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My space is in my home and it consists of a single bedroom with access to some shared spaces and a guest bathroom. My listing clearly states that the space is for single travellers only who are female because it is just my daughter and I living in our home. It also requires that a guest confirm what time they are checking in with a window of arrival between 3 p.m. and 11 pm. I have a guest who is scheduled to arrive today. When she booked, she mentioned that she was traveling with her son of unspecified age to visit her other son in college. Based on prior reviews, I believe that the person she is bringing is older than 2 years old. But I asked her to confirm that she understands the listing is only for her and ask her to provide me her check in time roughly. And she didn’t respond to either texts over the course of a week. So I reached out to air BnB today and they escalated it to urgent because her check in time is today. First of all, I sat on hold for over 10 minutes which is something that you might want to know if it’s called urgent.
secondly, the representative said that if a guest arrives in a listing that has only one guest allowed, if the additional guest is under two years of age they are not considered a guest so they are allowed to come I said that is ridiculous because infants and toddlers are extremely loud. They vomit, defecate, and cry. I think any host deserves to know if a guest they think is coming alone is in fact coming with the baby or toddler. Just my two cents. But in this case, the guest has an adult son with her.
Airbnb is reaching out to the guest to find out who is showing up and what time they are showing up. If she needs a different different space because she has herself and another adult, they will help her find one. I have medium strict cancellation policy and my main concern is just that she won’t respect any of my house rules if she’s already not respecting the basic ones like what time you’re arriving and who’s actually staying this is my home. It’s not a hotel.
If Air CS finds that they’re bringing two people (and one isn’t an infant) you can ask them to cancel the booking since the guest intends to break your max occupancy rule. Non-responsiveness is also a reason for cancellation, at least for Instant Booking guests. Tell them you expect to be paid according to your cancellation policy.
Going forward, I’ve found it best to get the guest count at booking. Regs in my area now require guest names. I thought it would be a pain, but it’s been unexpectedly helpful. I require names before check-in and only those guests are allowed on the property.
Is your place marked “may not be suitable for children”? In shared spaces you are allowed some leeway in who stays. Even though children under 2 are not charged, they should be included in the guest count. In fact, the Airbnb system will not allow someone to instant book a “no kids” house - they’ll need to send a request to the host.
First you are looking for issues that are unfounded at this point. If you did not receive a return message then give them a call get your answer and then follow up by restating your conversation via the msg app with confirmation needed. The guest may not know what time they will arrive and with a quick phone call or text msg to their phone you will probably get your answer. Yes I know we are suppose to do all msg’s via the app but sometimes when you get an unresponsive guest it may be necessary. I try to not involve ABB unless absolutely necessary especially when I can handle it myself. Make sure you have your settings at no children/no infants…
I have had admin cancel 2 IB reservations and the 1st was because the guest wouldn’t answer any of my questions.
Booked for 1 guest, whole house listing. Booking message indicates 3 guests. I inform, it is not a valid reservation. The number of guests must be accurate on the reservation.
Guest modifies the reservation to more than 3 guests.
I write back asking for details on the party and to confirm check in time (message somewhat implied they may be intending to check in several hours early which does not happen for free).
Guest copies and pastes the same message they already sent in an immediate reply, still only indicating 3 guests but failing to provide details on who they are, and who are the extras they have now added to the list.
So I copy and paste my same message back. And nothing. No response.
I contact Air after waiting an hour for a response, they see this nonsense and cancel. Oh boy suddenly the guest can reply! I almost instantly get a reply, but still no answers to my questions. It says, “Not sure why this was cancelled.” Nothing more.
I recapped our entire interaction and said that a corporate run listing is probably more suitable to you, go try this nonsense with them. (Firmly but politely.)
My first piece of advice is not to wait until the day of check in to resolve issues like this.
If the guest didn’t reply to your message asking for clarification (and many don’t because of their settings are not set up to receive message alerts) you could have emailed them on the Airbnb email or sent them a text.
Secondly, I make it a house rule that guests need to confirm on booking an estimated arrival time - so if guests don’t respond to me, I call Airbnb and ask them to contact the guest (this has always worked for me) .
Thirdly, I also have it marked in my listing that I don’t accept infants or younger children. (this would have prevented your problem with being forced to accept an infant).
Yup, it is amazing how the non responsive guest responds once cancelled. I had this once, I had someone book a date that was accidentally underpriced and I started asking a few questions and got no response so I cancelled. Normally I would not care or even ask questions but I wanted to cancel this reservation. They then started to respond! I told them they were free to re-book. Of course I had upped the price by then.
Thanks for the insights so far. My listing says in title and description FOR SOLO TRAVELERS ONLY - WOMEN so that would naturally exclude anyone not female and anyone not solo. Just in case that isn’t already clear to people who might be slow, I will add NO CHILDREN.
