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So I’m of the belief that people should manage their own phones and alerts and if they don’t want to be woken up, to set up rules for this but…
I do my messaging, check out, check in info, etc to my guests early (4 - 5 am) in the morning before work. My office is directly under the bedroom and occasionally I can hear the vibration/alert of my guest’s phone go off. (Just happened again this morning.)
No guest has ever complained to me (yet) but I was wondering what you folks (to whom I value your opinions) think.
Should I worry that I’m sending messages too early? If so, what’s a reasonable time. Should I care about time zones?
I have my auto “check out at 11” message sent to send at 6am, and I’m always surprised by how many people reply to it right away. Since I’m up early and the early morning is my most productive time, I use it to send and reply to messages, texts, emails, etc. I figure, like you, that if someone wants to not be bothered by the buzz of the phone, that they’ll bury their phone under their pillow.
I send mine the evening before. This gives guests the time to plan and arrange their morning if for any reason they haven’t already done so.
We figured out years ago that guests like to have their phones by their bed when they are away from home. Whether they do so at home I don’t know but we found that chargers supplied in the other areas of the apartment were invariably moved to the bedroom.We’d discover them there after checkout as few guests thought to return them to where they found them.
Knowing that guests have their phones with them and switched on - possibly for emergencies? - means that we only send messages out of our listed quiet hours.
We need guests to abide by our quiet hours so we want to lead by example.
You misunderstood my question. I am not waking them up because I’m typing in an area that wakes them up. It’s because they do not have their phone to do-not-disturb when they get the message.
Good point but often I have guests that arrive after I have gone to bed and check out the next morning. I do try to send the checkout message the night before but it seems odd to get the welcome and good bye letter together.
I include all that information on the check in letter, & also have it printed our on the front of the “Welcome binder” it a binder that has maps of the area, events, restaurants, generally getting around stuff.
To be honest if would be pretty choked if I received a ABB notification at 4 or 5 in the morning when on holiday.
Like @jaquo, I try to send my checkout messages the night before. I don’t want them to sleep in and then realize they need to be out in an hour.
I don’t send messages before 8, usually. I have a lot of older guests who barely know how to use their phones. But I don’t have a hard and fast rule for any of it. If I was already in contact with a guest the day before checkout I try not to burden them with yet another message. I wait. If not - if we haven’t been in contact - I may send the day before. I really customize all my communications based on the vibe I get from my guests.
Because I get up at 4 am and have to go to work and go to bed by around 8 pm and usually brain dead by 6 pm but I agree, I’m going to try to send the message at around 8 am.
LOL, so do I but you know how much guests love to read about your Airbnb. It’s also a chance for me to remind them about the review system and how to leave the suite.
My approach: I wouldn’t call someone before 8am or after 10pm (factoring in time zones) so I don’t message someone at off hours unless they have messaged me first.
I often get messages / inquiries at late hours; if its urgent or a booked guest, I’ll typically respond, but for inquiries, I wait until the morning.
I send checkin instructions 24hours in advance, making the assumption that its better to have access before traveling. If they are opting for self checkin, I send the code and those instructions the morning of their arrival.
Checkout instructions are in the manual provided, but I will typically ask or send a message the day before to inquire about when they plan to check out.
I’ll just say that if I was your guest, and you messaged me at 4 or 5 in the morning, you could count on some lousy marks for communication. It seems to me to be rude to disturb someone’s sleep time when they are on a trip!
Some folks have their phones left on in case of emergencies at home or whatever but for a message about checking out? Nuh-uh!
I think you should send it the night before. I, and am sure one day a guest will complain, would be annoyed at being woken up to a text at 5 am. Its basic courtesy and outside of the normal range of hours of contacting anyone by telephone.
Unless it’s an emergency, your child or your boss, nobody should be contacting you at that hour. And the onus is on the contactor to do it inside of normal hours, not for the contacted to alter their pattern in case someone calls or texts.
I know that I would probably sleep through it anyway. But if it did wake me up, the last place I would want to be woken up is on vacation.
Then I would set it to go out at 8 am. It makes more sense that you set up a timed message than they have to turn their phones on do not disturb in case they get unwanted messages at 5 am!
You are asking that guests do something to accommodate your need that is outside the standards of common practice when it should accommodate both of you within standards of common practice.
I go to bed around 8 pm most nights, wake up at 4 am. Do Airbnb stuff first thing in the morning, work a job from home and then also do private chef work.
