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My guest has booked for 7 Jan (Tuesday) checkout out 8 Jan. They said they would be driving down (5 hour drive) to the apartment and arriving late afternoon. They would be checking out early the next morning since they had a ferry to catch, Since my last guest had checked out 5 Jan (10am) I prepared the apartment for the next guest including setting the specific keycode for the new guest what I had already communicated.
On 6 Jan I had to make an early run to the airport (5am!) and after dropping off the passenger stopped by the apartment to drop off some final provisions. To my utter amazement I found the apartment was occupied with people asleep in the rooms! They woke up of course and then told me they would be checking out soon. Language was somewhat of an issue (but not evident from their AirBnB messages which were very clear) but I did confirm they were my guests for the 7th but had checked in a day early. Since the code had been set on Sunday they could get in with no problem.
Not wanting to cause a scene I left and went home and double checked their reservation and message. It was 100% they had booked for the 7th (3pm checkin time) and checkout 8th (and said they had an early ferry to catch).
I then called AirBnB support who were somewhat aghast at what had happened since this was tantamout to trespassing. They said they would charge the guests for an extra night, the night they didn’t book. Of course I would be paid for the night they did book even though they would not be using it.
A few conversations with the guests later indicated they had screwed up their dates. For example
“Hi , I am so so sorry!I really messed up the dates. I imagine how you felt this morning when you got to your apartment and we were sleeping there!we want to apologize for the mistake, we thought that yesterday was the 7th. We thought we had to take the ferry this morning and when we got at the ferry they told us that we had booked for tomorrow instead and I had to pay extra to catch the ferry”
It was clearly a mistake on their part but it certainly caught me completely by surprise.
A few points.
They did leave the apartment in a nice tidy state - how do I review them?
I am now only going to send the code on the day of the booking, even if I have set the combination earlier - that’s a lesson to be learned
That has been advised here many, many times. If you have some spare time read as much as you can here on the forum it will save you many headaches later.
Just as you did here. "Guests were great. They mistakenly booked the wrong day but we worked everything out. "
I’d also review them as KKC recommends. It sounds like an honest mistake and they were apologetic.
Add in some international date lines, jet lag, and cultural quirks…many of us travelers can become idiots. (Says the woman who showed up for a flight out of Barcelona on 9/8 only to learn that I’d long missed the flight I’d booked for August 9th)
I set the code at about ten minutes before check in, no earlier. Guests have figured out these days that many hosts use the last four digits of their phone number so use that knowledge to get in early if they can.
Guests are told the code by me when I take them into the apartment for the house tour and not before. I truly can’t understand why hosts send it in advance. It’s exactly the same as giving complete strangers the keys to your property - seems a bit nuts to me.
I think I am going to look at investing in a lock that I can set the code remotely. Then I can do as others have suggested and set the code close to the checkin time.
The trespassing was what AirBnB said in their message to me and on the phone. And in terms of a happy ending, AirBnB sent me one more day’s accommodation before they could claim it from the guests so I got an extra day out of it.
I have been doing AirBnB since March last year so I am still new to this. I have learnt a lot during the year as I am sure most new hosts have. Now is the time to look to upgrade the lock to something I can remotely set.
As everyone else has said, don’t set the code early
Otherwise, I would review these guests as if the mistake wasn’t made. It really sounds like an honest mistake and they were apologetic. As another host, I don’t need to know that it happened. I also think it’s a little harsh and would be possibly embarassing to them to have it mentioned in the review. It doesn’t seem like it harmed anything either, so I would review them like any other regular guests. A mistake is a mistake, it’s not something that is likely to happen again with the same guests so I’d just ignore it when it came to the review.
Out of interest can people suggest what sort of deadbolt they are using that works well for setting the code remotely? I am looking at this one from Schlage
but it’s quite pricy but its advantage is it does not need a separate bridge but has built-in WiFi so it can connect to my apartment’s WiFi and then I can set the lock remotely (or disable it).
Thanks. I think I will go for the Encode since the Sense appears you need to have a separate WiFi adapter if you want remote control of the lock.
The slightly annoying thing is the Shlage units do not come in Bronze, only aged bronze so that will not match the door handle I have. And since the apartment is in a block I can’t really change the door handle to match. I guess nobody will care
Glad I posted here before I reviewed them. They gave me a glowing review and a personal apology. My review was pretty much as stated. “There were some slight hiccups at the beginning from confusion over scheduling which were quickly resolved. Guests were considerate, left the place nice and tidy tc.” Gave them 5 stars for all categories except 5 stars for following instructions
Not a time zone issue as they were in country and driving down to my apartment (4 hours) having spend a few days in another city. But I am sure like most people, when you are travelling, you can forget what day it is as every day is pretty much like the any other.
Yes, when travelling from west to east, you arrive the day after you leave. I have had a friend in Amsterdam arrive at the airport to meet me on the wrong day, as I gave him the wrong date. Hard to know, but could actually be an honest mistake.
