My regular check in time is 5 pm to 11 pm.
Today a guest arrived at 1 pm - 4 hours early - i told them to come back at 5 pm as the room was not ready (it wasn’t as i had a AIRBNB
guest the night before) and they had not contacted me in advance requesting early check in. What would you do in these circumstances - i just thought it rather rude.
Exactly what you did. We always tell our guests who ask that we need every minute in between stays given the thorough cleaning required each time to ensure they have a spotless suite when they arrive.
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You did the right thing. Absolutely disrespectful and unprofessional of the guest to expect an early check-in just by showing up 4 hours early.
A mindful guest would have the decency to inform you about their expected arrival OR inquire if an early check-in is even on the table…
Let us know how the guest was after they left. Hope it works out well.
@peter1 Do you communicate with guests regarding check-in and ETAs a day or more before arrival? If not, I would suggest you do.
Also, a check-in time of 5pm is quite late. Most hosts have check-in start times of 2-4pm. (And those of us who leave a night’s prep time between bookings may have even earlier check-in times- mine are 11am-11pm.)
What is the reason for you having such a late check-in time?
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Absolutely, I’m on our guests’ a$$ if 24 hours before I don’t know their estimated check-in time. Airbnb chat, SMS, phone call, Airbnb host support. We have a business to run and don’t wait around for guests to show up whenever.
We’ve only ever had one guest turn up early, 12.30 for a 3pm check in. I told them their room wasn’t anywhere near ready but offered them a cup of tea and said they could sit in the garden and wait or pop into town or walk down to the pub. They chose the latter and came back about 4’ish.
It didn’t seem like a big deal to me or much of an inconvenience for them. I didn’t get the impression that they were chancers, maybe just a bit crap at travel time/distance management.
Occasionally we have people turning up really late, 11, 12 even 1 a.m but it’s almost invariably because they’ve left work at say, 5 on a Friday, then had to sit in rush hour traffic trying to get out of London, got caught in a motorway tailback etc. etc. and really I just feel sorry for them and don’t mind waiting up to see them in. Generally they’re courteous, apologetic and communicative which is all we need.
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Agreed. I send a message called “just checking in” a week before a reservation, asking guests if they have any questions and if they can give me an approximate time for arrival so “we can keep an eye out for them.” Any requests for an early arrival, which is usually doable since we book with a day in between reservations, can be brought up then. I understand why it doesn’t come up months before at booking time, but a week before? Guests should know and ask then for an exception.
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Thanks everyone for your feedback.
I do message guests on the Airbnb portal 48 hours before arrival reminding them of my address and stating check in/check out times.
I have always had problems with guests not advising approximate arrival time so want to avoid extending my check in time - currently 5pm to 11 pm. Check out is 11 am and i want a few hours to myself. Hosterer i note you badger guests to give you a approximate arrival time - does that not irritate them resulting in a poor review ? I find alot of guests book and then you hear nothing from them until arrival day.
Regarding the guest in question - they returned at 6 pm and were fine.
But do you ask them for it? It doesn’t sound like you do- sending a message reminding them of check-in times isn’t something most guests would think requires a response.
I ask all my guests for ETA. If they don’t answer the Airbnb message, I whatsapp them. Most just didn’t bother checking their Airbnb messages. I’ve never had a guest express any irritation over this, consider it badgering, or leave a bad review.
But the majority of my guests arrive by plane to the airport 45 minutes away and take the bus to my place. So it’s not like they are driving here, might get an early or late start, or stop along the way- they know their flight arrival time.
Have you considered using the one night prep time settings between bookings? While it means you won’t get same day check-out, check ins, so less $, it also would give you time to yourself without rushing to turn over the room, and means if someone checks out a bit late, or arrives earlier than is now convenient for you, it’s not a big deal.
And that blocked night between bookings might be offset by getting more bookings from guests who might otherwise not book because of your 5pm check-in time.
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So far, not one guest mentioned that this was an issue, neither in person nor in a review.
I understand that many guests (maybe even the vast majority) do not want to have to worry about informing a host about the minute they will be arriving at the destination - but these are not our guests 
.
We welcome our guests to our home, where we live and in person. We care about our guests and we’re usually always home 24/7. Any issues are resolved immediately and if necessary we will go out of our way to help them (provide a ride to a pharmacy etc.).
It is important to us that the guests show the same amount of respect to us that we show to them. They usually understand that we live in the same house, so the concept of “having a life” may be a little more evident. We explain to the guests that their help by informing us about their expected (!) arrival is greatly appreciated as it helps us to plan our schedule. I think this sounds plausible and nobody ever seemed to have a problem with it.
