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Guest is tricky, as in knows how to get what she wants by the way she words things etc. Comes across as presumptious but I get the impression she doesn’t presume at all, it is just a technique!
She has stayed about a week and is leaving tomorrow. At the start, she kind of cornered me in to agreeing to her leaving her bags here while she went away for a week. The way she did it was it was presumed -‘have you got availability for me to stay another week? No worries if not, I can just pay you to keep my luggage here. I can’t be lugging all my medical equipment around Ireland and Scotland’…and then goes in to talking about all of her health problems so it is like the convo has been diverted.
I am not looking for advise on the above as I can think of how I could have handled that in hind site.
But the following issue is still outstanding:
So she is leaving tomorrow and she knows someone else is arriving (as she had asked to extend). She just casually asked me what time my guest would be coming tomorrow ‘because I couldn’t get anyone to help me move my case until 6pm, so…do you know what time your guest is arriving tomorrow’
At this point I guessed she had a friend helping her move and she had to wait for them to finish work. I asked her ‘is a friend helping you’ and she said ‘yeah because ubers won’t take me because of my big case ’ etc. I told her they definitly should take you that case was standard size and she tried to dismiss saying ’ I think they were just being difficult’, but of course we all know that Uber is booked automatically so she is just lieing at this point.
In any case, check out time is noon and check in is from 3pm. I figure it is none of her business what time my new guest is arriving. She hasn’t asked me if I can help her out. To be fair she has said ‘no worries if new guest is coming early I will just leave in the morning’, (before her pal goes to work I think, which she had already indicated would be a bit of a pain).
I haven’t replied re the guest as I don’t know what time they are arriving and I don’t know why she is assuming that that is all that matters here, and that the check out time isn’t relevant. I think she thinks I am looking in to it.
I am tempted to just not come back to her on that? I don’t need to tell her what time my next guest is arriving, and the question she should be asking me is ‘could I possibly stay later’. I would like her to check out at the normal time as I don’t like her or how this has gone and so don’t want her hanging around all afternoon tomorrow.
What do you think of me just not coming back to her? I am sure she will get it. She isn’t dumb
I’d just tell her that the next guest has indicated they are arriving at 3, so you do need her to honor your check-out time. If you didn’t dislike her, you’d probably just be straightforward like that anyway.
I don’t quite see why she can’t get her friend to help her move her stuff the evening before check-out, as she likely isn’t going to be using any of that stuff the morning of, unless she works a night shift.
BTW, that technique of hers where she changed the subject quickly after asking for something is one I use when asking someone to change their behavior. If, for instance, a guest isn’t cleaning up after themselves in common spaces, I would mention it casually, “Oh, I’ve been meaning to mention…” and then “Have you checked out that nice little cafe I told you about?” That way, people don’t feel like you are pointedly attacking them and can accept requests for behavior changes more easily.
Checkout is 10am. We don’t allow late checkout due to turnover time for our next same-day guests.
That’s it. If you’re a home share host, then at 9:45am knock on the door and say “I’ll be getting the beds stripped at 10am. Let me know if you need help getting your bags to the driveway for your ride.”
I’ve done it. It’s not fun, but it’s necessary.
Also, you state “she’s not dumb… she’ll get it.” These people do NOT get it. They push and push and put it on you to draw the boundary lines and depend upon people being non-confrontational so they get their way.
Tell her your incoming guests will be arriving at 3PM and that she may leave her suitcase out by the driveway or by the front yard until she is ready to pick it up. Tell her that you’re not responsible if her suitcase is stolen. She’s making her problem your problem and that’s not fair to you.
That’s quite a lot of fuss over nothing. I’d say that these days about 50% of guests ask for late checkout.
“No problem, I’ll help you.” (Or co-host for hosts who aren’t on the spot).
“Yes, they will. But if you don’t want to use Uber for some reason here’s the number of the local taxi firm. I know for a fact that they’ll have no problem with your case”.
“Sorry, but housekeeping commences promptly at 10 am. Just let me know if you need a hand with anything. Here’s a list of some great places locally you can go to and there’s a baggage storage facility at xxx” (Or look after her luggage yourself, of course).
Then go to the rental promptly at 10 with mops and buckets and housekeeping materials.
Yep perhaps wasn’t clear… problem was not with being ‘asked’, but rather that I was not asked !
Don’t know how to copy with quote but re your next point you’ve misunderstood - I’m not helping her move her case to Heathrow !
