Yes, I am replying to messages at 2am.
I’ve done so much auditing on my home to eliminate issues, that this might happen once a year or so. And when it does, it’s always serious enough to not ignore.
I once was woken in the middle of the night by a loud crash from the guest room. I jumped out of bed and tapped on her door, which opens onto the same balcony my bedroom does, asking if she was alright. No answer. So I slightly parted the curtains of the little window next to the door, picturing her unconscious on the floor trumping any privacy issues, to see her sound asleep in bed. It was a mystery until the next day when she told me she woke in the morning to find the wind had blown over a vase on the table during the night, the broken pieces all over the floor.
…but your anecdotal experience does not mean that everyone else has the same guest experience. Emergencies happen on the street, in another town, etc, and guests who need to communicate with you as host are not always there next to your bedroom.
What does a non-resident guest’s emergency in the middle of the night in another town have to do with me, that I would need to respond to between midnight and 8am? I’m not their mommy.
One example would be a guest needing to inform a host that their arrival will be late or changing conditions for key handoff.
I agree we should not hand hold guests but there are many times that communication should happen that are not on premises.
Well, as you know, I am a homeshare host, so there is no key hand-off that a guest would need to contact me about (and why any guest, even in an entire place, would need to contact a host about that in the middle of the night eludes me- I think you’re fishing pretty deep here), and I can’t imagine any guest would ever need to inform me in the middle of the night that they will be arriving late. If they hadn’t shown up by midnight when I go to bed, nor contacted me earlier to tell me of a delay, which would be a very unusual circumstance, in that case I would leave my phone by the bed and answer it if they were trying to reach me.
That doesn’t mean there is any reason for me to keep my phone ringer on during nightime sleeping hours on a regular basis.
I see that for you specifically this is not something that is important to you.
But there are many different ways to host and many different situations for guests and hosts. Remember that correlation is not causation, and your way of hosting does not preclude other ways.
I don’t need to remind everyone that this forum has members with many many different approaches and ways of operation, and that we all come here to support the exchange of information. There are many ways to… skin a cat…
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Well of course I realize that, and if I were a host of a unit I didn’t live in, I would have to be available 24/7 for possible emergencies like the toilet overflowing, a fire, etc. But you specifically answered my post saying there would be no need for a resident guest to contact me in the middle of the night, by pointing out that there could be some emergency situation for which they couldn’t just knock on my door, which isn’t the case. I never suggested that all hosts should be unreachable in the middle of the night, just that there’s no need for me to be.
“Help please, the bathroom door locked me in”
“Help please, we went out for a walk and got lost”
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The guest bathroom is right next to my bedroom. I’d hear them. And most people aren’t in the habit of taking their phone into the bathroom with them anyway, as far as I’m aware.
My guests don’t go out for walks after midnight. And if they did and got lost, what, I’m supposed to get in the car and drive around randomly looking for them?
I have my phone on do not disturb from 10 pm to 8 am. My “exceptions list” has 5 people who can “punch through” plus my Google voice number attached to our listing, which, if I’m getting a call or text on, is an actual guest or Airbnb themselves. The app can wait. If I’m awake though, I’ll reply pretty much immediately.
Actually, causation is, by definition, correlated to the outcome. Perhaps you meant to type “correlation is not causation.”
And stay away from my cat.
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