I've absolutely had it with guests leaving luggage!

42

My house rules state:
$10 to accommodate early luggage dropoff/parking (you can specify here whether they will get a key or not to the house at this time)
$10 for any guest arriving past midnight (my check-in time is 3pm to 11pm)
$10 for any guest not out the door by check-out time.

Be upfront and you won’t get those kind of guests. I believe many guests actively look for people with lax house rules and then push them to the limit. You decide how much risk and worry you’ll exchange for the convenience of a renting out a room to strangers.

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43

I file luggage stuff under “things I don’t deal with”

Our checkin/out times are hard blocks and we do not allow luggage to chill in our home if they have a later flight. This would cause a lot of issues, first of all your next guest would have a key and then you’d have someone in your home past their check out time and that takes a lot of responsibility off airbnb if a problem arose. Next, your home should be fully safe for your NEXT guest and if a previous guest has access to your home that contains other guest items, you are putting your new guests at risk.

Basically this is not only something that is annoying, but it could potentially cause issues down the road.

44

Just wondering - do you still do this if the guest is delayed because of transport problems? I can understand the midnight thing but do you think that it might deter guests who are travelling a reasonable distance to stay with you?

Of course, guests can say that their car broke down when in fact they lingered over dinner but delayed flights are easy to prove.

45

It’s completely up to you. Yes I have waived it on occasion, it depends on how I feel the guest has treated me. One lady kept postponing arrival time over and over again due to a medical conference…she was a surgeon. She ended up arriving at 1am. I was outside waiting for her. She was cool and didn’t mind the charge. People who are truly sorry for being late won’t mind. People who aren’t and who didn’t bother to read house rules deserve to be charged. I took that rule off for one week and sure enough the next guest told me her flight was delayed and didn’t arrive til past midnight due to a flight delay (the usual excuse). It may have been true, I don’t know… I didn’t have the rule so she wasn’t charged. I put the rule back up again, because sometimes it’s just not worth it to me. There’s plenty of places that are instant book with coded locks around here anyway they can book instead.

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46

Ha ha! Love that Kona!

I remember I had a guy here for a week who was a great guest, because he was completely invisible. We never saw or heard him the whole week. My favorite kind!

Anyway, he checks out and all his luggage is sitting in our foyer. We sent him a message to say ‘what gives?’ and he said (very politely) ‘Oh, so sorry. I had to leave early for a family emergency. I will come and get my things around 10 pm tonight.’

‘No, you won’t.’ I said. ‘We are in bed by ten and have to work tomorrow. You’ll need to come at least before 9.’ Long story short, he said he would send a friend to get it, the friend never showed, and this went back and forth for like another week. i was getting ready to send him a note saying i was donating his things to charity, and my neighbor stopped me saying that local laws require i hold it for at least 30 days, and I don’t want to get sued blah blah.

Ever since then, I put a line in my house rules that says ‘Host not responsible for items left after check out.’ I figure that covers my ass if anyone ever decides to inconvenience me with their lack of planning or general irresponsible behavior.

I had this gal from Australia forget her external hard drive, and she has been pestering me for six months asking if I would kindly copy her files to an online storage space she set up. Oh HELL to the NO.

To be honest, I really don’t mind going above and beyond for pleasant guests who are a delight to host, which is about 95% of our guests. It’s the unpleasant pain-in-the-ass ones who I cannot wait to get rid of for whom I won’t lift a finger.

For instance…had this butt head staying with me for the past week. He’s a spoiled brat from Hong Kong who was just incredibly demanding, entitled and rude the whole time he was here. Leaving the air conditioning running full blast day and night (even when it’s in the 60s outside). Slamming doors all hours of the night and even having loud conversations on the phone right outside my bedroom door at 2 a.m.!

So, this morning when I sent my usual flowery bon voyage message, he replies with ‘I want to leave my luggage here because my flights not until 8 p.m.’

No ‘would it be okay’ or ‘could I ask a favor?’ He just expects that I will bend over backward for him because – I don’t know – i guess back home they treat him like royalty because he’s a male and the only child.

