For 3 years I’ve dealt with the luggage issue with good nature. But a recent batch of terrible guests have made me decide I just never want to deal with left luggage again. I don’t want to charge extra, I just want the guest gone at check out. Anyone have good luck doing this and how do you do it?
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Just say no! “I’m sorry but I cannot keep your luggage after the check out time.”
I’ve got a garage below my place I keep open. I tell the guests they can leave their stuff there–either drop it off early or leave it after they’ve checked out. BUT I GET THE KEY FROM THEM before they leave.
You may not have this set up, which means you’ve got their stuff inside your house. That means you have to babysit the bags and be there for them when they return. DON’T DO IT. …unless the guest is wonderfully nice and you won’t be inconvenienced.
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My guidebook clearly says we can’t hold your luggage for liability and insurance reasons. I don’t have time to be running around letting guests back in when they decide they want their bags.
Just say no.
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I never do it, I say I’m sorry I wish I could help but for insurance purposes I’m not allowed. You can imagine my shock when I arrived home from a long day at work in October to find 2 young Italians had left a whole bunch of camping crap (including a gas bottle) in my back yard, literally blocking my clothes line, for me to store. And then their mail started turning up. 3 times I arranged with them to come & get it but they never came. With great pleasure I texted them Friday to say it was all destroyed in my flood and as they never had permission to leave it and didn’t collect it as arranged, I’m not insured for their loss. I then promptly threw it all in the bin & gave the gas bottle away.
Lol this reminds me of a situation that came up the other day with my guests.
It’s check out day, they just finished breakfast and they start to go for the front door (minus their bags currently unpacked and all over the bedroom). I asked if they were checking out, they reply (with one foot already over the threshold ‘oh would it be ok if we check out later, we’re on our way to Camden.’
No, I’m afraid not I have guests arriving this afternoon.
Flabbergasted but also amused rather than angry. I thought they were rather cutely naive to think they’d be the only ones using my room.
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It is funny how many people don’t realize how regularly booked some of us are.
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Ah, I had a similar experience, except when I said “umm…you are checking-out, correct?” the answer was ‘No, we check-out tomorrow’. They had made an error in their reservation, thinking they had booked for 2 nights instead of one. They were all on their way out the door for a funeral, so I let them come back later to check-out; luckily, my newly-arriving guest was scheduled for late in the evening so I had time.
I felt so bad for them, they were wonderful people - but they were totally cool about it. Didn’t get ruffled at all. And they had a special-needs teen with them. I was amazed and impressed by their response.
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It must be because we offer such personalized attention? They think they are our ‘one and only’?
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Leaving a Guest Book out can help them understand how busy we are - I’ve noticed a definite drop in ‘hangers on’ since I’ve had one in-situ…
I find that the whole leaving luggage thing can ensure that guests check out on time. This is of course is assuming that it suits your hosting style and your property.
It’s easy to do for me but might not be for other hosts. Often, guests aren’t leaving the area for two, four or more hours because of their flights. I tell them that they can leave their luggage in my apartment and therefore they tend to check out (and leave their luggage) right on time.
Ugh I’m torn. Now I’m rethinking this decision to not allow left luggage. I looked into the services that are offered in NYC, and they are all very expensive and not very convenient.
I just got taken advantage of by three guests in a row who were just so annoying when they came back to pick up their luggage. I have a system that can allow for left luggage but is it too much for me to insist they cannot repack their bags or use the bathroom when they pick up their stuff?
I just repainted the scuff marks left on my deck from people who did it. I then thought it would be ok for them to leave it in the carport but now I will say now. If they walk on your property, trip and break their leg, Air’s insurance doesn’t cover you. You have to say no to leaving luggage, we aren’t a hotel with a bell desk.
The turning point for me was when I did allow someone to leave suitcases and agreed to a time to pick them up after I finished work. They text about 6 hours early and said I’m coming now. I said nope I’m at work, sorry. Never heard from them again until I got home and the new guest said some guy had been knocking on the door for a while (after tailgating someone inside the building). Turns out he’d just shown up and told my new guest to hand his bags over…
I also got caught by a “oh also by the way a friend is going to drop in to pick this up” (it was a phone charger). These guests were a royal pain and I wanted them gone so stupidly agreed. For the next 2 weeks I was getting constant texts from the friend of “are you home now?”
Never again will I hold a bag (or anything). Once the guest is out the door then it’s all over.
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Yes. When they leave… Toodle Loo! Goodbye, au revoir, Auf weidersen!
Your time here is past. Why should we provide additional services for free? No late check out, no leaving luggage… No friends picking up forgotten chargers.
No no no no.
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Since this is a very valuable service that you provide then you should charge for it and use it to your advantage if you can. Advertise it as a feature in your listing and then charge enough that you won’t be annoyed when people use the service.
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Ok I just changed my listing to say this. What do you think?
“Check out is 10am. Unfortunately I cannot hold your luggage for a later pick up. There are services I can recommend or if you wish you can book an extra day (at half price) if you want a later check out past this time. Just contact me first about sending a special offer for the half day.”
I’m just getting super annoyed by the awkward interactions between previous guests and new guests and the previous guests still using the space like it’s theirs. I’d rather lose a half a day of earnings than deal with this anymore!
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I wouldn’t recommend any services unless you can actually recommend them. Just say there are services available nearby or whatever is appropriate.
As for the half day offer…I don’t like that either because some clown will try to stay an extra day at half price not having anything to do with luggage.
It sounds like you just need to hold firm on no luggage past check out time and let the guest worry about it.
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I was worried about recommending stuff, you’re right. If something goes wrong, they’ll probably blame me! I’m going to remove that now. I’ll probably take your advice on the half day thing too…
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@lhsu718 – Good, now just stick to your guns. There’s no reason a new guest has to start off their stay on a wrong note by having to interact with the former guest.
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