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That’s my situation too… Separate apartment. I could take their bags and store them in my upstairs personal house easily, but frankly I discourage it.
The few times I have done this for people, the guests don’t appreciate but rather expect it. The kind who ask are the high demand types who then don’t leave a review or acknowledge the extra thing you have done.
Add it to the list of extra things that do not tend to pay off. Because I e found this to be true again and again…once I even had a high maintenance type demand to leave bags, demand to use snorkel equipment, demand to keep their stuff in the fridge and then when they returned at 4pm wanted to use the bathroom and shower… Even though I had already cleaned for the next guest! Say what.
Just what part of “check out and leave” do you not understand!???
If the guest has checked out, I really don’t want to see them again. Their time is over and they need to be off the property.
I think that allowing guests in before check in and/or to store their luggage after check out is specific to the host and the area. I live in Los Angeles, CA. Flights arrive at LAX any time of the day and night. I do allow people to check in early, because some don’t have a car and I know that schlepping luggage is a pain. For the same reason, I allow guests to store their luggage after check out. That said, guests never just drop off their luggage. They always want to use the restroom, shower, have a glass of water, get advise on the area, etc.
I certainly understand why the hosts who live in areas where guests come by car and train and can plan their arrival don’t allow early check in.
Probably most importantly; it sounds like you would be irritated by early check in and guests leaving their luggage. Therefore, I recommend that you don’t allow it.
Hotels have an entire setup area just for travelers who want to leave luggage - the bell desk. Often it’s free but sometimes there is a charge. Tipping the bell boy is encouraged. We use this all the time when traveling at hotels because the airline flights never come in during check in or check out periods.
Maybe you should hang a sign in your carport - Bell services: $5. Or put out a jar with the word TIPS written in giant letters. Who knows? Maybe people will leave you money!
No, I don’t keep luggage for guests. Mainly because I don’t want to responsibility of taking care of other people’s stuff. And in this case, the other people are strangers too.
I’m generally pretty flexible, but I draw the line here. I usually allow early check in as long as nobody else is checking out at the same time. So I tell them that instead of leaving their luggage they can just check in, leave their luggage in the room, lock the room, and then leave.
It’s my pet-peeve when guests EXPECT you to look after their luggage for them - as if you don’t have anything better do do the just wait around the house all day!! So cheeky and entitled. I too refer them to alternatives - one of which is a locker room in a local gallery and actually free. I actually just got slammed in a review by some spoilt brats because I had to go out and was unable to take responsibility for their 3 cases… look at the details here !!
It’s ironic because after I posted this, my current guest wasn’t here at check-out time. I messaged him and he found a typo on the page of room rules where it says “Check-out at anytime” (I mean to write, “by or before 11am” and it even reiterates this in full on the other side of the page as well as on the website…but he chose this ONE TYPO to not be here at check-out time. Granted he did rush back within 15 minutes so I guess it was an honest misunderstanding. And that guest is going to be a lawyer. GO FIGURE.
So interesting to find out that hardly anyone does this for guests: I was sure it would be the other way around and that I was just being curmudgeonly!
I so agree that it seems to be expected that one has little else to do all day but look after their bags. But I hadn’t thought of the safety aspect of looking after someone else’s property. What happens if something allegedly goes missing while you’re looking after their case in your part of the house (we rent the flat beneath our house - technically part of our house as it’s our playroom out of season)?
Also, quite right that they are NEVER grateful for this extra service and I have never received a review from anyone I have done this for to thank me for. People who ask for extra stuff and get it NEVER leave reviews.
I refused one guests who wanted to leave the luggage at ‘9.15-9.45 but these are approximate times’ (!!) - check in is 4pm!
The other guests since he asked nicely and has booked in for lunch locally at 1pm I said he could drop off his luggage after his lunch. I think I’ll just check him in early.
I agree about letting people who have early flights drop off luggage but someone last year wanted to check in a ‘bit earlier’ they said. I said: how early? They said: ‘late morning.’ When I pressed them, it was actually ‘early morning’ and I suggested they’d be more comfortable - since they said they needed somewhere quiet to rest after their flight - if they booked the night before. They did so - somewhat resentfully - and arrived at 8.30am! You gotta love 'em!!
