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Hi all. We accepted a guest in October for 1 week. She had 4 trips on her record and no reviews. She said she was coming for a job and might want to stay with us, so we said yes. She booked 3 weeks in Dec., the longest we ever had anyone.
She checked in on time and when we met her (we have a shared living space with her private room and bath) she did not act friendly. OK ,that’s not a requirement. She went out that night and never returned. We checked her room after 2 days and there was no luggage and the bed hadn’t been slept in. I messaged her to see how things were going, and she wrote back that she “appreciated me checking up on her. Things are fine.”
Next month she will supposedly be here for 3 weeks and I’m afraid she may cancel just outside of our cancellation policy, leaving us with three empty weeks. I did message her to just say hello, we look forward to seeing you in December. No response.
Called Airbnb but I don’t think the guy on the phone understood my concern and he couldn’t help me.
If this were a stand alone airbnb it wouldn’t be an issue. But we have never had someone like this in 12 years and I’m unsettled by it.
I guess I’ll just let it lie, not do anything and not send any more messages. But I wondered if any of you have feedback for me.
I would try to get her to cancel. She books your place and doesn’t stay. Don’t think I would trust that she was going to be there for 1 night much less 3 weeks in Dec.
If you don’t want to be left hanging for 3 weeks and she doesn’t want to cancel, think of a reason to let her go.
Just imagine - a guest you did not have to clean up after, did not cause wear and tear on your space, and was not bothering you with requests. Yes, definitely cancel this guest lol.
I have guests who act this way; they book an airbnb (mine) but their plans change and they honor their booking, and do not try to weasel out of it.
We have a name for guests who act this way: we call them “Good Guests”…
We all have different things that are important to us, and different feelings about what constitutes a “Good Guest”. For those of us who share our kitchen and other spaces with guests, and who are used to friendly people in our homes, with money not being the sole reason why we host, an unfriendly guest who doesn’t communicate their plans, disappears for 2 days without a word, and doesn’t answer messages, may not be what we consider a"good guest". I know I wouldn’t.
@Rachael52 You say she booked 3 weeks in Dec. so I assume she Instant Booked? Honestly, as a homeshare host myself, I would never use IB, although maybe it’s always worked out fine before.
I guess you could message her to say that as it’s a busy booking time for you, you just want to make sure she fully intends on staying, as if she changes her mind and cancels close to the dates, you will lose out on bookings you would certainly have gotten had the dates not been blocked for her. (Or that some friends or family wanted to come and you had to turn them down because you had this booking.
I have actually sent a message like that to guests before if something about them feels off and they are poor communicators.
The pattern might be explained this way: her “official story” back home is she is staying at an Airbnb (“Here – look at my reservation… nice house, eh?”)
In reality, she is staying somewhere she would rather nobody else knows about. Your reservation is her paper trail “cover storey.”
I’m speculating, of course, but I don’t know how else to explain this behaviour.
I bet her stay is payed by someone else or company and she doesn’t care about that money. Maybe parents, maybe husband, they want her in a safe environment. But she, as a bad girl as she is, is enjoying her time elsewhere . She is likely unfriendly with the purpose of not being set in the situation of explaining this to someone like “mom” (I mean you…). I wouldn’t worry at all as long as she pays.
I had a guest booking my house just for the ‘eventuality’ he will catch something to a party he attended around, and he evidently had bad luck , and that for sure just because he was equally unfriendly at the party as he was with me, his host… I noted him as my perfect guest since I have had nothing to clean/iron/prepare for my next guest. He attended only for check-in, never came back and left the keys in my mailbox and money in my account.
It’s true she was an easy guest. I just have a hunch she may leave us in the lurch in December but I’ll wait and see how it plays out. We are so used to a friendly interaction and good communication in terms of responding to messages. But people come in all types. I do plan to review her if she does come, unlike the other hosts she has stayed with. Definitely a markdown in terms of communication.
You know, you’ve given me something to think about. I think I will turn off instant booking because I can’t see any huge advantage and having it and I respond very quickly to people. Thank you.
