Yes, but it has to be reasonable. “May I please have sex with your husband? He’s extremely handsome!” is polite but not reasonable (for the majority of people)
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But for me, it would make literally no difference whether they check in at 8am or 4pm. My previous guests checked out at least two days ago, my cleaning was finished yesterday afternoon, and I did a quick walkthrough and clicked on the lamps before I left for work at 7:15 this morning.
I have never been asked for 8am, but I can certainly accommodate whatever their flight schedule requires. It costs me nothing and it gets their stay off to a peaceful start. Most of my guests are arriving after a ten-hour flight and all the customs rigamarole, and they just want to get to bed.
And the very fact that you qualified that proves my point…reasonable for one is unreasonable for another. 
Not sure how you get in real late with an 8am flight. As I said that’s an arrival not a departure.
Same. It was pretty mild when compared to other things guests get up to.
They used extra wood for their nice little afternoon campfire, and I was cleaning into the night thanks to the schedule change. Annoying is all. Content for the review.
My hope is that my mention of the late checkout in the review will have their next host at least asking questions before agreeing to a late checkout so that poor Babs won’t have to stand at the side of a country road for five hours waiting to be picked up. A theme will emerge…
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Agreed. A guest that requests something unreasonable to me but reasonable to them means we probably won’t meet the rest of their expectations, and would probably be better staying somewhere else.
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If you are arriving at 8am on a Thursday then you could book Wednesday night. Because you could check-in at 4pm on Wednesday, checking in at 8am the next day (Thursday) is getting in really late for Wednesday.
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I wasn’t being entirely serious
As we now have a buffer day between bookings early check ins aren’t really that much of an issue, it’s down to if it’s convenient for us, and sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.
Asking for 8:00am though, that’s when it becomes not convenient, unless they want to pay for the preceding night of course.
I have done one 8.00am ish check in before, and the guest didn’t ask I suggested it to them. It worked for us that day, only reason.
JF
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If you don’t have new guests coming the say day and your cleaners are flexible, I see no reason to not allow a late checkout (same for an early checking). I mean if your place is sitting there vacant, it’ll make your guests happy and causes no harm to yourself.
I’m a new host, so maybe I have blinders on, but I’ve offered to guests that they may check in early if they prefer (again, so long as the place is clean/vacant). Seems like a nice perk.
Not sure why it’s a ‘should’
Some hosts don’t like it when other hosts do things they can’t or won’t do. For example if a guest is on a trip and 3 hosts in a row let them check in early at no extra charge and 4th host says “no,” that guest might mark down the 4th host in the review. Or just argue with the host which takes their time.
Many guests, especially new ones, don’t seem to understand that every host is different. Airbnb standardizes very few things for all listings.
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I wasn’t making a big statement, I don’t have a strong opinion about this nor do give a flip about how other hosts do things as long as they aren’t breaking policy or turning guests off of Airbnb, which this obviously does not fall under.
But @Notahost, and now you, are being obtuse about the common standards and operating procedures that are inherent in the accommodations business. It is not typical that one could check-in 8 hours early to an accommodation, or anything that requires a reservation or just an appointment, whether it be an Airbnb, a hotel, a motel, a resort, a boat, a table at a restaurant, a hair salon, a parent-teacher conference, a pap smear, a hammock on the beach, etc, etc
I have seen one listing on Airbnb that noted their check-in time as “flexible” without any other parameters but it is not the norm. I have never seen a listing with an 8 am check-in time. If it doesn’t matter to you then list your check-in time as flexible but I’m not going to pretend that it is typical/standard/normal or to be expected because it just isn’t. People act dumb and entitled as it is, they don’t need encouragement.
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Not obtuse… just self-serving
I can see that they are not mutually exclusive 
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If a guest specifically asked to check in early, I would likely say no, as guests who start out asking for special exceptions aren’t usually a good risk.
That said, I have always had a one day prep time setting, and work from home, so my stated check-in time is 11am-11pm, because that personally suits my lifestyle- I’m not an early riser andI don’t want to have to stay up until 1am to welcome a guest.
The 11-11 check in window suits almost all guests, but twice I have quite willingly made an exception.
One was a guest whose bus was arriving at 9am, said she knew that was too early to check-in and she’d just find a cafe to hang out in until 11. That attention and respect was rewarded by telling her no problem, she could check in when she arrived in town.
The other was a guest whose flight had had to turn around right after take-off due to engine trouble, and all the passengers were rebooked on a red-eye, arriving at the airport here at 6:30 am.
As it takes at least 45 minutes to deplane and get through customs and immigration, and another hour to get here from the airport, she wouldn’t be here until at least 8:15, and in fact arrived at 9. And of course she had actually booked the previous night. She also kept me informed the whole time as to her travel disruption and new arrival time.