Nope. ‘For insurance reasons we don’t provide this service,’ I said. ‘You’ll need to leave your keys and take your luggage with you by the noon check out time. Safe travels.’

And don’t let the door hit your fat ass on the way out, doofus.

Sorry…it was a long week waiting for his check out day. :slight_smile:

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47

Again…I am happy to do extra things for guests who are pleasant to host. But, in general, we should feel no obligation to provide the kinds of services hotels would, because we are not hotels. It’s not right for guests to enjoy the cheaper rates they get for booking a room in someone’s home and still expect all the services a hotel with 24-hours desks and concierges would provide.

Plus, I can’t stand inexperienced travelers who plan poorly and then act like it’s our problem? I’ll never forget the Chinese guest I had last year (the one who shouted for me through my closed bedroom door after midnight) who expected me to look after his luggage while he spends the day at Universal Studios because his flight wasn’t until 10:00 p.m. ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘We have other guests coming so we need the keys and we won’t be home this evening.’

‘So, what am I supposed to do with my luggage?’ he demanded.

To this day I am still flabbergasted by that behavior. As so many have said here JUST SAY NO. Because it’s the type of demanding entitled guest like this who will just keep expecting more and more the more you give. Draw the line. Protect yourself. You’re not getting paid enough to kiss these people’s feet.

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48

Bahahahhhh. I just love it when you go off, Jack! Mainly because I feel the same as you, TOTALLY, to the 100th degree, and that could be me writing all of this!!

I may have posted in another location about my recent trip to Kyoto. My flight was at 8pm, I had to leave Kyoto station to get the train to Osaka Kansei at 4. I purchased another night at my little guest inn so that I wouldn’t feel rushed out the door at 10. Although, in retrospect it would have been okay to leave luggage in their tiny foyer or at my son’s dorm foyer. Just didn’t know at the time of booking what the set up would be.

I did the same leaving Prague. Got another night because I would be leaving at an odd time. But these are hotels, not Airbnbs… WHAT IS WITH guests who are constantly expecting services like leaving luggage or late check out???

I politely state it won’t be possible to do either but sometimes I get poeple asking.

I simply state that I am not covered for anything regarding that guest after their check out time… This could be true also for the Air host guarantee. They are not my guest at 11:01am.

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49

Right? See, that’s what you do. You plan ahead when you travel. You know what to expect and you make accommodations ahead of time so that your traveling goes as smoothly as possible. These kids who think the world revolves around them and everyone is here to cater to their every whim, so they needn’t take any responsibility ever.

Well…there is a kid from Hong Kong who is going to be wandering around the streets of L.A. today desperately trying to find somewhere to stash his giant bag because he didn’t plan effectively and he wasn’t nice to his host. For his own sake, I hope he learns a valuable lesson.

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50

I feel like this has been beaten to death, but these are my (unofficial, unposted) rules and the reasons why:

Left luggage after check out: NEVER

Left luggage prior to check in: Allowed from 1 hour after prior guest check out (aka 12 noon)

As others have illustrated, there’s no guarantee that a guest will come back on time after check out so you could end up with one guest checking in before the other picks up their things, which is messy.

If they drop off bags before check in it’s fine, because my cleaner is already there to supervise, they are definitely coming back later to check in fully, and because I know I will never have to worry about overlapping with another guest.

This also works well because many guests arrive in the city between 12 and 3 to get a head start on their vacations and a couple of hours without their luggage makes a big difference for them. If it was the other way around I would be stuck with bags for up to 12 hours if someone had a late outgoing flight, which is just silly.

