Guests dissapeared and turned up after checkout without any message. Review?

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Yesterday i received a last minute booking at 5 pm for just 1 night (last night). Im sharing a 2 bedroom appartment. I sleep in 1 room and im renting out the other one

Because i had to prepare the room i welcomed them at our house them at 8 pm. It was a young and (at first impression) nice couple. They left the house shortly after check in.

This morning at 11.10 am (my checkout time is 11 am and im doing back to back bookings which means i need to clean and prepare for next guests as soon as possible) i knocked on the room’s door but there was no response. I already had this feeling that they didnt came home the entire night because normally i wake up when people coming in at night.

The worst scenarios were going through my head (were they unconscious laying in the bed? Did they end up in a car accident?) as i was opening the door of their room. Only to find out a dildo and a bottle of whipped cream on the bed. Besides that jackets, passport and suitcase. No guests and no message at all.

I immediately send them a message to ask them where they were and if they could come back a.s.a.p. as i needed to clean the room for my next guests.

I also wrote them that i had to charge them EUR30 for re-scheduling the cleaning lady (which is me myself, but after years of hosting this is a houserule i have set after experiencing that most of our guests dont check out on time if there isnt any financial consequence). This rule is made clear in the listing as well as in a letter on the room.

After 30 minutes they answered they “lost track of the time” and would be at the house soon.

After again 30 minutes they turned up, said they had gone partying all night and didnt sleep at all. (Im wondering where they had been between closing time of the clubs -which is 5 am- and noon when they finally showed up but i understand thats none of my business).

Then they asked if they could stay to sleep in (while i already wrote in my message that i have new guests coming in and needed the room to clean).

After this it took 1 hour AGAIN before they finally left the house (2 hours after check out time).

I normally never write guest reviews unless i feel that future hosts need to be warned for specific guests.

I am in doubt what to write about these guests. I havent send them the EUR30 late checkout fee request yet and have no idea whether they are going to pay this without problems (my experience is that no guests ever paid voluntary for a certain charge without air bnb being involved).

Although they stayed “nice”, this whole situation caused me stress and actually i think its very unpolite to stay in someone’s house, then to dissapear for the entire night without even 1 message and eventually turn up far after checkout, even asking to stay in the room to sleep the entire day, knowing that other guests coming that day.

Was it just ignorance or is it straight anti social behavior, ignoring all the houserules and just disrespecting me as a host?

What should i write about them in my review?

Im also worrying about them giving me a bad review (because of the extra charge and because i didnt let them sleep in again) which off course wouldn’t make any sense but it sure will affect my rating.

I recently received a bad review which i tried to have it removed by air bnb because there was just wrong information in it which could turn away future guests, but air bnb answered this review wasnt breaking any rules, it was just “the guests experience” and therefore they didnt remove it. So basically guests can say anything in their review as long as it is not breaking rules air bnb has set.

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Why don’t you draft what you want to say and we can comment?

Standard approach is to include positive aspects, negative aspects, summary.

You too can say anything you want as a host too unless it breaks their rules (have a look at Airbnb Help Centre under Reviews )

By the way I think its rather unfair not to write reviews for your guests. As you know they rely on these and some hosts won’t accept guests without them or will wonder why the guest wasn’t reviewed. If you have had a pleasant guest why not leave them a quick review it only takes a minute or two to write a couple of sentences.

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This is true off course but a bad review for guests doesn’t have the same impact as a bad review for a host. Guests can just delete their profile and make a new one (especially when its a couple or a group they can use multiple identies). For a host a negative review can mean less bookings and financial loss.

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We will have to agree to disagree @airhost51

Guests generally can’t delete their profile and start again as Airbnb retains their data making it hard for them to do so.

A negative review will also mean guests are less likely to be accepted for a booking and of course can’t use IB.

So I would say a negative review for a guest would have at least the same, and probably more impact.

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You should ALWAYS REVIEW EVERY GUEST! Stop worrying about bad reviews. If you host more than a couple guests a month a not-so-good-review will quickly get lost in the pile.

Be factual and unemotional.

“Guests appeared to not have spent the night, but when contacted returned to the house and wasted my time trying to negotiate a ‘sleep in a late departure’, even after being told I had new guests arriving in a few hours and needed to clean and re-stock the listing.”

Give them 1 or 0 stars for communications, 3 stars for cleanliness, and an overall 2 star rating.

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I’d write something like

“GUESTS were friendly and left the place in good shape, but were two hours late checking out which left our cleaners in a pinch to prepare for the next guests arriving that day. Unfortunately, based on this experience I can’t recommend GUESTS to other hosts.”

Have you considered what you would have done if the guests hadn’t returned on time? If I have guests arriving the same day, I’m not willing to let the first group control the timeline for when they leave. If people aren’t out 30 mins after checkout, I start cleaning (around them, if need be). I have this in my house rules:

Exclusive use of the space extends through the end of your paid stay. Any personal items will be removed from the suite & door code changed shortly after checkout time.

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Ok, I had to re-read the dildo and whipped cream part 4 or 5 times for it to be true. I know you are in anguish but I find it hilarious. I wouldn’t have been able to look at them with a straight face.

I had a very similar thing happen. What infuriated me was their lackadaisical attitude about it as I am chomping at the bit to get them out so I can clean.

A good suggestion I noted recently was to text the guest a sweet reminder/check out msg the morning of. May help with some.

Yes, definitely address it in your review.

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I can’t look at anyone with a straight face.

(LOLLOL.)

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There was a time, long ago, when I would indulge in this sort of behaviour. Going out for the night in London with a married couple who had paid a baby sitter to spend the night with their 2 kids. At 6am in da club you just want to keep going. We had three views on this: husband: we have to go home and relieve the baby sitter because that is what we agreed; wife: let’s just keep going all weekend (she later spent 9 months in rehab); me: can we ring her and offer her a hundred quid to stay for a couple of hours longer? Husband always won the argument. Stick to your plan.

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Please, PLEASE tell me that the whipped cream was organic?!

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If it had been me, and it has been on a couple of occasions I contact the guest that my check out time was 10 a.m. and it is now 11 a.m. All personal property has been gathered and is placed by the front door for their pick up. I would then reset the room like normal and not wait. I then wrote a review just stating they did not vacate the room by check out time, personal items were packed and available for pick up. The guest had not requested nor granted a late check out causing me additional work to pack up their personal property.
This has done 2 things, I no longer get guests who go out and party and don’t return on time and I don’t have to worry about resetting the room on time. I will on occasion get a guest who will oversleep but they are few and far between and they vacate the room within 30 minutes with my apologies. It is all about the tone you set in your reviews. What you expect and accept and this will carry on with future guests who read your reviews.

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Sex toys and whipped cream have been packed and are available for pick up. Hahahaha!

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