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I have shipped items to an Airbnb before. And, was very grateful they allowed it. Actually, the trip wouldn’t have worked if they hadn’t allowed it. So, if they had said no, I would have had to book somewhere else.
Of course, I explained exactly what I was shipping and why. I purchased a motorbike off the internet on the east coast. at that time, I lived in the west. So, I booked a 1 way trip and then planned on driving the motorbike home. Hey, it was a great deal and provided an opportunity for an adventure…
The issue was, I knew I was going to be driving a motorbike home, so, I have very little room. I couldn’t exactly take a big suitcase as I would have nowhere to put the suitcase itself on the motorbike. So, how do you pack a helmet, riding boots, riding jacket and pants on a plane without a suitcase? I contacted the Airbnb host, explained the situation, and shipped them to his house a couple of days before I was to arrive.
The bike turned out to be amazing and I still have it. Had a great cross country motorbike adventure. All because an Airbnb host was gracious enough to be accommodating. So, I would definitely ask What? and Why? But, if it made sense, Id be happy to help.
Funny you mention this because I actually thought of it as I was packing the cardboard box to ship it. At the last minute I thought to myself, there is really no reason a cardboard box couldn’t be checked luggage. But, arrangements had already been made and It was sure nice traveling with just a very small carryon back and not having to deal with checked luggage.
You don’t see it that often in first world countries, where most travelers can afford decent luggage, but here in Mexico, for instance, people packing their stuff in cardboard boxes isn’t unusual to see.
So Amazon packages are generally delivered by carrier. The post office will often reject a package that’s mailed using snail mail directly to the property if the address doesn’t match. They won’t get residency at your place because they sent a package.
On a side note - I’ve had things delivered to me at a hotel before. Sometimes people just need to be able to get things.
Just make it clear to your guest that you won’t take responsibility for deliveries - ship at your own risk!
I have no problems with guests shipping things to the house. The house has it’s own address and it’s up to them to collect it. Mailing things on the other hand…
The mailbox that goes with the houses are down the street in little locked mailboxes. If they lose the key its a huge deal. And these mailboxes are so tiny we actually use one of them for our magazine subscriptions, as all our mail doesn’t fit in the one for our house.
So we really prefer they don’t have mail forwarded, and if they must to return things to the mailbox not addressed to them, as its a shared mailbox.
I’ve done this before but I always check with the host in advance that it’s OK. I also tell them what it is I’m expecting so they know it’s not dodgy. Maybe you could request something like that?
Of course, I could probably get away with not telling them at all as I only stay in whole house AIrbnbs, but I need to cover for worst case scenarios like lengthy shipping delays, or the host just happening to be around when it’s delivered.
I’ve mentioned this story before on another thread, but I’ll never forget one host’s story of a guest asking if he could have a couple of packages shipped so they would be there for his arrival. She said yes, but gave her work address, rather than her home address to ship them to (as I recall, she was a real estate agent). The two “packages” turned out to be two huge wooden crates and her spidey sense went into full gear, so she pried one open to find it full of guns and ammunition.
She right away phoned Airbnb, who seemed wholly unconcerned, as per their usual MO. So she phoned the FBI, who were extremely interested, and sent an agent over, who confiscated the crates. The FBI then contacted Airbnb to get the guest’s full name and ID info, at which point, surprise, surprise, Airbnb acted all concerned.
It turned out the guy was an arms dealer who had intended to illegally cross state borders with the shipment, as shipping those guns to the state where he intended to sell them was illegal.
This reminds me of the host whose guest left behind a large safe. Do you remember that? I tried searching for it but couldn’t find it. I don’t know whatever came of it. But that one was exciting too!
Yes, I remember. It wasn’t that long ago. The guest had said they had left a safe in the rental, which is weird in itself, but then the host ended up finding it out in the backyard, which is even weirder.
Where I am in Mexico the Amazon driver calls me the day before the delivery and then again when he is in his way with an ETA. While he is a lovely man I am sure some deliveries take longer than others and some days his timing is way off.
Putting my life on hold for one day is more than enough when it is my own package. I most certainly would not do it for a guest.
I won’t go into the entire story of my debacle in getting a new debit card couriered from Canada to Mexico to replace the one that was stolen- each segment could be a story in itself.
But once I could get someone to tell me which courier service they use and the correct tracking number, I waited at home all day for 5 days in a row for what I was told they were expediting and would arrive in 3 days. When I finally called the DHL office, the woman told me it was in the warehouse and would be delivered “sometime next week”.
It was a Saturday, and I absolutely had to go out shopping, I’d not gone out for 5 days waiting for this delivery that I had to sign for and had no food in the house.
After telling the woman it was supposed to have been delivered 2 days previous, and that I had to go out that day, I asked her for an assurance that it would be delivered the following week, not that day. She said no way would it be that day.
So I got in my car and when I was half an hour down the highway, my neighbor called to say the DHL truck had just come with a package for me.
Luckily, she orders a lot of stuff that gets delivered by DHL, so the driver knows her, and when she has to go out and the delivery is late, she will sometimes ask me to grab it for her. So even though he wasn’t supposed to let anyone else sign for something like a bank card, he let her sign for it.
We travel often, almost always in whole house rentals. Because we are typically on the road for several weeks, we often have packages shipped to an upcoming address. It may be something as simple as charging cables, medicine, or, seemingly as the OP’s guests, equipment we need for a part of the trip and that we did not have when we started or that we forgot.
Being able to ship to an upcoming address is sometimes really useful when you travel. We always ask for permission—it has never been refused. I would feel negatively towards a host who did not let me ship packages unless the host gives me a good reason: it seems like such a painless thing to do. Hope this makes sense!
So far I haven’t had anyone deliver packages without asking first. When they do that I asked them to put it in my name and not theirs. My reasoning is that it is not uncommon to have to verify yourself by some automated system and they’ll sometimes ask if someone’s name is associated with your property. And if they have a package delivered in their name it could be their name that shows up!
When I first started using Airbnb (after many years of having STR rentals) I joined this forum and so many hosts advised against allowing deliveries for guests.
So I took that advice, probably thinking that somehow Airbnb guests were a different species to the ones I was used to.
I soon realised that I was being paranoid and silly. Although I will direct guests to the Amazon drop-off place nearby, I have no problem with guests receiving packages or mail.
I recently had someone stay at our place for 3 months and they wanted to use my address and politely declined. They ended up using a service called Bounce Package Acceptance. The service allowed them to use a local store as their shipping address. Worked well for us.
