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After trying to communicate with this guest for 2 days to have him read my house manual to give him driving, parking and access info, i get a request from him to ‘just tell him my address’ and he is on his way. I replied this information is on his confirmation email along with the house rules and info, and after telling me that he lost all his emails, then tells me he found them.
I have a catchphrase in my house manual that i ask the guest to text me so that i know they have read it, and my house rules require reading the manual (i have had bad experiences with guests not reading where to park, for instance, and winding up having their cars towed, etc). This guest was very arrogant and apparently did not have any interest in doing any of this. I got another text saying to just give my address.
In the afternoon i got a text saying he is checking in to a hotel rather than with me because it is so difficult. I am of course ok with that but then his last email says "It is 3. I still do not know where I am sleeping. I have no more time to waste on this. I have checked into a hotel. You will not like my review of your as a “host.”
Obviously he is not staying and this is a threat. My question here is, what do i do now? Call air and tell them the story, and tell them he is not here? I assume i will get that email asking for a review, as will he. hOw can I make sure that no ‘review’ happens since no stay occurred?
We had a guest not check in a month or so ago. Just call or email Air through the support page and let them know the situation. They will open a case. After that, the guest won’t be able to leave a review since it isn’t a completed trip. If needed, you can supply them the record of the text message.
Yes, they wont be able to write a review as they have not stayed. So dont worry, but take a screen shot of the text messages etc, just in case you need to open a case. Did you have to refund him?
He sounded a nightmare. You’ve had a lucky escape!
If he paid you , he will be able to leave a review.
I understand your concerns about guest not reading rules. It seems though for me a bit harsh how you handled this guest. He acted obviously like he was a newbie. He obviously was disoriented and was looking for access to your house and address and you would not give it to him, kept on reffering him to his emails.
Honestly if i was him, i would do the same thing: just check into hotel. Just imagine, a person paid twice only not to deal with you.
Why would you not give him your address? Guests ask me for my address all the time and i just give it t them without even thinking twice.
If you are concerned about parking then send emails, texts with additional reminder for the parking.
[quote=“Yana_Agapova, post:4, topic:3671”]
If he paid you , he will be able to leave a review.
I had a guest cancel at the last minute on me, and both of us couldnt leave a review. Airbnb told me they can not review unless theyve actually stayed at the hosts place, obviously because they wont be able to review the actual living experience. Unless this has now changed off course.
I could never quite understand why people answer an easy question with what oftentimes sound like caustic statements such as: ‘read the instructions’, "I already told you’, etc. It takes the same time to answer the question than say anything else. In my case, I get asked by 90% of my guests “Where do we meet” (on a boat dock to an island), yet probably told them at least 2-3 times. Part of the ‘cost’ of hosting is repetition.
There’s an interesting question. How are you withholding the address for a confirmed booking? I thought this was automatically listed on their confirmation sheet. If they fail to read the parking rule and get towed, that’s on them.
Rolf said above that he sent guest all info, and i think he means address in his confirmation email when they booked. However, if a guest asked again for the address, I would of just give the address without a thought. I know it’s frustrating that the guest obviously didnt read the instructions / house rules etc that Rolf sent, but I wouldnt of been awkward about it. Not worth the hassle
I have to agree with some of the other responses. The rules and the parking, all that could have been discussed once the guest arrived. Withholding your address because he didn’t do it your way was petty.
We would all love it if guests read the entire listing description, took notes, read the rules and informed everyone in their party of the rules, read our house manual and kept it handy, etc. But that never happens. Some people don’t do well with electronic media; they still want a person to talk to. I even send guests a link to a simple website detailing how to get here using a variety of methods, and how to use the transit system once here. They still ask a lot of questions and act clueless. This is just how many people are.
Our guests are people with very busy lives. Getting ready for a trip is challenging during the stress of daily life. Maybe they managed to book a room, perhaps, during a stolen moment while the kids were in bed, before having to get back to work because the boss is demanding more, only to wake up and find a sick child and a work and school schedule to totally rearrange, fears to face, food to prepare, etc. They may have several legs of the trip to book. Sometimes they don’t read all the emails. Sometimes they forget. Sometimes they get exhausted.
Can you tell I’m speaking from experience? I had several stops in China to plan for an adoption trip in 2012. We arrived at our 3rd location and the room we were being given did not match my memory of what I booked. I stood at the desk, and, using my guide, argued with the clerk for some time. I may have even cried. Once I settled down, however, I realized that the clerk was right. But I was exhausted, had a new 12 year old son that I was realizing had deeper problems than we’d been told, etc.
But every guests story is different. They have trusted us with their vacation experience, or business expense, or whatever. They (usually) can choose from any number of options, but they chose us. I consider that an honor and a responsibility to help that guest get the most of their time here.
Its not that Rolfe “withholded” address info. The address indeed is visible when a guest books. But MOST guests do not read rules or anything.
I also rent out my rooms through booking .com. My average rating is 9 out of 10 which is very high. I just had 5.4 score from Italian guest, whos only complain was that he expected to stay in NORMALE hotel. So, obviously he did not even read the very detailed description of the room he was booking.
And i have to suffer the consiquences of that.