Thanks for all your input - so interesting and I’m glad I’m not the only curmudgeon.
But I just have to comment that every time I’ve had guests whose luggage I’ve looked after, they’ve been very appreciative and have left great reviews.
I’m not being argumentative - just saying that it CAN happen
I too have found guests to be very appreciative of early check in and of being permitted to leave their luggage. I understand why guests who don’t have a car want to leave their luggage. I don’t understand why guests who have a car want to leave their luggage, but it makes them happy and it’s no extra effort on my part, so why not.
I like my 4 hrs of no guest freedom. Plus I wake up anywhere between 10am and 2pm everyday so if they want to check in before 3pm it interrupts my precious sleep. Haha
Right… But usually I just tell them they can only leave it in the carport (perfectly safe) but I can’t guarantee that I will be here to watch it. I’m like Faheem. I don’t want that responsibility and I don’t want to be tied down to having to be home to dispense their luggage to them whenever they feel like picking it up.
I wouldn’t do it.
I’ve never been asked, probably because we are out of the City so once people arrive they want to stay, not drop bags off and then come back to check in.
I think once bags are here so are the guests. I will be flexible with my check in/out times if it suits me, but I’m not going to drive to the house for a bag drop off (whole house listing here) and then go back to check in and repeat it again on check out.
So if nobody follows the rules, what exactly is the point of making such a long list?? Honestly, I find them very off-putting. Also, they’re so long it’s not surprising that few people read them. The ones that do actually read them probably move swiftly on to another listing! I know I would. They make you seem a grumpy and jaded host in my opinion, sorry. So it seems to me that you will continue to get bad guests who don’t read the rules. Do you do a thorough house tour and explain everything directly to the guest(s)? That seems to work much better than having written rules.
I allow luggage drop-off and collect because it’s not a big deal for me. I do resent it being expected, though. Plus I’ve also learned to be clear and firm that luggage is packed up and stored by the front door and that no, you don’t get to come back in, have a shower, make coffee, hang out for a few hours until your flight, no no no.
For the first time, I’ve been asked to store something by a guest. I live in a very rural area, so there are no self storage type places. Anyway, she is driving up from NYC, spending a few days at a very remote cabin on a pond a bit more north than my place (she has to walk in about 1/2 mile), she went there yesterday.
She is arriving at my home on Saturday, spending the night, then leaving at approx 6am on Sunday for this really unique bike tour with about 200 other cyclists. My town does set up a ‘tent city’ for the bicyclists, but she prefers to sleep in a bed.
Anyway, she asked me to store her bike and two saddlebags that go on her bike for the few days before she arrives here while she is visiting the cabin on the pond.
Her plan is to get a ride from where she is with some other cyclists to my town on Saturday, leaving her car at the cabin on the pond.
Then, instead of coming back here like many of the other cyclists are doing, she is going to bike back to the cabin on the pond.
I’ve never stored items before for a guest. But I have to say, when we made arrangements for her to drop off the bike, it made more sense for her to meet me at my office as coming to my house would have taken her a bit off course to get the cabin, whereas, she was going to be driving right by my office.
She was extremely considerate, I told her I work 8-4, and she did leave the city a bit earlier just to make sure she would be able to meet me at my convenience, and there she was, right at 4pm as I was departing the building
I’ve locked her bike and bags in my shed.
Will see if she leaves a decent review or not, or leaves one at all (I’m cool with guests not leaving reviews), but I will ask her to not mention that I did this for her if she does leave a review.
Basically though, this woman will be out at the ‘tent city’ until bedtime, as they are going to have a bbq dinner there and some live music early in the evening as they all need to get to bed early, she is going to basically just sleep here.
I think the whole bike tour is super cool and it’s awesome to go look at tent city and see the people from all over milling around the town (this is a VERY small town), so I really didn’t mind doing this for her.
But it did get me to thinking…hmm…wonder how much those bike peeps would be willing to pay to take a full shower haha…the ‘tent city’ is in place starting 2 days before the event and 1 day after.
There is a local campground that charges a $10 day pass fee that will allow them to take showers.
But heck, I’d be willing to take their $10 and provide them a clean towel
