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Had she been an experienced Airbnb traveler the discussion would have been much different. She gave every indication of being a local with no housing. I did not relay the entire message. But I can tell you there is no way anyone would be comfortable with no kitchen access or sitting space for over 2 weeks at the price she would have paid while seeing a huge amount of other space she did not have access to other than passing through it. She could have gotten an entire house for less than the amount of this request. Translation, new user, did not read the description.
I am not looking for a roommate. I donât share my whole home because the last time I had a request similar to this the mother parked herself on my living room couch for 12 hours a day and watched the Kardashians while going back and forth to my front porch smoking. âBut Iâm not inside!â This led to me not sharing my living room and kitchen.
I have a comfort zone as a home share host, as Iâm sure you do. And my comfort zone allows IB which I prefer and 99% of my guests indicate theyâve read my few house rules and agree to them. But if you go outside my comfort zone, you must submit a RTB and this one had red flags flying.
Yes, my guests have a private room and bathroom, and share my kitchen and outdoor terrace, where the dining table is, but donât share my living room. And their room and bath is accessed from the balcony up an outdoor staircase, and they have their own exterior door, so half the time I donât even know if they are home or not. Have been lucky that Iâve never had a guest who took over the shared spaces or tried to use the living room- most of my guests are out and about a lot and when home, tend to keep busy up in their room. None have ever gotten âtoo comfortableâ, acting as if itâs their home.
I actually enjoy sitting around with the chatty ones over a cup of coffee, or in the evening with a glass of wine, but I also donât want a roommate, which is why I have a 2 week maximum stay. I did recently let a guest book for 3 weeks, but she had good reviews and nice communication, and I appreciated the booking, as itâs the end of my high season, and donât anticipate anymore bookings until Oct/Nov. But that doesnât mean I will start entertaining the thought of increasing my max stay. 2 weeks is plenty enough time to share space with a stranger I may never see again. If a previous guest I enjoyed having around asked to book for longer, Iâd consider it.
I would never go through typing all that, I do not feel a need to explain my policy this is what I say when asked about an early check in:
I do not know if the housekeeper will have the cabin prepared for you earlier than the 3PM check in time. I will text you if the cabin is ready early.
Than I NEVER text them earlier than 2:00 even if the cabin is done at noon. I am setting expectations and gently letting them know I am in charge. I do not allow late check out either. I have 281 reviews and I have never had a review mention my check in/out policy.
Edit: Actually I have had my check in policy mentioned, back when I was more flexible and offered early check in for a fee I had someone say, paying for an early check in seems a bit transactional⌠That was the last guest ever to check in early
As an English major, Iâve never had issues typing (on a keyboard, not on mobile). But in this case I only typed it once, and then saved it as a quick message. Someone asks, I click reply, quick messages, tap this one, click send. Takes literally 3 seconds. If we know we can accommodate, we do. The idea is to let them understand why, especially in the case we have to deny the request.
I concur that helping a guest understand the reason why you canât accommodate something is a good idea. Not that we have to go to great lengths to explain why we have any and all rules, nor continue trying to explain to someone who clearly doesnât want to take no for an answer, but a lot of times, not just when it comes to hosting, but in general, people donât bother to think about why something canât happen or be promised, even when it seems dead obvious to us, which makes it less likely that they will be easily accepting of it.
It might never occur to them that unlike a hotel, hosts donât have a team of cleaners they can call on at a momentâs notice to flip a room in half an hour.
Just like some of them donât understand that asking them to tidy up, wash their dishes and bag up the trash doesnât mean they are âdoing all the hostâs cleaning for themâ and âwhat did I pay a cleaning fee for, then?â
My point was that it is too much information, your message seems apologetic. There is no reason to apologize/explain policies in my opinion. I guess it is different for me as I have no intention of allowing early check in or late check outs ever
In my experience guests are like children, they do better with firm boundaries. Or at least I do better sticking to my polices.
I suppose then your reaction to my message style is natural, considering our different hosting styles.
While I agree that guests have a tremendous ability to act like children, they are still adults, and we prefer to give them the information a reasonable person could use to understand why weâre saying no, without actually saying the word âno,â and that in this way we avoid retaliatory down-rating or subconscious negativity based simply on âhost didnât allow us to check in early.â Because for us itâs not about what weâll allow itâs what we can or canât provide them, as hosts. We donât want them to think of us as a boss. Thatâs where the apologetic tone comes in. We want them to know that we are sorry that we canât accommodate their request.
We like it when weâre able to better fill our guestsâ needs by something as simple as an early check-in or a late check-out. We only grant those requests when it suits us, which is usually when we donât have a same-day turnover. And even when we do have a same-day, if we finish early, we send a prepared âquick messageâ that itâs all ready for them and they can check in anytime â just in case theyâre already in town whittling away the time before 4 PM. Itâs just a little âHere you go; have something nice,â that we feel starts their stay off better, especially if theyâve been battling southern California traffic trying to get here.
Not many of you will be surprised that I like to explain things too for the reasons @Tranquility_Base stated.
I am guessing that many guests donât pause to consider how different we are from a hotel that typically has many units available, of which one or more might easily be available for early check-in.
There is a difference for early check in, and it always bothers me that guests do not know the difference⌠âTheyâ have âaâ room, we have only âtheâ room.
I usually send the guests a message about 45 minutes before check in that the cabin is prepared for them and they can check in anytime, even when they have not asked for a early check in.
I do not say no, I tell them I will let them know⌠And as I said before, the ONLY time early check in ever came up in a review was when I actually allowed it.
Yes, we have different hosting styles, and we all do what works for us.
Same things happened to me when I declined many requests, I felt that there was nothing about that since I should be able to choose who is allowed to live in my property for a certain amount of time. All my listings had been taken down from there and my account was at risk. Here is a video about the story:
[type or paste code here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6ey6_ye4o)
