Guest is over-communicating and driving me batty

Should I talk to guest about over-communication or just let it ride?

Day one - guest does not arrive - get a message late at night that he will arriving the next day. (I’m irritated because I turned the AC on about 1 hour before arrival and it ran for 6 hours until he said he wasn’t coming.)

Day two - guest asks if he can check in early. I tell him that the place is his since the previous night so he can check in whenever. I ask him to give me an eta so I can turn on the AC. I told him he doesn’t need to continue to communicate his arrival.

He tells an ETA of 5:00 so I turn on ac at 4.

He then sends me 8 more texts and eventualyl arrives at 11:09 pm (I did not respond to texts.) I go to bed early and woke up to these. There is a note on how to contact me via land line if there is an issue in the check in message.

1, I’m on my way and thank you so much
9:31 PM

  1. I should be there with in 30 minutes. Just leaving Franklin St in Stoneham where Mom loves. Leaving now

9:48 PM

  1. Hi Lynn, I should be there in about a half-hour. Just on Orange line to Oak Grove now. I know it’s on the late side but I will not make a sound

  2. 9:58 PM

What is your address again? Just getting off at Oak Grove?

  1. Just at Oak Grove now

  2. Hi Lynn,I’m walking from Oak Grove. Finally made it to Melrose

  3. 10:44 PM

I’m getting an Uber the rest of the way. Thought I could walk it…lol Uber we drop me at 10:52. Sorry for the late check-in. Can’t wait to get there. Thank you Lynn. I’ll just make the 1100 check-in :hugs::see_no_evil:

  1. 10:59 PM

I’m here now. Am I too late

I did not answer any of his replies. And the AC ran again for 6 unneeded hours. I get that it’s his Airbnb so I shouldn’t care but I do. I don’t like to waste energy.

What’s really odd is that he says he’s coming from Stoneham which is about 3 miles away. There’s. no way to get from Stoneham to the Orange line subway. Also, as he discovered, the subway isn’t walkable. It would have been much easier to have just grabbed an uber from Stoneham. Something is really off with him and he feels the need to tell mistruths which isn’t really my concern but it just seems odd.

It’s his first Airbnb (without his wife who originally booked this as a third-party booking) . Do you think I should say anything or just chalk it up to running an airbnb. He leaves in 2 more days.

this dude is married? he sounds like a man child, late 20s/early 30s who has never had to think for himself. i hope he’s not going to ask you how to use everything …lol.

Def a bit of a flake, not necessarily a problem, some people are like this.

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Yes he’s married because originally his wife make the booking on her account. I told her she had to create an account for him because I don’t accept third-party bookings. She did tell me that he doesn’t understand technology. (I personally am wondering if he is having an affair but it’s not my business unless he brings in an unregistered guest.

Thanks for your feedback.

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I would just let it go, he’s leaving in two days.

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how dumb would you be to have an affair in a place that your wife booked?? especially if you left a review of “guests and his partner were lovely”.
however, there are apparently super dumb ppl out there.

LOL - I’m not sure he even understand the review process.

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Let it ride.

There’s something wrong here, but my sense is that this is a cognitive issue. I don’t think he intends to lie.

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Yes, all those messages would be annoying but on the other hand I love when people pay and aren’t actually in the room. So though you ran the AC when he wasn’t there, he could have been there 24/7 running the AC.

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These people average out with the ones who fail to communicate at all.

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Yeah, I thought of that too and I am getting the money. It’s just so odd. He supposedly here for a convention and he’s sound asleep at 9:30 am.

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About the guest sleeping when he’s supposed to be at a convention:

I went to France years ago with four other students from my university to study at a French university for six weeks.

One of the students slept through all six weeks. I’m sure he was up some of the time, but he never went to classes or met the rest of us for meals. We stopped knocking on his dorm room door and waking him up to remind him.

No idea why he spent the money to go. Maybe he thought people sleep better in France!

I’d say over-communication is preferrable to under-communication.

Let it go. As someone else mentioned, you have no idea what cognitive issues a guest might have. For instance, there are many people on the autism spectrum who don’t have a concept of what is appropriate when it comes to communication or social interaction.

I kinda feel sorry for the guy and he sounds like a nice person who felt he was doing the right thing by keeping you informed.

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Hosts like to complain that guests don’t read. But I think this guest read your house rules @Lynick4442 . Your house rules are very lengthy and have a very specific tone to them. You mention something about checking in and the time and what the guest needs to tell you about the time and even include a punitive fine for checking in past a certain time unless they tell you by a particular time numerous times in them.

I think this guest was trying to be a good guest and trying to respect your time by updating you about his progress toward arrival.

His messages were succinct and to the point, I don’t see anything wrong with them. And I’m surprised you don’t get this more often. You wanted to scare guests into complying with your house rules and the importance of your time and you succeeded. I don’t see the problem.

And it’s not just you and your rules about time but it’s other hosts too. I’ve seen plenty of “bad” guest reviews that mention that the guest did not communicate enough about their arrival time. And plenty of hosts have complained about the same on here, including you.

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So just as a follow up, the guest brought in a visitor that was not approved. (We require pre-approval of vistitor not on the reservation.) Guest ignored my request to have the visitor leave the premises, disabled my camera, and snuck out at check out. Happy to the see the back of him (oh wait, I didn’t because the camera stopped working). Oh well, it’s been a while since I had gotten a weird guest.

Glad there was no permanent outcome other than that creepy feeling we get when we have this type of guest. It is amazing that some guests treat us as though we have no rights in regard to our own property.

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