At this point I dont want this guest in my house. She didn’t respond to any communications over the period of a week and I don’t tolerate passive aggressive or spacey stuff like that. I have been a superhost for two years and have had nothing but positive experiences so far with communicative people. I have been fortunate. If it happens again I will be more responsive earlier. My mistake in giving the guest the benefit of the doubt.
Definitely wise to make your listing as clear as crystal!
“solo travelers only - women” does indicate who you will accept, however stating your accommodation is not suitable for children or infants will re-enforce this.
You have also mentioned not waiting as long to chase a reply next time - good move! Not all guests are great at getting back to hosts (they may not be aware of messages on the system etc), so don’t leave it to the last minute to follow up on the booking.
I start from the premise that people are scammers, liars, and untrustworthy then seek to disprove that notion in the individual I deal with. This is because of my life experience. Trust is earned, never given.
Fortunately my husband’s life experience gives him the opposite view, that people are good and honest and trustworthy, until they show evidence to the contrary.
His view and him being more motivated by money then I am makes us a good balance when vetting guests. (I am more motivated to protect my asset than to earn money.)
We decide together when we are declining/canceling, but I get the ultimate veto. He has encouraged me to give people more of a chance, and I have even when the prospective guest was incorrigible and we ended up declining anyway.
Its awesome that you get along with your husband given your different perspectives but I can see how it would balance out. I tend to be more like your husband and am honest and straightforward and assume others are like me. I have to continuously remind myself that not everyone is.
I have an update. customer service called me back and said they’ve tried reaching the guest 3 times today by phone and so far have gotten no answer. To me that is already grounds to cancel a reservation because of non-communication and being unable to reach the guest at all. But the agent said that I have to wait until the check-in time expires to do anything. In the meantime, if the guest shows up with an additional guest, I have to decide what to do. I can see how things could get ugly quickly. I wish I had a bodyguard or something at times like this. Anyway, I’m hoping for the best and will be cordial and polite but will maintain the boundaries and say I wish she had contacted me. Who knows? Maybe she will show up by herself and it will be fine. I just wish she had communicated with me better and I had followed up more with her. I learned a lesson with this one for sure.
An update, please let me know if I am being paranoid or should trust my gut. Guest finally got around to responding a few minutes ago. She contacted me on my personal cell by text (do they give that out? I thought contact was supposed to be strictly on Airbnb site). In the text she said she was getting ready for the trip and just saw my message (after 16 days when she booked? Wow.) She said he plans to arrive at 6 pm or so initially, then said her son that she mentioned will be staying with his brother at a local college he is attending.
She then messaged me on air bnb page saying she was so sorry and she knew the res was for one female. I then told her that the platform is based on trust and I had asked her for clarification and got nervous when I didn’t receive it. (Yes that is my bad for waiting so long. Never again.) I told her to please check the web site at least once per day if possible to answer host questions and explained I had a bad experience before with miscommunication.
She then messaged me on my cell stating instead that her flight doesn’t arrive until 6:54 pm (so arriving at 6 as stated earlier is out) and that she will check in after dinner instead, no later than 10 pm.
Is it me, or is the fact she is contacting me on my phone and the platform concerning? I am wondering if she is mentally unstable or deceptive or what. It is very strange but she could be panicking about losing her reservation.
I reached back out to air bnb. Never letting this happen again. What do you think?
Some guests just are not adept with the app. By itself, not a red flag. “Thank you for the information. Please maintain communication in the AirBnB app per their Terms of Service for our mutual protection going forward. I will reply to this message there, as well, so we have a complete record.”
Remind guests that they can change the settings on their AirBnB App so they receive a text notification if there is a message from the host. They still need to log in to reply but can’t claim they never saw it. If that doesn’t work text them to tell them you have left them a message on AirBnB they need to respond to urgently/asap.
Sorry, but you are a host for over 2 years and don’t know the basics yourself. My recommendation to you would be to get to know the Airbnb app (phone and pc) a wee bit better.
Airbnb does indeed give out the contact information once there is a confirmed reservation. There is nothing wrong with calling a guest in case of important questions, texting them, messaging via WhatsApp or other message apps. It is smart to follow that up on the Airbnb messaging system in case it is a somewhat sensitive matter, but the contact information is there for you to make use of it.
Take a look how Airbnb is presenting the contact information and try to find it for your guests.
You know, some guests have busy lives and only get to think about their trip when they are actually starting it. I know that can put a host see red, but you are still seeing red. Why?
The guest checked in just fine, alone, and things are fine. I learned a lot from this experience and from the insights you all provided. I will work on areas I can improve upon. Thanks so much for the tips!
