This does sound like a good way although my initial thought be that it may result in annoyed guests writing bad reviews, but apparently not the case for you, so I might consider this for next time. Ty!
This has never happened to me in three years of hosting @Jess1
And they do have guidance, I have a comprehensive guide to my property which I leave guests in their room. And when I meet them I reinforce house rules in their guide and give them a personal tour of my local area if they want one and tips and advice on what to do.
Not sure what you mean by take advantage. Take advantage of what?
I agree it wouldn’t work in those circumstances @cassid
It did for me because I had one bedroom on offer in a masionette.
Try doing what I do. Make it part of your IB rules that guests need to confirm when they are arriving WITHIN the check in slot you offer as part of your booking conditions.
If they don’t ask Airbnb to contact them and ask.
I also remind guests of local left luggage facilities if they want to arrive early.
The girl wanting to arrive at 7 a,m., if you had a room free you could have offered at a reduced daily rate.
Could take advantage of kitchen times, bring other people into the house etc… If I meet and greet adherence to rules is likely to be better because they have met someone who cares.
I just had a guest check themselves in early last night by following my other guest into the house. First one ever. Helped himself to a key. Someone who thinks to do that without even contacting me is not going to respect any other rules. I have no regrets about evicting him immediately. Would have been totally and utterly different if there had been a prior arrangement for self check in of course. I don’t think he deserves any refund whatsoever, but we’ll see what Airbnb say.
As I said no-one who has self-checked in has ever taken advantage in three years and hundreds of bookings. I’d say about 10 - 15% of my guests choose self check in.
But then I have quite a flexible approach to hosting. I don’t have any particular kitchen rules apart from not cooking after 10 p.m. or before 7 a.m.
I have never had anyone trying and bring in anyone who hadn’t booked and paid on self check in.
The situation you mention with your guest wouldn’t have bothered me. It was as much the fault of the guest who let them in, as the guest checking in. I don’t buy the forceful personality bit. Your guest already in residence could equally have phoned you before agreeing to let the new guest in.
In your situation, I would just have mentioned to the new guest I would have preferred that they hadn’t done this and marked them down for communication. However it is your call and you do what works best for you.
Don’t particularly appreciate your jibe that hosts who allow self check in don’t care about their guests 
It wasn’t a jibe against hosts who allow self check in, that’s up to them, I might use it too if I need to on occasion. Every listing is different and guests need to appreciate that. I just believe host meeting and greeting in person can give the impression of caring about the house and guest, how can it not?
Anyway the point with my problem guest was that self check in or co-host check in had not been agreed. The resident guest actually felt ambushed, and assumed I had given permission (otherwise why would he have done such a thing?).
We will need to agree to disagree on this. Just because I am not there for a small percentage of check in’s doesn’t mean it indicates to these guests I don’t care about my house or my guests.
All guest receive a personal tour of my area (if they want one) most receive home cooked goodies, all receive a free welcome drink and access to lots of household items for cooking. I also sit down with them and spend time giving advice and tips on where to go with personal recommendation on restaurants, cafes and local attractions.
There are lots of hosts who offer a personal check in who don’t do this and have the minimum of interaction with their guests, very restrictive use of communal space etc.
I don’t need to always be there in person for check in to show guests I care about them and my home. My reviews certainly demonstrate this. I would say 98% have mentioned my warm friendly welcome and the personal touches I provide.
In your initial post you made it clear that you had told the guest who was already in residence that he should not allow other guests to self check in, so why would he assume you had given this guest permission? Both guests are equally to blame on this. Personally I think you completely over reacted by cancelling the new guests’ reservation. But it is absolutely up to you as to how you chose to host your listing.
1 Like
Of course you are warm and attentive to your guests, including the ones who self check in. I daresay you catch up with them later on when you’re free. It’s all good because it’s all arranged and agreed with your guests. My guest who self checked in had no such agreement or communication, hence the problem.
My existing guest was only told not to let people in after the new guest caused this problem, as I say the first one for 3 years. The existing guest was relieved that he can now just say no, as he felt ambushed in the first place. I mean the other guest followed him in, so he would have needed to set hard boundaries and ask him to leave. This is not a guest’s job, and I would normally protect them from such things
The bottom line is the early guest should have contacted me. I don’t get why there’s any debate about this. For goodness sake I was 2 streets away in a cafe with a friend with my phone on the table. A phone call would have saved the whole issue. Communication, communication, communication.
Did you ask the presumptive guest to call you when he got close?
1 Like
My house rules say to contact me if you will be early or late for the agreed check in time. It was his responsibility to contact me. If he wanted earlier check in he should have arranged it with me.
There’s a lovely pub with a garden 2 minutes walk from my house where I suggest guests wait. Why not just get a drink or food? So easy to avoid problems. All he had to do was communicate. Perhaps a part of him was rightly ashamed of his actions, so contacting me would have made that real. Far better to put your head in the sand and hope things go away. I do hope my evicting him will be a reality check.
Hmmmm, my process is to message the guest with all the details 2 days before. On the day of arrival I ask for an estimated time of arrival and a request to text/ ring when they are getting close. This gives me time to be there to meet and greet and I can get on with my day without the dreaded sitting and waiting.
Yep that’s good. I messaged him the day before and asked if we could stick to the 8 to 8.30 pm window because I would like to go out. Nothing gave him the right to enter my property without my knowledge or permission! He’ll, he didn’t even message me after he had ‘checked in’. I was sat waiting for him like a lemon, then my other guest came down to tell me he had followed him in. WTF.
Unfortunately Airbnb are now selling the hotel experience and not the home stay and the guests often seem to feel that they have booked, paid and are now “entitled “ to what they have been sold.
I understand why you are upset, but I also take into account the now entitled guest and the sometimes unreasonable expectations. I would had educated him rather than evicted him.
I didn’t read that as a jibe at all. Perhaps the author of that line will correct me if I’m wrong, but what I took it to mean is guests tend to behave better when they’ve met a homeowner. As in, “Oh, this person owns this home and may be keeping an eye on me.” Or, in other words, “This person may “care” what I do.
1 Like
I agree with you on this @Debthecat. Air is selling hotel type experience or the self catered experience more so than the home-share experience, and those are the types of listings that now make up the large majority of the platform.
It’s not yet creating too much of a problem for me, as I find ways to adapt in order to meet guests’ expectations and make things easier for myself, but I can understand how this shift might affect those who share their owner occupied homes.
There was no way I could have had him in my home after that. I would have called the police if it had been necessary. Yes education is key, your drip, drip, drip of when are you arriving is a good technique even if tedious and it should be unnecessary. Airbnb should do more education, I would like to see a star rating for guest check in for a start, never mind us being reviewed on that! Guests know full well they are staying in someone’s home and they know full well they are paying half the price of an hotel as well.
Yep true but then there is definitely still a need and market for homestays. My listing provides access to big attractions in my city which hotels aren’t near. Also the price and atmosphere is more comfortable for single travellers than an hotel. European young people find my caring approach and the pets very comforting for their first time away from home. Airbnb needs to respect the needs of different types of accommodation.