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How many of your guests request a late check out? In my experience of being a host it is around 25% of guest either ask for a late check out or simply do not leave.
Airbnb’s platform for charging isn’t user friendly as you need to the Resolution Centre - i.e. there is no way to automate this.
We have a solution. If you have a YourWelcome tablet in your property you can handle all requests AND charge for late check outs. Yes, this means you can make more money and remove the awkwardness around this hosting situation.
If I want to charge guests for early check in or late check out I can do this easily through BNB at no cost to myself. I would state this service is available in my listing and send guests a special offer or extra services charge - simple. It’s easy to automate through BNB.
I’ve never had guests that ‘simply don’t leave’.
Sorry but it annoys me when those touting for business come onto a forum meant for hosts and provide inaccurate info.
I am not BNB’s biggest fan by any means by it annoys me when those promoting a product are rather loose with the truth
Why are all these people hijacking a private hosts forum lately to sell useless stuff? It’s getting annoying. I have no idea show polices and blocks this stuff, do we have a leader lol???
Especially when they are ‘solving’ a problem that is non-existent or rare for experienced hosts. I hardly ever have guests who leave late and that is always with my permission. The longest over-stay (my first Airbnb guests) was for one hour. As I have a five hour turnover window, that’s fine.
I’ll chime in to say that I don’t mind at all learning about new products. As someone who’s constantly looking for help with my hosting, it’s interesting to me to learn about what’s out there. How else can you test the waters if you’re not asking your target audience questions? I get it though, it can feel disingenuous to present yourself as a host with an issue and then the big sales push for the product. I can see how it might rub some the wrong way but personally it doesn’t bother me.
Having said that, I think it’s very easily solved by having the mods create a “sponsored” or “promotion” area where companies can pitch their products. I don’t even know who the mods are! But I’m off to look and see if there’s a chance to create a Sales Pitch Room.
Good idea - I’d be happy to see commercial outfits go into a separate forum - they could pay to be there and help cover the costs of running the forum.
I have never had a guest ask for a late check out, or not leave. They don’t get to “not leave”. They are told the check out time both on the listing and in person, and if they are not packed within 10 minutes of that time, I go in and start stripping the bed. Simples.
The only late check outs I’ve had were my fault. We’d get to talking in the kitchen/dining area and next thing I know it’s 11. Not a problem for me most of the time anyway.
Some ask for early/late check out. If I don’t have a booking back to back I’ll offer it as a freebie as it’s no problem for me and is good PR. (makes for a grateful guest=usually good review)
I wouldn’t consider charging for this or any other little extra that costs me nothing in time or money.
I tend to be flexible, if possible, with check out times. I am way less flexible about check-in. For check outs if they ask, and I know that the room is either not rented that night or that my check ins are arriving on a later plane, I am happy to give them a bit more time. However, so far, when I have had to say no (and offer to keep their bags in the living room), they have been very pleasant about it. The one time I had to say no and could only offer the back porch as a luggage holding area, again, they were pleasant, but not wildly happy. However, this group arrived with only 3 small backpacks so I didn’t feel too horrible.
Check ins. I have done two past-my-bedtime checkins and they went well, but, and this is a big but, the communications I had with them before their arrival led me to believe that they would be responsible. They were asked to leave the big bags on the first floor, only bringing essentials up to their room. They were asked to lock the door and turn off the lights. The door was locked, and lights left on. I will continue to consider late checkins, but only when they request as part of the initial inquiry and are willing to communicate fully about what this means for them.
Really, it’s a balancing act. The important thing is to find out in advance what time your guests are going to check out and check in. We have mostly back-to-backs.
For example, if I know that a guest will be checking out at 6 am to get an early flight, I can offer the next guests a 1 pm check in. If I know that a guest is arriving late and won’t arrive until 11 pm then I can suggest to the current guest that they can enjoy a leisurely check out, maybe 2 pm. To me, it’s all about flexibility - and getting good reviews
If I have someone ask for a late check out and my place is available that night, I just charge with my Square directly to their CC. If they don’t communicate it with me and stay super late, I open a Resolution Center request. Square is free to get and just charges a small percentage (like 1-3%, can’t remember exactly) like Air. I charge a rounded up % of my nightly rate, so if they stay 3-5 hours then I charge about 25%, 5-10 hours is around 50%.