With IB you get 3 free no questions asked cancellations per 12 month period - allowing ‘no penalty’ cancellations protects you from fees and dings to the algorithm settings - this is a BIG plus.
IB does not inherently attract ‘bad’ guests, just as NOT having IB does not inherently attract ‘good’ guests. The real reason for bad guest behavior when booking often is your pricing (too low for example) or how you present your airbnb (lack of a ‘professional’ look), or the poorly written interactions you make while communicating with potential guests.
A guest can write beautifully and ‘check all the boxes’ for you and still be an undesirable guest.
I suggest changing your cancellation policy if it is too easy on the guests. For me I have strict and also the 10% discount offer for zero cancellation option for the guest (part of the cancellation group of options you can select). Guests feel they are getting a discount for throwing away their ability to cancel; we get zero guests begging and threatening.
Again, I do not see issues with a guest who does not conform to your concept of guest activity. Guests who planned a 5 day meeting schedule but finished up sooner, or started later due to meeting rescheduling; guests who are using an airbnb as backup or decoy; guests who find that the relatives they are visiting suddenly have room to spare for them to stay - there are many reasons that activity looks different from what you ‘expect’. Do hotels freak out when a guest books and underutilizes their facility?
But the article mentions a couple of other scenarios (emergency repairs or ‘serious’ health issue) which require documentation.
To my question: are there any other reasons that have been accepted by Airbnb without being penalised? I’d love to know which ones - just to get a feeling at which point we do have a way to get out of a weird reservation (within the confines of Airbnb’s nondiscrimination and accessibility policy of course).
I have never experienced that in 8 years of hosting.
And I don’t understand why every time someone mentions that they prefer to require Requests, you feel the need to extoll the glories of IB, or why you try to negate other host’s feelings of being uncomfortable with certain guest behaviors, just because they don’t make you uncomfortable.
My understanding is that your guests only stay for a few days, are mostly business travelers, keep to themselves, don’t share living space with you, and that you aren’t the kind of host who has much interaction with guests, or is accustomed to sitting around having coffee and chats with them. Yet you are advising hosts who have a very different hosting style and situation what they should feel comfortable with.
Others, like yourself, say the opposite, saying they never use IB for their reasons.
I think all forum members’ opinions are valid, and should be heard. Instant book is many times incorrectly identified as a ‘bad guest’ magnet. You are correct that every situation is different so it is good to discuss…
Personally, I have never portrayed IB as a bad guest magnet. I don’t use IB because I share spaces and interact with guests and want to communicate with them before accepting their booking to make sure they will be a good fit for my place, both for them and for me.
And many other homeshare hosts feel the same. I have pretty much a fully booked calendar, almost more bookings than I want, until the end of January, so there is zero advantage to me in using IB.
And the thought of having to deal with Airbnb to cancel without penalty an unwanted IB booking is a much less preferable option than vetting guests before accepting.
When is the last time you called them to cancel an IB booking? You make it sound hassle-free for the first 3, which no longer seems to be the case according to host reports I read on other forums. Hosts are being told they will be penalized, even if they say the guest has bad reviews or is ignoring their messages.
My understanding is that the 3 easy IB cancellations have gone, as Airbnb have moved closer to the BDC model of never being able to cancel on a guest, and the penalties are pretty stiff with large fines.
Now, you need to ask the gues to cancel.
We have guests book our cabin for a week. One time we checked a woman in. She left two hours later and we never saw her again. She left us a great review. The other time was a man. We checked him in and a few hours later he left and we never saw him again. He left a good review with recommendations about how we could have made his “stay” better. In both cases, I think they were booking our cabin and staying somewhere else and the reviews were covers.
. She is likely unfriendly with the purpose of not being set in the situation of explaining this to someone like “mom” (I mean you…). I wouldn’t worry at all as long as she pays.
, and that for sure just because he was equally unfriendly at the party as he was with me, his host… I noted him as my perfect guest since I have had nothing to clean/iron/prepare for my next guest. He attended only for check-in, never came back and left the keys in my mailbox and money in my account.