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51

If you are going to allow luggage after check out, for the love of god, don’t let them keep the keys to the house or stay home and babysit their bags so they can get in the door. The one time I did this, I told the guest it was okay to leave their bags in the carport but that the cat might find their bags interesting. They then asked if it could go on my lanai and did I have a cover for it. Thinking of the bad review I might get, I ran around accommodating. When they finally left, bringing back snorkel gear HOURS after they said they would, (another favor I will never do for anyone, lending house equipment so they have a way of killing time) their luggage wheels left black scuff marks on my lanai which necessitated a trip to Lowe’s for another can of Glidden porch paint. (And I have told this one before, it was the same guest who wanted to leave food in my fridge after check out and be able to just do a “quick rinse” after check out… I was firm about all that… And when they said what will we do with our food, it will go bad, I suggested a styrofoam cooler from the market… and he looked at me like I had suggested flying to the moon… In the end, these clods left no review, despite the favors i did.)

I found myself so resentful of them… and of me, accommodating someone who was no longer my customer and should have been out of my life at 11:00am but was still being a PITA in my life at 4PM!

JUST nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Demanding guests keep making demands and then don’t even have the decency to leave a good review!

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52

I just returned from Paris, being an airbnb guest I have to say I really appreciated the flexibility about luggage with both of my hosts; I bought one flowers and brought the other chocolates form Italy.
Sometimes as a host its a wake up call to be a guest yourself and realise what a relief it is not to drag around luggage all day.
Having said that; my rule is “check-in” with yourself before saying yes to any extras, if you resent it, or will be inconvenienced in any way, say no.

Your resentment will carry over and not lead to a happy ending, regardless.

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53

But I am sure you were a lovely guest and not demanding like these dolts we describe.
I’m with Jack… 99.9999 percent of guests are perfectly lovely…

One I allowed late check out just so they could beach one more day and shower before the airport but told them we needed to install the new Nest bed so we would be in the room working.

That time it went perfectly fine and she was soooooo grateful and left me an awesome review.

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54

And this is what it usually all boils down to. I’ve had almost the same scenario, Zandra! Several times, in fact. The trick is intercepting them AND getting the key from them.

I’ve got a garage below, so I tell them they’re free to put their things down there. They can see it’s not secured, totally open.

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55

Right. For most of my guest, I will gladly do them any favor if it is within my means. I had a lovely young lady from New York who wanted to borrow towels, a bag and a hat to go to the beach. I said yes, of course. She forgot to return the bag, but it wasn’t a big deal. If it had been anything of great value, i probably would have said no. She was a doll though and I knew she didn’t mean to take the bag with her, so I didn’t care.

On the other hand, if she had been an a-hole (like the guy who just checked out today), I would have responded differently…something like ‘I’m sorry. We don’t provide this service. There are lots of stores however near the beach where you can buy/rent anything you might need. Have a great time!’

(Btw…the girl from NYC left us a glowing review, and it was early in my hosting days, so it was well worth sacrificing a cheap beach bag… :slight_smile:)

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56

I specify in my house rules that we can’t generally accommodate early check-in or late checkout due to guest turnover time. That has cut down on the asks considerably, but I still get asked on occasion. I’d rather get guests out on time and get the turnover going, so I’m less tolerant of late checkouts. If they ask, I tell them they may leave their luggage in the garage, but their key code access will be invalid after 2:30. I change the other codes as soon as they leave, so they can’t access anything else. This has worked well so far.

As for early check-ins, I try to build some wiggle room into the turnovers, so if I can “surprise them” with early access, I will do so. I don’t guarantee it, though. I offer them the same deal–early access to on-street parking or the garage for parking and/or luggage depending on the situation. I’m here, so it is a bit easier for me to work with people, but it still means I have to be on alert and look halfway decent (not my normal sweaty mess), which is a pain in the butt.

If I sense they are being flighty or are taking advantage, my accommodations tighten up very quickly.

57

Well I was also trying to dispel the theory that “hosts are the worst guests”:slight_smile:

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58

I started storing guest’s luggage in the garage that they can open from outside. That way I don’t have to wait for them to pick it ip

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59

It’s still a liability because what if something happens and their luggage is stolen. If you do leave it for pick up, be sure to tell them you are not in any way shape or form responsible. Maybe even have them sign a waiver!

60

Nt really… since 9/11

61

When guests have packages delivered here, I require them to email on the Airbnb system that they understand that the packages will be left on the porch by the delivery company and that they will not hold me responsible for loss or damage.

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