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If you include a check in window in your house rules, if guests do not show up within the window, you can call Airbnb and ask them to cancel the reservation and find a new place for the guest. @GalwayGirl, only this paragraph is directed to you. Below is just general stuff related to the topic.
As many other hosts have done, I too, figured a way to allow self checkin. Before I am pounced upon by other forum members telling me NOT EVERYONE CAN OR WANTS TO DO SELF CHECKIN, I am well aware of that, and I donāt believe Iāve ever said my way is the only way. Anyway, if there is any way to make a self check in work, it may simplify your life a lot. I used to spend hours at home waiting on guests. If they even bother to tell you when they plan on arriving (yes, I know, send them messages asking, I do, more than once), they either share that information when itās pretty much a moot point, or they donāt show up when they say they will, for whatever reason.
When I got a job outside the home, I was forced to figure out a self checkin routine or not host anymore, as there was no way I could be home half the day waiting on guests anymore.
I use IB, a full 65% of my guests are first time Airbnb users, and I donāt screen excessively. So far, so good. 160 or so sets of guests and no major problems (though about a zillion small annoyances, which I may start another thread about, LOL). As a matter of fact, usually the only people who make me nervous because they donāt communicate at all after making the reservation turn out to be older folks who are really bad with technology. They have smart phones, but not much of a clue how to use them. And no, Iām not dissing older people. I love them. By some peopleās standards, I am one.
I had guests two weeks ago who were driving in out of state and due at the end of our stated check in of 9pm. Then right before 9 they messaged to say they were 2 hours away with a flat and wasnāt successful finding a tire shop still open and that they would be driving instead on their little donut spare and would be forced to drive slow so wouldnāt be arriving until after midnight. I was tempted to say fuggetaboutit cause I need my beauty sleep, but didnāt because their night was already hard for them. They did indeed show up with the donut tire on the car and they did leave a glowing 5* review.
Also had a young woman arrive after the check in window ended and agreed to wait up since it didnāt inconvenience us. She did get a stern but friendly reminder, though, that most of us hosts have day jobs and to be more careful in the future as other hosts would likely not accommodate late check ins. She is young and the older I get (almost 60 now), the more sympathetic I am to clueless young people. I prefer an educational approach to rudeness or being unkind. I always think back to how clueless my own kids were at their age and how I would have wanted them to be treated in a similar situation.
There is a huge difference between the person with an actual issue and the entitled one who blithely acts as if the world revolves around them. Unless it was literally impossible Iād give the guest the benefit of the doubt unless there was evidence that they were late due to the latter, not the former. For examply, if they arrive with tire intact and carry out cartons from a restaurant. Then I would note it in the review.
