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Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, I did several searches about late check in times.
Today I received a request from a guest enquring about a late check in (my check in is 3pm to 8pm for in home hosting). Guest said she would be leaving the city ‘about’ 8pm. My thoughts so far:
Did not say if coming by public transport or private vehicle, either way it takes 2 hrs plus to arrive here and up to 3 hrs if trains are impacted by trackwork.
Did not give a reason for unable to leave until ‘about’ 8pm nor reason for coming to the area so that I could balance up host and guest flexibility.
I declined saying that it is outside the check in hours and that I will sometimes permit late check in for international guests impacted by flight delays etc etc. That I like to do an orientation, hand over keys, give directions to property etc etc.
Guest has now responded after I declined saying she will be driving and that we can do the orientation in the morning if that works.
Ive had a recent experience of a guest who finally arrived here at 1am and have yet to review her. It was poor planning on many counts and I finally got to bed at 2am. It was a very stressful night trying to find a guest and manage their safety etc. Airbnb could not raise her, her device out of charge. Still processing the erratic behaviours so not up for a repeat.
Thoughts ideas welcome, my gut says if the guest is applying her own rules to the hosting situation might not be such a good idea for me.
Sounds like you might have a more complex check in procedure/situation.
Not really answering your question but posing a leading question - is there a way to simplify check in so that you do not need to be present every time?
I do accept late check in’s, even though I do have a check in time listed as “3:00 PM - 8:00 PM” however my check in is all automated, so that time frame is not an enforced rule really, people do ask me if they can check in later and I just say yes and tell them it’s self check in.
Like @Justarock I allow late check in and it’s nothing complicated - a simple keypad.
I much prefer to meet and greet plus I believe that the house tour is very important but it’s not always practical. But not every guest can arrive at times that are ideal for us and it’s best to allow for this from time to time if at all possible.
As far as the guest is concerned it doesn’t seem necessary to let the host know why they will be arriving at 8 pm or what their mode of transport is. They also don’t care that you once had a guest who kept you out of bed until 2 am.
I’m afraid that if I were the guest I’d wonder about that. Why is it that you can arrange late check-in for some guests but not for others?
If travelers have things in their itinerary that preclude a meeting with you in the late afternoon / early evening then you need to accommodate them. If your ‘check in’ procedure includes a speech and tour, it might be time to make that more guest friendly. For me, as a guest after a long day, the last thing I might want is to socialize by specific appointment just to gain access to a room/place I have paid for in advance.
As a homeshare host myself, I disagree with those saying she needs to accommodate some late night check-in, “automating it”, if the host normally goes to bed significantly earlier.
Not all places lend themselves to self-check-in and a lack of orientation on check-in. Mine certainly doesn’t. If a guest books a homeshare rather than an entire place, they should expect to
fit in with the host’s lifestyle, which includes checking in during stated check-in times. There are things my guests need to be shown both in their room and bathroom, as well as in the kitchen if they get up before me the next morning and want to make a cup of coffee or some breakfast.
Giving a quick in-person orientation doesn’t entail “socializing” with a host, anymore than listening to the safety instructions given by a flight attendant at take-off entails socializing with them. If my guests initiate being chatty, I’m happy to oblige, but I am well aware that guests are often tired and a bit disoriented when they arrive, so I usually just run through crucial info quickly. If a guest resents paying attention for 5 minutes to their homeshare host’s orientation, or thinks it’s okay to tell the host they will arrive hours after stated check-in cut-off, they should book an entire place with self-check-in.
If a late arrival time is beyond a guest’s control, which happens very seldom, as when a flight gets significantly delayed, I am willing to accommodate a late check-in, as long as the guest originally had a flight which would get them in before check-in cut-off time and as long as they keep me in the loop, letting me know about the delay and new arrival time.
A guest “telling” a homeshare host they plan to arrive 2 or 3 hours past check-in time, rather than saying “I know your check-in time is only until 8, but I wonder if you could accommodate…” indicates a sense of entitlement and lack of respect. Or they didn’t bother to read the check-in/check-out times which means they probably didn’t bother to read other listing info.
I would add that if a guest indicated that they planned to arrive outside my check-in window, I wouldn’t just decline the booking nor would I question them as to why they planned to do so. I would just point out that I couldn’t accommodate check-ins outside stayed times and that if that didn’t work for them, to please withdraw their request so they will be free to find another listing that allows self-check-in or has check-in times that fit with their arrival plans.
If there was no response, then declining would be the next step. But I have also called Airbnb before to say a guest wasn’t responding to info I needed to hear back from them on before being able to accept their booking, and that I didn’t feel I should be penalized for declining in that case, and the rep told me to just let the request time out and she’d make sure it didn’t affect my response or acceptance rate. I was skeptical, since CS is known for reneging on their word, but in fact I didn’t get dinged for letting the request run out before accepting or declining.
I support your taking into account all the comments and suggestions about changing your procedures, however I would decline this guest in the instant case, “Sorry, this just isn’t a good fit based on schedules. Fortunately, there are lots of great Airbnbs nearby that provide for self or late check in.”
Why? The guest is already invested in discussing with you and asking for exception, psychologically adding an element of frustration to the booking. They are more likely therefore to project other things wrong or lacking in the accommodation, be more demanding, or to reflect negative feelings in their review.