This guest lost emails and does not sound organized, but the punishment was more that he deserved. The poor guys had to go to a hotel for one reason only that he could not get the host to give him address again. If i were him i would call Airbnb but he probably had enough and just gave up by booking a hotel
I could not agree more! How many times i cried sitting on a bench with my luggage and not knowing where to stay. In Lisbon, during transportation strike where all hotels were sold out because noone could get out of the city and here I am being clueless about strike and not even being told by hotel about it. Here i am siting in a dark, foreign looking red hair woman, no knowledge of language, booking on IB my Airbnb room. I dont know were to go, i have heavy luggage, i can see the adress but i can not even pronounce it. I text the host and beg him to pick me up as there is no transportation even to get to his house. And what a relief to see a friendly face, and crash that night on a comfy clean bed.
I can only imagine if i heard that night :Well the address was given to you in confirmation e-mail.
Or, here i am in Sorento, train broke and i can not get to Rome. I am stock at the train station while there is a huge celebration in town, and all hotels are sold down. This time i speak the language, but its not much help.
I go hopelessely on line trying to see if there are any Airbnb available, and o, miracle, there is one 20 minutes drive from Sorento.I text the host explaining. She drives and picks me up, i pay her for gas, and feel like a made a new friend.
I am not saying that all hosts should go out of their way and pick up guests or solve emergency situations. It would have been a perfect world with amazing people. But not to do an effortless thing as to give guest the address without fussing around its beyond my comprehension
I get a lot of Europeans that are already exhausted from a long travel getting to my location plus Miami’s 2 hour customs wait and most are Jet lagged and dying to just relax. They also have to either get a sims card or a prepaid card at the airport just to contact me. They may not have the ability to look at emails let alone handling all of the above while trying to get to my place that is not central or public transportation easy. Sorry the host in this situation acted in the wrong, It would have been NO trouble to just give the guest the address so he could google it quickly and get to the place. The parking situation is always a issue for me, even though I clear let them know it is on the right hand side of my how and the not curved driveway so I always come to meet them outside and 9 times out of 10 have to tell them where to park.
The guest must have felt a bit creeped pout when a simple request could not be answered and WHY is the host being so hostile. Sorry but you deserve the review that is coming to you.
This guest actually was visiting his whole family 4 miles away, have lived in the area most of his life, new exactly what was going on, refused to acknowledge that he received the email, the reason I have them read the house manual is that no they can’t just drive up and meet them at the door it was on a day that I was not available I was going to give him the key code to let himself in and he needs to park in a very specific area around here otherwise he will get a ticket. Last but not least he was pretty angry that he couldn’t come in in the morning even though check in time is 3 pm, and my two paragraph house manual includes a special phrase telling me that he’s read it. The problem with not reading it is he will either Parking get towed, or be banging on my door assuming that it’s all about me letting a man walking into the concierge desk taking his luggage and opening the door for him LOL
He was coming from one hour away by the way
This is my 150th guest, and I’m well aware of how long comfortable it must be to be a stranger in a strange land so to speak. But this is a cranky old guy who is very put out that he couldn’t simply get the address have somebody open the door for him six hours before check-in time. Refusing to acknowledge that he read the house rules means it will even worse would happened
Ok then this should have been in the original post. Let’s face it most guests book without reading the entire listing and just via pictures and a brief glance of our listing, the most the house rules. Someone living close by is always a red flag to me, but I make exceptions since I am close to the keys or a major wedding venue and local folks want to just have a uber drive of 5 mins away to the wedding event or just a day trip for key largo weddings.
I tell my guests, Like the one’s tonight who will arrive after 11pm from a keys trip that the key code is the last 4 digits of the booking phone number. so I really don’t have to show them in if I don’t have to. I guess if you had texted him the parking situation and he got a ticket it would have been on him and if a negative review came you could have backed yourself up.
Where you are in the right is the guest wanting a early check in time which I would definitely agree with you and therefore I would have told the guest that there would be no early check in. So I do understand the reluctance to give address but then you must have agreed to early check in when you would not be there?
I get it that you are trying to have guests read your manual. Just wondering what is your success rate?
for me it sounds so extreme to pay twice for the room. I would do it only in extreme situations. Thats why i can imagine it was an extremely unpleasant situation for your guest if he decided to part with money and find another acomodation.
So, did you give him address at the end or you kept on refering him to his emails?
no I did not agree to anything, and as far as check in, I told him to let me know that he got the manual and then I would give him a code (to meet him he would need to wait till I arrived home from work, much later than 3)… And, when he told me that he ‘found’ his email he still asked for the address - which tells me he is not truthful.
My success rate with guests reading how to get in etc is, oh, … 100%. This is a first for me with someone not only refusing to even read the manual but also refusing to abide by the house rules before they even show up - the house rules say ‘guest agrees to read the house manual before arriving’.
. Angry old codger (but wait everyone, he is 68, I am 65).
Sorry, but I also do not agree with you withholding your address. Assume most people do not read manuals or texts in detail. I own two airbnb properties and our motto is ‘We will treat you like royalty in your home away from home’. As a result of this, we have 41 5-star reviews and a full calendar. Some guests are more high maintenance than others. That is the nature of the business.
You need to open a case with Airbnb and explain what has happened. If the guest was trying to reach you through your mobile by texting you then it will be more hard to prove this to Airbnb. It is always better when you keep the entire converstaion within the site´s messages. Said that, you need to prove to Airbnb that the guest hasn´t stay at your place. If I were you I would go to your place and record a video of how empty it looks to then send it to Airbnb. You will better record that video with your TV on and try to set a news channel so that Airbnb can certify that this video was recorded on that day and not before/after. Hope it helps!
