to use a torch to navigate the kitchen. We never said anything to him, he was so nice, but I had this image of a grown man sneaking in a kitchen every night

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Decline them. Exhausting to read, can’t imagine hosting. They belong in a hotel near the rugby match.

Just got this question two days ago (I have 24 hour check in/check out):
Do we really have to check out at midnight on the 28th/29th (as the reservation confirmation says)?

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I suppose from our point of view it would seem odd, but I’ve had a few guests mention they’d be leaving early. In fact there’s a guy here now who told me he was leaving by 7:30am. Some feel there may be some formality that has to be performed like a key hand off, but most of the time it’s out of courtesy because they feel they might make some extra noise or bother someone in some way.

What ticks me off–and it doesn’t happen that often–is when they have time to kill before a flight that leaves late.

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For me that’s just normal communication. I expect guests to tell me when they’re leaving (and indeed I do the same when I am a guest). Asking me if you are allowed to leave earlier than the check out time is plain bizarre, because the answer to the question can only ever be yes. If I said no, no, you must stay against your will until 16.00 then we would haves entered a hostage situation.

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This is from a pre-approval query. She knows my Airbnb is part of an apartment block. The listing shows a nice swimming pool.

Her question:
How often do you change the water in the swimming pool ?

I wonder whether she writes to hotels to pose the same question :flushed:

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It’s not bizarre. I think I mentioned before that some guests think they need to personally hand over a key and officially say goodbye. I think it’s considered “good manners” in some cultures. My Chinese guests have done this; others as well.

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I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing at all. The question ‘can I leave before check out’ comes at the point that the guest is booking. It’s not a guest checking arrangements before they leave, it’s a guest who appears to be under the impression they might have to hang around until your check out time. strong text

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