And your next point - I’d already given number of my cab firm. When someone is being tricky like this they don’t make it that easy for you! When I reminded her of my cab firm she quickly dismissed and changed subject
In addition to all the other sound advice you have gotten, please note:
This form of communication by the guest isn’t ‘tricky’. It is not a ‘plot’ to ‘trick’ you. When someone tells you they will be doing something counter to your rules, the only thing that is happening is ignorance of how you enforce your rules (ignorance of the guest, not you). When a guest ‘tells’ me something counter to my rules, I simply say, “Sorry, no, no can do”. It is then a choice to explain further or to simply let the guest figure it out themselves.
I sometimes get asked to leave things before or after their checkin-out times. My answer is cut and pasted; property cannot be left on the premises outside of your booking date and time. No need to tell ‘why’ or to negotiate with a guest.
A friend/host I know has a cut-and-paste of places that hold luggage - for a price.
“Telling” you of their issues with moving the equipment opens up an opportunity: “No problem moving it - here is the number of xxx who will do it. He will give you a special rate because you were my guest. Sorry, this moving cannot happen outside of you booking times and dates”
A good rule to follow for yourself is that any accomodation ‘outside’ of your booking/time of the guest is chargeable.
Well she did know about check out time that is why I referred to it as tricky. And not ignorance. If she hadn’t known that would have been ignorance.
She’s a traveller (from US, using Greece as a base and moving around all the time for visas etc)… she knows that check out times exist! And that a home owner should be asked and not informed of left luggage. Basic stuff for any traveller
You need to ‘educate’ this person, so that we other hosts do not have to deal with this. Think of what was done not as a ‘trick’ because it isn’t (a trick would be the guest leaving in the morning and just leaving the luggage).
It’s not meant to be easy for you. Some guests are more difficult than others but you need to be able to handle both.
But a ‘tricky’ guest is still a customer. That is, until the rental period is over. Technically a guest who doesn’t check out at the requested time is trespassing.
So it doesn’t matter if they’re ‘tricky’ or whether you like or dislike them - you still have to get them out on time.
I don’t mind them staying later on occasion if it helps them out, particularly with flights, as long as I am not dying to see the back of them obviously. So in that way to me it is relevant
Brilliant. I do this with the many guests who ask for late checkout. I give them my response and then tell them about the amazing artisan bakery just down the road and how they are so lucky to be checking out on one of the few days they are open (that’s a whole other issue with living in a slow rural area, being closed mon/tues is common and SO annoying, off topic)
I have a friend like this. She has zero shame is just asking for whatever she wants, and goes through life getting people to do almost everything for her. I don’t think she’s a bad person, she just has this incredible sense of entitlement, and i can’t explain it as she’s a lovely person. She does not know that she’s like this, she genuinely thinks she’s a giving person.
Oh, geez, you reminded me of this woman I once rented my guest room to for a few days. She was a friend of a friend of mine who she was coming to visit, but my friend said she would drive her nuts if she stayed with her 24/7, although they did things together during the days.
I also had some other friends from Canada staying with me at that point in their tent. They were doing most of the shopping and the husband was cooking all of our meals, just because he really likes to cook. So this woman, Sabrina, always seemed to be around at mealtimes, and so my Canadian friend would say there was plenty if she wanted to join us. She always did. She never offered to pay for, nor did she bring any food back to the house, nor ever got up to wash dishes after the meal. I think she might have bought a bottle of wine once, after lavishly helping herself to all the wine we had bought.
Then, when I was chatting with her one day, I mentioned that this other neighbor had been trying to get me to have an affair with him whenever his wife was out of town, which of course I had no intention of doing. Sabrina said, “Oh, you should just get him to do things for you. Men love doing things for women.”
After she left, my friend who had sent her to me told me that she has a bunch of ex-boyfriends she gets to do everything for her. One apparently pays for her to travel around the world, going to “spiritual” retreats.
100% this is my friend! she would turn up at meal times and say “oh wow, that looks amazing, I might have to try it”. She would then ask for wine too! “I’m going to need a glass of wine with this” is how she asked. She never ever turned up with food/wine to my place. My family don’t like her because of this, they hate the way she turns up and then is lying on the sofa the whole time asking people to wait on her. She’s not a bad person, she’s actually very kind, but this part of her persona I cannot understand. Actually she’s also “spiritual”, I wonder if that’s part of it. She is a very positive person, and has so much self confidence, telling people she’s an expert in her field (nope) and when she wants something she says “it’s easy, you just ask the universe for what you want and the universe will provide it”. This actually does seem to work for her, I’m trying to learn how to be that confident without using people in the process.