You may want to preemptively tell Airbnb that your decline is because the guest couldn’t meet your house rules on check in. I doubt that would help with the decline algorithm but you never know.
There is also a message guests get which says something like “Let your host know if you need a different check-in time.” Which a lot of guests interpret as telling rather than asking. So I wouldn’t necessarily assume the guest is always being presumptuous- Airbnb does often word things in an ambiguous way.
I am mostly willing to try to accommodate guests who ask things in a way that is both polite and informative. It isn’t that hard to say, “I know your check-in cut-off is 8pm, but I don’t get off work until 8, and it will take me 2 hrs to drive to your place. Any chance I could check in at 10?”
I do accept late check ins for some circumstances which guest usually states, so its a negotiated and collaborative situation. I do not have self check in as I am cautious about guests entering my home while I am asleep - in home hosting situation.
Correct it is only late for me and 11pm I am usually in bed asleep. In home hosting is an entirely different situation than self check in. Welcoming the guest and handing over keys etc is my preferred option.
Thanks Muddy, your suggestions are helpful maybe because your listing has some elements similar to mine including the environment or surroundings. I did write again to the guest and reiterated the check in times and then declined for similar reason. Next time I will heed the info about letting an enquiry lapse.
Here’s an example of a respectful guest who communicates well. She is due to check in on Monday, but sent me a whatapp msg (we’ve exchanged a few of those already, as well as Airbnb messages) yesterday saying there is a snow blizzard rolling in to Seattle, where she is flying from and supposed to snow all weekend. Because that could significantly delay her flight or even have it cancelled, she said she was thinking of booking Monday night in Puerto Vallarta, where her flight lands, in case she gets in really late, instead of at her original 2pm arrival time. (It’s an hour’s bus ride from there to my town)
She asked if I would be amenable to changing dates, and that she could add another day at the end of her 16 night booking so I didn’t lose money, even if she didn’t stay that last night.
And that of course she’d keep me in the loop as flight info developed.
I told her no worries, I understand when things are out of one’s control, that as far as I was concerned there was no need to change dates through Airbnb- we could work it out privately- either she could stay an extra night to make up for the first missed night, or I could reimburse her directly for a missed night, or we could just pretend the missed Monday night didn’t happen. That if she wanted to do it though Airbnb , that was fine, up to her.
What I anticipate is that just like 2 of my other guests over the years who missed their first night due to flight delays, when I offered to refund them that night, because they both had 2 week bookings and I was being nice, they refused to accept a refund of 1 night, saying it wasn’t my fault and no reason for me to take a loss.
Sometimes I feel almost guilty that I get such respectful guests when I read about some of the shenanigans other hosts have to deal with.
Your response sits so well with me, my gut seems on target when I checked and the guest does not seem to have a personal profile but looks as if she is associated with a large hosting network based in Portugal but the profile showed as Australia where I live.
Well, if it’s just an Inquiry, you don’t have to either pre-approve or decline. Just answering the guest’s message within 24 hours is all that’s required.
It’s only Requests that have to be accepted or declined within 24 hrs so as not to get a response ding or lower your acceptance rate with a decline. When I called Airbnb to say the guest wasn’t responding and I didn’t feel I should have to take a hit on my acceptance rate by declining a non-responsive guest, that was a Request, not an Inquiry.
Thank you for your reply, spot on re my thoughts too. I did write the guest that there are accommodations with 24/7 reception and self check in airbnbs in my area. I agree re a guest attitude can be a forewarning in some instances.
Oh thanks Muddy for clarifying that, she had actually tried to make the booking at the same time as asking for late check in. I appreciate your kind response.
Yes, it’s really irritating when guests send Requests to Book, that we have to either accept or decline within 24 hrs, along with messages asking for something that goes against your policies, or ask questions that seem to indicate that it would be a deal-breaker for them if you couldn’t accommodate. They are supposed to send messages like that in the form of an Inquiry, not a Request, so we aren’t under the gun to do anything more than answer and so they don’t get charged for a booking they decide they don’t want if the host accepts the Request.
In some cases they may be just entitled, assuming hosts are so desperate for bookings they’ll accept no matter what, but mostly I think they just don’t know how it works, or that the Contact host button is the way to ask questions before committing to a booking.
Just thinking about reasons why I prefer to greet / orient guests and the context of my listing. Its an in home hosting situation in a small town in a World Heritage National Park in Australia, a couple of hours west of Sydney. The property is very close to transport but is a large bush block with a dirt driveway off a small street with few street lights. Its a great location but being a bush block there are funnelweb spiders, possums, kangaroos as well as snakes. I think that influences my hosting decisions and what guests might need to know, eg a red-bellied black snake was outside my main door a few days ago. Similarly bush fire threat and also severe storms, loss of power and lightning strikes eg 4 tourists got struck by lightning last week during a storm. One family experienced a tragedy when a landslide occurred and killed 3 members of the family instantly. They had not asked about local conditions before undertaking a bush hike in an area destabilised by heavy rainfall. I do prefer to host with a Duty of Care and that varies with guest reason for staying. eg Many rock climbers, bush walkers and canyoners are already skilled up and knowlegable about Australian conditions and environment. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful responses, I learn lots every time I ask a question.
It makes negotiating so easy.