The one who irritated me was another guest who had a flight delay, and while she kept me informed, she decided to go out for dinner and walk around town after she arrived, without letting know. I had already waited up until 11, which is when she should have gotten here if she’d come straight from the airport, but she didn’t show up until almost 1am.
So I’m quite happy to accommodate those who are respectful or have a special circumstance out of their control if I can manage it, but dislike the ones who take things for granted.
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Just to give a perspective on it:
Well, because I am the cleaners, perhaps I have a deeper understanding of what being flexible really entails In that same vein, if one of our places is sitting vacant, it is almost always intentional.
In some ways, it is never vacant because we live in an apartment in the same building (it’s a 4-unit home, separate apts but shared common space). And when guests are here that changes my home and my access and my personal freedom in my home. If the guests are in the unit directly below us we lower our volume and lighten our steps, so as to not disturb them. Going down the stairs to get the mail now requires me to put on pants and shoes and to look presentable. I have to check to see if they’re in the backyard before releasing my dog into it, etc and on and on.
Once guests are here, I am giving up the freedom of doing what I want, how I want and when I want to do something in my house. Additionally, I am actively dealing with actual guests now that they’re in the house. As an illustration, if they stub their toe at the gas station on the drive here, it is not my concern. But if they stub their toe in my hallway, then I have to deal with it. I am “on” the whole time that they are here. And that’s okay because that is what I literally signed up for, but it is also why I charge money for it and why guests have to pay money to spend time in my house.
That being said, I do very often give a late checkout, at my discretion (cause sometimes there’s a guest that I can’t wait to see drive off, lol). And when the apartment is ready, if it’s ready early, which is very rare, I sometimes let the guests know. But sometimes I want that time to catch my breath before their arrival instead. Because it’s a perk-o-rama at my listings, even without an early check-in, which requires me to be actively, at least mentally but also physically “at work” the entire time that they are here there has to be a limit to it somewhere and sometimes that is as simple as 4 pm instead of 2 pm (or god forbid 8 am).
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Sorry, but I consider asking for an early check-in or late-check out to STR hosts as an entitlement thing. Many will say “it doesn’t hurt to ask” but the whole concept just puts undue stress on all parties. I just don’t think it’s very kind.
When we travel, one of the reasons I’ll always add a 2-day hotel on the itinerary as part of a long vacation is so we can have more flexibility with check in/out. You can jerk the Marriott around and see what they can do for you. When we book an STR, we are signing up for their check in/out times as published. End of story.
We all know how AWFUL it is to land in Hong Kong at 6AM all exhausted with nowhere to go. You make that mistake exactly once in a lifetime. So the next time (let’s say you’re landing anywhere in Europe, which is almost always also early in the morning) you’ll be sure you 1) book a place for an extra night if you want a cheap STR or 2) book a hotel where you know you have enough clout to get an early check-in. Same thing if you want to drag your feet for a redeye home (West Coast → East) or most Asia → US flights and want a late check-out.
I’ve never asked for an early check in/out to an STR host and I never will.
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That’s fine. It doesn’t really matter to me whether you do or don’t! It doesn’t change my policy.
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Asking for you to break rules like accepting pets or children if that isn’t allowed, or asking for discounts, feels like entitlement to me, but asking politely if an early or late check-out could be accommodated due to flight times, rather than personal preference, doesn’t.
And it depends on how far from the stated check-in time it is and the circumstances. A family flying with 2 children, who will be likely to be tired and cranky by the time the flight lands, the parents exhausted, who simply ask if they might check in at 3 instead of 4 seems a reasonable thing to ask.
If someone is asking to check in at 7 am, without any understanding that the previous guests may still be there, and who don’t want to pay for booking the previous night, that’s a different story.
I can understand that with your hosting set-up, involving staff that needs to be scheduled, you might not want to deal with accommodating check-ins and outs outside the windows at all, but for other hosts, it’s not such a big deal and it isn’t necessarily the red flag you view it as.
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All of this above is why I have a fee policy for early/late checkin/checkout. I will allow/not allow, charge/not charge as I am willing and/or able.
Having the policy allows the guest the freedom to ask (doesn’t even have to be polite 
) and me the freedom to say yes or no. Or to charge or not. It just depends. BUT having the policy let’s them know “allowed” and “free” are not the norm (And should not be in my opinion as it causes issues for others, as @KKC pointed out).
What upsets me is the “can I get it for free” ask when they know the policy. That really gets me 
because it clearly communicates they are not the kind of guests I want.
It’s like @JJD said, I’m on-call 24x7 once they arrive. I can’t just go do whatever I want once they are there.
To the new host….host a little longer, encounter a few more guests of varying mmmm, “attitudes”, and then get back to the forum.
We aren’t bitter. Just experienced.
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