I call on the phone each guest. If I get a bad feeling, I cancel the booking. If I have no contact to my emails and text messages I cancel. I will not rent my house out to people that are not respectful as they will always leave a mess and do the wrong thing. My house, my business and my choice not to have people that will not communicate with me.
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Large groups of young people as we have a max of 10 people and a strict no party policy. So a profile pic showing young people partying is a def no.
Secondly, I email straight back and ask if they have read the house rules and ask if they agree. If they do not respond I send it again letti g them know that they need to agree to the rules or I willbe forced to cancel. If they donāt respond, I do exactly that.
If they do respond, I give them my phone number and ask for theirs. I then call them and introduce myself and ask why they are coming to my area. In that conversation I let them know due to my insurance policy, no more than 10 people can be at the property at any one time and I casually mention that my elderly neighbors will call us if their is any undue noise or a hint of a party in progress. I have had some guests call a day later and say that they need to cancel, but thats ok. We do very well with our business and do not need the hassle of parties and slobs who wonāt respect our property. I had for example one guy who told me that he and his mates were coming fishingā¦I didnāt listen to my gut instinct and they had a bucks party. Drugs, naked women, mess etc. Last time I did not listen to my gut feeling.
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Only two groups so far. I have changed the wording on my listing and do not attract them so much any more. I thought it would affect my bookings, but we now attract families and a better class of guests.
May work for you, but people canceling may not be doing so because they plan to party, but put off by your somewhat aggressive background check.
I would be a little hesitant to stay with this procedure.
Brandt it certainly does work for us. We have a 5 star rating and are booked solid even though we are at least $200 per night more than other houses around us. I admit I was a little concerned when I changed the wording, but what it has done is now we have a much better class of guests and more families. I would rather not have the house booked than come home after an alcohol, drug fueled bucks party with guests having sex in my back yard with naked prostitutes. I have worked in sales management all of my life so when I speak to people etc I do it very nicely. Every review mentions my high level of communication. And people have not actually cancelled, its more the initial enquiry that they dont respond to. So I was incorrect in saying that they were actual cancellations. Hey, want to have a party, then donāt book our home. Plenty more places out their who will let you.
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I wouldnāt mind giving discounts automatically to the top 20% percent of highest rated guests.
Iām just sitting here waiting now for guests from who said they would be here between 3-4pm its now 7.15 pm and they havenāt replied to my text . I stated in their booking if any of their plans change re: arrival time please let me know . This is the real down side to Airbnb in my opinion. Had guests at Easter who didnāt reply to any of my texts . Check-in time is 2pm they turned up at 10am on Good Friday I was still in my dressing gown I mean for goodness sake how rude. When they came back at correct checkin time the wife informed she couldnāt be bothered to let us know a check-in time. I just didnāt have an answer . Other than that they were ok guests but Iām seriously thinking about giving up on instant book.
In my experience, people who donāt respond to ETA inquiries usually fall into one of these four categories:
- Email registered with Airbnb is not their primary email. They just donāt check the inbox frequently (and they have other things on their mind).
- They have their primary email registered but they have booked so many Airbnbs in advance to they have simply overlooked your message, coming from Airbnb domain. That happens too.
- Phone registered with Airbnb is a fixed phone or a registered cell phone is not the phone they are traveling with.
- They are just careless. I canāt say how many, but I guess 5% of the guests who donāt respond would fall into that category.
Hereās what works for me.
I found out that people became immune to emails and some of them are simply overloaded.
I also found, that they still react to TEXT messages (almost always). Yes, good old fashioned text messages (or SMS as they call it in Europe).
To send out text messages I use a web service TextMagic.com. I can send domestic or international text messages for a fraction of the cost. I can do so from my desktop computer or using my cell phone app.
It works like a charm and it costs me around 4-8 USD per month for all of my text messages. Thatās nothing compared to what I would have to endure not knowing the ETA of guests (or if they received my instructions).
Not that this helps (but it may help other hosts)ā¦if guests donāt communicate with me and I need to āchaseā them with such text messages, I rate them lower in the ācommunicationā category when itās time to review them.
Lastly, this is one of the reasons Iām striving to have as many guests as possible do the self-checkin. Iām so grateful to myself that I have decided to organize my places (have three of them) so guests can easily do the self checkins.
Hope this helps.
P.S. Iām not affiliated with textmagic.com. I simply love their service because it has saved me a lot of time and trouble at multiple occasions.
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That is a great way to deal with that problem. Iād be happy to pick up guests from the airport for a fee but it doesnāt really work with my schedule. I added onto the front of my house to give a private entrance so they could have access late at night and I monitor with cameras to see if theyāve arrived. It paid for itself much faster than I thought it would. In the OPās case itās much tougher since the airports to which the vast majority arrive are 4 hours away.
But if you pick them up, are you obligated to take them back? A shuttle from 10 minutes away would be so cheap.
Get a keypad. Set a code for each new guest/group. Message the guests that day before arrival and tell them that you will meet them in person between check in time and (for example) 6.30pm. Then āfor your convenience in case youāre delayedā give them self check in details. Easy peasy 
Later this year, Airbnb will also recognise its best guests with a new guest membership programme offering benefits across the entire trip. Chesky noted that Superguest will launch initially to 10,000 guests as a trial this summer before being rolled out to Airbnbās wider guest community before the end of the year.
Scroll down a bitā¦ and you will seeā¦
Introducing Superguest
Weāre building the worldās best travel membership program with you in mind, including unique experiences and the perks you care about most.
Heres betting that super guests will want a super discount! What other perks could Airbnb want out of our pockets?
If you add a keypad I believe it is less stressful for everyone to just have self check-in. I follow up with a text after they have arrived to see if they need anything. Never get complaints about not meeting people in person and got one review saying how easy checkin was compared to other airbnbās/
I do not do this but would if my listing was more similar to what I think is the norm here.
Put a code word towards the bottom of your listing that they need to quote to show that they have read your listing
90% of my guest arrive between 6pm and 9pm so my check in hours are between 5pm and 10pm.
I ask for their ETA but translate any specific time they give me into early or late, late means I can walk the dog not be here at 5pm on the dot.
My listing is very simple, still get those who give me no time, tell me 10 minutes before they are arriving etc etc.
I can also tell if they have read my simple message as GPS takes them 2 blocks away, so if they have done that they read nothing. About one third. More so in the summer than the winter.
I tried offering a fully self-service check-in, but it felt odd sharing the property with people I hadnāt met. Running into people in the yard, especially if weāre both returning from a night out, feels better if weāve been previously introduced.
Iāve also noticed the suite is left in better shape when Iāve done a walk-through (whether thatās because Iāve pointed out the inās and outās, or that they know thereās a (likeable?
) human being on the other end of the transaction, Iām not sure).
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Yeah, I can see this. Whole house rental in my case.
A keypad is great for stand alone accommodation, but the thought of having a stranger enter my own home, whilst Iām out, makes me shudder. Apart from a friendly greeting, I use the walk through to engage with people and try to assess if I am happy leaving them in the house alone. I usually do without worrying, but on occasion guests have abused my absence. Iāve found someone with an unregistered guest in our own sitting room (in the dark, stroking her naked toesā¦), another guest who let slip that she had explored the whole house, and another we came home to find screaming violent abuse at his wife in their room.
The Air āWork Readyā demands self check-in, even for hostās own, shared homes, including what method. Himself delved into the fine print and found blurb that essentially lets us off the hook for not using it but having it available, so we now have a keypad. Trying to convince Air this requirement was simply daft for a host like me was Kafkaesque, so keypad it is.
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