Obivously, we’re getting a lot less reservations but so far, we have had very pleasant and mindful guests - except this window situation 
. A big difference to how it used to be before.
For us the communication with our guests is extremely important. Many times we can establish a friendly exchange that helps facilitate the entire check-in experience and sets the tone for an enjoyable stay.
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That’s perfectly normal. (When I’m a guest I do the same thing).
I have several guests who come here annually for various events and they book a year in advance. This helps them lock in today’s pricing and means that it’s one less chore as they know they’ve got their accommodation sorted out.
A story - which is a word of warning for those who use the last 4 digits of the guest’s phone number as the keypad code. (And I know from being a guest that this happens a lot)
I rarely have guests arriving early but once, I was in one of the apartments finalising the prep and I heard a couple outside - it was the expected guests but they were early. They had no idea I was in the apartment.
I heard the bloke said to his companion “oh, it’s OK. Hosts always use the last four digits of a guest’s phone number - I’ll do it…”
I heard him fiddling with the lock. “That’s funny, it doesn’t work. I’ll try again”.
He tried repeatedly but because setting the code is the very last thing I do, I heard him say “we’d better wait then. I suppose we’ll go to have a coffee somewhere”.
So, the moral of this story is, guests aren’t daft. Don’t use the last four. 
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Oh, I do that. From this day forward I will figure out another code for each guest other than the last 4 digits of their phone number. I do set the time that the door code is activated though. Our check in time is 3:00, so I set the activation to 2:30 just to be safe, in case they do show up a wee bit early.
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As long as you set the code to only be active when you are ready and to expire shortly after their checkout time, it should be ok to use the last four digits of the guest’s phone. Or am I missing something?
To me, @jaquo’s story shows the value of controlling the access times no matter what code they get.
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Yes, that is what I do. I set the time that the code becomes active and when it is deleted.
The reason to not use a phone number is that it is the common ‘go to’ for new hosts - anybody can be given that phone number, anybody can learn the phone number, any delivery person gets that phone number, the pizza delivery guy has their phone number. Since most of the hosts who are not very security conscious use the last four digits of the guest’s phone number, you can be sure that it’s a well known thing to folks who have nefarious ideas. It’s been discussed many times not only here but another places on the web, it’s a hint people give to people trying to get into their (or not their) Airbnb saying “it’s probably the last four digits of your phone number since every Airbnb gives that as the access code”…
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You make good points, @Rolf . I never thought of other people possibly knowing the guest’s phone number. (Long story short, our guests almost never need to use the code so I just give the guests the number assigned by the lock program.)
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I use an online random number generator (Random Number Generator) (it saves time and brainpower).
I use two numbers only, repeated.
My (possibly faulty) logic is that it’s easier to remember two numbers than four so the keypads are set to (for example) 6767, 0202,7070, 8383 etc.
Another thing I do, when showing the guests into the rentals, is write the number on my hand. I say to the guest “the code is set to” (look at hand) “5757” which (I hope
) makes them aware that the code is set particularly for them.
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I set the code on our keysafe to the guest’s arrival date. I figure that should be reasonably easy for them to work out even if they don’t actually remember the numbers. It is only set and the keys put in when the cottage is actually ready for them and removed when I go in after their departure. So code is different for every stay but still easy for me and the guest.
It is rude and you can certainly give them a 1 star for communication by not asking you for early check in or letting you know what time they expect to arrive. We have a 3 pm check in and last week I got a text from the guests at 1 pm saying they need to check in at 2 pm for a 3 pm conference call. Because I had a same day turn and the previous guests took their sweet time to check out, I had only a couple of hours to clean and get the house ready for the next guest. I told them that I would do my best to get them checked in at 2:30. They showed up at 2 pm and waited impatiently for me to finish cleaning. I busted my ass to work fast and finished by 2:45 and they practically knocked me over to get started in their conference call. They had many options, 1) ask for early check in and I would have told them no and they could have rescheduled their conference call 2) sit in the driveway in their car and conduct the conference call 3) go to cafe (not very private) and conduct the conference call. I had a same day turn on their check out and at 11 am when I arrived to clean they had not even begun to check out. I began to clean around them. Consequently they left a huge mess of dishes, food, sex toys, underwear, etc. Communication is essential between guests and hosts and sometimes a one star review on communication and in this case on cleanliness, is the only tools we have to alert other hosts.
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5pm seems a late check in. I havnt seen anyone later than 4pm. You cant blame them for asking. I would suggest a local cafe they can wait in