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We expected a new guest last night for a four-night stay. Had the house all ready hours before her 7:30-8 p.m. arrival. 11 p.m., and no guest. My husband went to bed. I stayed up. I knew she was flying here, and flights can be delayed.
I puttered around, organizing my piano music, rearranging things on the mantel, shelving some books in our library, and watching TV.
Finally, at 1:45 a.m., I decided to message the guest through Airbnb to ask about arrival. That’s when I noticed that her reservation starts tonight.
RebeccaF I did the same thing with my last guest - even cut our vacation short because I thought he was arriving on Sunday. He had asked for an early check in so we drove 4 hours straight home (rather than stop to see a couple of waterfalls and a touristy park as we had planned a leisurely drive.) Got home and did the last minute touches - I leave making the bed to last to let it “air” and I needed to dust. Fortunatly everything else was done before we left for our trip. No guest. Finally messaged him to see if he was lost. He said his booking was for the next day. sigh
Fortunately my OH was patient and forgiving! And the guest was great - a terrific 11 day stay in our 2nd slowest month and he may be a returning guest since it was a work trip.
I do this too! I always clean and dust right after a guest leaves, but since I don’t get back-to-back listings, I always do a quick pass through and make the beds day-of.
Interesting. We do leave the bed to do a couple of hours before guest arrival, but I always dust and vacuum the room after the bed is made, on the theory that bed-making could stir up dust I hadn’t found.
I used to do the bed last, but now do it first (unless it’s ceiling fan-cleaning day) The reason is that I would bash away at all the big jobs and by the end I’d be bored and tired and think “Oh I can do the beds tomorrow,” (we have a prep day between stays) and without fail I’d be scrabbling around to get the beds made minutes before check-in time!
Wow…we have self check in and I NEVER wait up. I’d never made it this long if I did that. We have a lot of late arrivals, we live outside Yellowstone Park and it always takes longer for them to go through the park then they think it will. I don’t know when most my guests arrive. We live upstairs, they have their own entrance downstairs. I do have that in my listing, that we don’t care when they arrive and that if it’s after 8;00 they won’t see us till the next morning. People say they like not having to rush to arrive by a certain time. So far it’s worked out for us, getting ready to start our 7th year.
The last Airbnb I stayed in the host couldn’t come up with the door code used to get into the lobby of the building. She always used the keys, which were inside, on the table. I was on the phone with the host as she was racking her brain when my daughter figured it out from looking at the wear on the metal keypad.
During the slow months I’ve started cleaning the bathroom immediately, the Kitchen & cover the coffee bar with a tablecloth so it doesn’t get dusty & the bedrooms, dusting & vacuuming before making the beds, then covering the beds with a sturdy plastic drop cloth so dust doesn’t accumulate on top of the beds & night stands. Day of arrival I dust & vacuum again & take drop cloth off carefully. This way I’m not as stressed when I get last minute bookings.
I have a smart lock now & do self check in but since I’m an insomniac I also let guests know I’ll drop by after they arrive to make sure everything is ok. My guests almost always have questions, especially for Restaurant referrals.
